CREATE OR REPLACE MATERIALIZED VIEW

From: Aidan Samuel <aidan(dot)samuel(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: CREATE OR REPLACE MATERIALIZED VIEW
Date: 2019-01-10 00:25:09
Message-ID: CAAWhf=PHch2H3ekYnbafuwqWqwyRok8WVPaDxKosZE4GQ2pq5w@mail.gmail.com
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-general

I've been looking over the syntax for creating various database objects:
tables, views, functions, etc., and I wondered why there seem to be some
discrepancies.

For example, table creation syntax features [ IF NOT EXISTS ] but doesn't
feature [ OR REPLACE ], function creation syntax is the inverse and has [
OR REPLACE ], but no [ IF NOT EXISTS ].

I also noticed that the syntax for creating VIEWS and creating MATERIALISED
VIEWS is handled separately [1][2].

I was expecting to see one page of documentation with the syntax listed as
something like: CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] [ MATERIALIZED ] VIEW [ IF NOT EXISTS
] view_name.

Is this because a materialized view is actually a table and thus inherits
the table creation syntax instead of the view creation syntax?

How come table creation doesn't allow [ OR REPLACE ], and view creation
doesn't allow [ IF NOT EXISTS ]? Is this just how the SQL spec defines
things?

Thanks,
Aidan.

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-createview.html
[2] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-creatematerializedview.html

Responses

Browse pgsql-general by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Tom Lane 2019-01-10 01:13:47 Re: CREATE OR REPLACE MATERIALIZED VIEW
Previous Message Martín Marqués 2019-01-09 23:43:41 Re: postgres operational