## Syntax ```mermaid %%{init: { 'theme': 'base', 'flowchart': { 'padding': '10' }, 'themeVariables': { 'fontSize': '11px', 'fontFamily': 'Arial' } }}%% flowchart TD stmt_start((START)) stmt_start --> stmt_0_0[USE]:::quoted stmt_0_0 --> stmt_0_1[<a href="Invantive UniversalSQL/Grammar/Partition Identifiers#Partition+Identifier+with+Alias" class="internal-link">partitionIdentifierWithAlias</a>] stmt_0_1c --> stmt_0_1 stmt_0_1 --> stmt_0_2[EXCLUDE]:::quoted stmt_0_1 --> stmt_0_3[EXCLUDING]:::quoted stmt_0_2 --> stmt_0_4[<a href="Invantive UniversalSQL/Grammar/Partition Identifiers#Partition+Identifier+with+Alias" class="internal-link">partitionIdentifierWithAlias</a>] stmt_0_4 --> stmt_0_4c[","]:::quoted stmt_0_4c --> stmt_0_4 stmt_0_3 --> stmt_0_4 stmt_0_0 --> stmt_0_5[<a href="Invantive UniversalSQL/Grammar/Query Statement/Select Statement#selectStatement" class="internal-link">selectStatement</a>] stmt_0_1 --> stmt_end stmt_0_4 --> stmt_end stmt_0_5 --> stmt_end((END)) stmt_0_1 --> stmt_0_1c[","]:::quoted ``` ## Purpose The `use` statement enables you to specify which partitions should be selected by subsequent DML statements such as `select`. There are two ways to specify the partitions: - Using an expliciet list. - Using a query. ### Using an explicit list You can specify one or multiple partitions as a comma-separated list, possibly for a specific data container by appending an at-sign (`@`) plus data container alias to the partition code. The following partition codes have a special meaning: - The value `default` specifies to use the partition(s) originally selected when you logged on to the platform providing the data container. - The value `all` selects all partitions available on a data container. The list of partition codes selected can be reduced by another list of partitions using `EXCLUDE`. This is typically done when the explicit list selected all available partitions using `all`. ### Using a query For complex scenarios such as for accounting firms, you can specify any valid Invantive UniversalSQL select statement which returns one or two columns. Each row from the query specifies one partition to select. The first column specifies the partition code, whereas the optional second column specifies a specific data container alias. ## Examples The following example selects partition `35` in the data container with alias `eolnl` and partition `57345` in the data container with alias `nmbrsnl`: ```sql use 35@eolnl, 57345@nmbrsnl ``` The following example selects all partitions except `35` in a database with only one data container, hence without alias: ```sql use all exclude 35 ``` The following example selects partition `35` in the data container with alias `eolnl` and partition `57345` in the data container with alias `nmbrsnl`: ```sql use select '35', 'eolnl' union all select '57345', 'nmbrsnl' ```