System and method for switching a data partition

A method of mapping data into a table includes identifying pointers of a source portion and target portion and switching the metadata pointers of the target portion to be those of the source portion. Upon switching the metadata pointers, the data of the source portion is mapped into the target portion of the table. The method of mapping exhibits the advantage of performing the mapping operation by moving metadata and not table content data. The method may be used on any portion of a database including files, tables, partitions, and indexes. In one embodiment, the switching of pointers includes copying the target portion metadata into temporary storage, copying source portion metadata into the target portion metadata, and copying metadata from the temporary storage into the source portion metadata.