Hardware limitations such as memory, storage, etc. are not considered.
How many records can a table theoretically store?
Suppose:
A tablespace contains 1022 datafiles,
The maximum size of a single datafiles is 32G
Assuming that each block is 16k and there are 160 records in each block,
Each table can have (1024*1024)-1 partition table
Then the theoretical maximum number of records stored in a table is about:
1. The maximum value of a tablespace tablespace: the number of datafiles × the size of a single datafile
1022 × 32G =32704 G
2. Convert to k
(32704 G *1024*1024 )=34,292,629,504 K
3. Assuming each block is 16k, figure out how many blocks there are
34,292,629,504 K / 16 K = 2143289344 blocks
4. Suppose each block stores 160 records. Total number of records = number of blocks × number of records per block
2143289344×160=342,926,295,040 records
5. The maximum number of partition tables × the maximum number of records
SQL> select ((1024*1024)-1 )* 342926295040 maxnum from dual;
MAXNUM
----------
3.5958E+17
If the number of records in a single table reaches this value, what will be the efficiency of the database ?