24/11/2024, 15:11 SQL Views

SQL Views
Last Updated : 11 Nov, 2024

Views in SQL are a type of virtual table that simplifies how users interact with
data across one or more tables. Unlike traditional tables, a view in SQL does
not store data on disk; instead, it dynamically retrieves data based on a pre-
defined query each time it’s accessed.

SQL views are particularly useful for managing complex queries, enhancing
security, and presenting data in a simplified format. In this guide, we will cover
the SQL create view statement, updating and deleting views, and using the
WITH CHECK OPTION clause.

Demo SQL Database

We will be using these two SQL tables for examples.

StudentDetails

StudentMarks

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You can create these tables on your system by writing the following SQL
query:

MySQL

1 -- Create StudentDetails table

2 CREATE TABLE StudentDetails (
3 S_ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
4 NAME VARCHAR(255),
5 ADDRESS VARCHAR(255)
6 );
7
8 INSERT INTO StudentDetails (S_ID, NAME, ADDRESS)
9 VALUES
10 (1, 'Harsh', 'Kolkata'),
11 (2, 'Ashish', 'Durgapur'),
12 (3, 'Pratik', 'Delhi'),
13 (4, 'Dhanraj', 'Bihar'),
14 (5, 'Ram', 'Rajasthan');
15
16 -- Create StudentMarks table
17 CREATE TABLE StudentMarks (
18 ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
19 NAME VARCHAR(255),
20 Marks INT,
21 Age INT
22 );
23
24 INSERT INTO StudentMarks (ID, NAME, Marks, Age)
25 VALUES
26 (1, 'Harsh', 90, 19),
27 (2, 'Suresh', 50, 20),
28 (3, 'Pratik', 80, 19),
29 (4, 'Dhanraj', 95, 21),
30 (5, 'Ram', 85, 18);

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CREATE VIEWS in SQL

We can create a view using CREATE VIEW statement. A View can be created
from a single table or multiple tables.

Syntax

CREATE VIEW view_name AS

SELECT column1, column2.....
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

Parameters:

view_name: Name for the View

table_name: Name of the table
condition: Condition to select rows

SQL CREATE VIEW Statement Examples

Let’s look at some examples of CREATE VIEW Statement in SQL to get a better
understanding of how to create views in SQL.

Example 1: Creating View from a single table

In this example, we will create a View named DetailsView from the table
StudentDetails. Query:

CREATE VIEW DetailsView AS

SELECT NAME, ADDRESS

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FROM StudentDetails
WHERE S_ID < 5;

To see the data in the View, we can query the view in the same manner as we
query a table.

SELECT * FROM DetailsView;

Output:

Example 2: Create View From Table

In this example, we will create a view named StudentNames from the table
StudentDetails. Query:

CREATE VIEW StudentNames AS

SELECT S_ID, NAME
FROM StudentDetails
ORDER BY NAME;

If we now query the view as,

SELECT * FROM StudentNames;

Output:

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Example 3: Creating View from multiple tables

In this example we will create a View named MarksView from two tables
StudentDetails and StudentMarks. To create a View from multiple tables we
can simply include multiple tables in the SELECT statement. Query:

CREATE VIEW MarksView AS

SELECT StudentDetails.NAME, StudentDetails.ADDRESS, StudentMarks.MARKS
FROM StudentDetails, StudentMarks
WHERE StudentDetails.NAME = StudentMarks.NAME;

To display data of View MarksView:

SELECT * FROM MarksView;

Output:

LISTING ALL VIEWS IN A DATABASE

We can list View using the SHOW FULL TABLES statement or using the
information_schema table. A View can be created from a single table or
multiple tables.

Syntax

USE "database_name";
SHOW FULL TABLES WHERE table_type LIKE "%VIEW";

Using information_schema

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SELECT table_name
FROM information_schema.views
WHERE table_schema = 'database_name';

OR

SELECT table_schema, table_name, view_definition

FROM information_schema.views
WHERE table_schema = 'database_name';

DELETE VIEWS in SQL

SQL allows us to delete an existing View. We can delete or drop View using
the DROP statement.
Databases SQL MySQL PostgreSQL PL/SQL MongoDB SQL Cheat Sheet SQL Interview Questions MyS
Syntax

DROP VIEW view_name;

Example

In this example, we are deleting the View MarksView.

DROP VIEW MarksView;

UPDATE VIEW in SQL

If you want to update the existing data within the view, use the UPDATE
statement.

