For example, if you specify key range partitioning at run-time transformation, the Data Integration Service uses the key and ranges to create the WHERE clause when it selects data from the source. Therefore, you can have the Data Integration Service pass all rows that contain customer IDs less than 135000 to one partition and all rows that contain customer IDs greater than or equal to 135000 to another partition.

If you specify hash user keys partitioning at a transformation, the Data Integration Service uses the key to group data based on the ports you select as the key. For example, if you specify ITEM_DESC as the hash key, the Data Integration Service distributes data so that all rows that contain items with the same description go to the same partition.