title: How to access / query a database partition in mysql?
body: <p>When a database table has been partitioned in mysql, how are the individual partitions accessed / queried?</p>
  
  <p><em>EDIT</em></p>
  
  <p>In response to @Crack's comment.</p>
  
  <p>So when a partition is in place in a table, then I still would use a normal query. Where does the "pruning" come in, at the database side of the query? Is it pretty much a complex stored <code>Where</code> clause that is applied to every query then? Why are the partitions named if they are not individually accessed?</p>