When you specify WITHOUT VALIDATION for the exchange partition operation, this is normally a fast operation because it involves only data dictionary updates. In MySQL 5.7, it is possible to exchange a table partition or subpartition with a table using ALTER TABLE pt EXCHANGE PARTITION p WITH TABLE nt.This article presents a simple method for partitioning an existing table using the EXCHANGE PARTITION syntax. In Oracle 11g, is there a way to introduce subpartitions into an existing partitioned table?