Syntax

UPDATE view_name
SET column1 = value1, column2 = value2...., columnN = valueN
WHERE [condition];

Note: Not all views can be updated using the UPDATE statement.

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If you want to update the view definition without affecting the data, use the
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW statement. you can use this syntax

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW view_name AS

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

Rules to Update Views in SQL:

Certain conditions need to be satisfied to update a view. If any of these

conditions are not met, the view can not be updated.

1. The SELECT statement which is used to create the view should not include
GROUP BY clause or ORDER BY clause.
2. The SELECT statement should not have the DISTINCT keyword.
3. The View should have all NOT NULL values.
4. The view should not be created using nested queries or complex queries.
5. The view should be created from a single table. If the view is created using
multiple tables then we will not be allowed to update the view.

Examples

Let’s look at different use cases for updating a view in SQL. We will cover
these use cases with examples to get a better understanding.

Example 1: Update View to Add or Replace a View Field

We can use the CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW statement to add or replace

fields from a view.

If we want to update the view MarksView and add the field AGE to this View
from StudentMarks Table, we can do this by:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW MarksView AS

SELECT StudentDetails.NAME, StudentDetails.ADDRESS, StudentMarks.MARKS,
StudentMarks.AGE

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FROM StudentDetails, StudentMarks

WHERE StudentDetails.NAME = StudentMarks.NAME;

If we fetch all the data from MarksView now as:

SELECT * FROM MarksView;

Output:

Example 2: Update View to Insert a row in a view

We can insert a row in a View in the same way as we do in a table. We can use
the INSERT INTO statement of SQL to insert a row in a View.

In the below example, we will insert a new row in the View DetailsView which
we have created above in the example of “creating views from a single table”.

INSERT INTO DetailsView(NAME, ADDRESS)

VALUES("Suresh","Gurgaon");

If we fetch all the data from DetailsView now as,

SELECT * FROM DetailsView;

Output:

Example 3: Deleting a row from a View

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Deleting rows from a view is also as simple as deleting rows from a table. We
can use the DELETE statement of SQL to delete rows from a view. Also
deleting a row from a view first deletes the row from the actual table and the
change is then reflected in the view.

In this example, we will delete the last row from the view DetailsView which
we just added in the above example of inserting rows.

DELETE FROM DetailsView

WHERE NAME="Suresh";

If we fetch all the data from DetailsView now as,

SELECT * FROM DetailsView;

Output:

WITH CHECK OPTION Clause

The WITH CHECK OPTION clause in SQL is a very useful clause for views. It
applies to an updatable view.

The WITH CHECK OPTION clause is used to prevent data modification (using
INSERT or UPDATE) if the condition in the WHERE clause in the CREATE VIEW
statement is not satisfied.

If we have used the WITH CHECK OPTION clause in the CREATE VIEW
statement, and if the UPDATE or INSERT clause does not satisfy the conditions
then they will return an error.

WITH CHECK OPTION Clause Example:

In the below example, we are creating a View SampleView from the

StudentDetails Table with a WITH CHECK OPTION clause.
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CREATE VIEW SampleView AS

SELECT S_ID, NAME
FROM StudentDetails
WHERE NAME IS NOT NULL
WITH CHECK OPTION;

In this view, if we now try to insert a new row with a null value in the NAME
column then it will give an error because the view is created with the condition
for the NAME column as NOT NULL. For example, though the View is
updatable then also the below query for this View is not valid:

INSERT INTO SampleView(S_ID)

VALUES(6);

NOTE: The default value of NAME column is null.

Uses of a View
A good database should contain views for the given reasons:

1. Restricting data access – Views provide an additional level of table security

by restricting access to a predetermined set of rows and columns of a table.
2. Hiding data complexity – A view can hide the complexity that exists in
multiple joined tables.
3. Simplify commands for the user – Views allow the user to select
information from multiple tables without requiring the users to actually
know how to perform a join.
4. Store complex queries – Views can be used to store complex queries.
5. Rename Columns – Views can also be used to rename the columns without
affecting the base tables provided the number of columns in view must
match the number of columns specified in a select statement. Thus,
renaming helps to hide the names of the columns of the base tables.
6. Multiple view facility – Different views can be created on the same table for
different users.

Key Takeaways About SQL Views

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Views in SQL are a kind of virtual table.

The fields in a view can be from one or multiple tables.
We can create a view using the CREATE VIEW statement and delete a
view using the DROP VIEW statement.
We can update a view using the CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW
statement.
WITH CHECK OPTION clause is used to prevent inserting new rows
that do not satisfy the view’s filtering condition.

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