feat: define a materialized view by its query, with Functions in FROM position (#4190)

A view definition was a structured record under a `kind` tag, one kind
per query shape, and a Function returning `list<struct>` was about to
add a third. That names shapes instead of describing a relation.

A materialized view is now a relation defined by a query, stored as one
canonical SQL string under a format number:

```sql
SELECT columns FROM [ns.]table [, function(args) AS alias | , UNNEST(column) AS alias]
[WHERE predicate] [LIMIT n]
```

Any other clause is refused at parse time. Older readers report the view
as unrefreshable, the pre-format layouts still read, and a legacy view
is rewritten on its next refresh that commits, rebuilt only where its
raw text meant something else under lance's parser.

A Function in FROM position yields one row per element it returns, as a
table function does in any dialect. The server stages its list output in
a hidden table and records that binding beside the query, which stays as
the user wrote it; refresh scans the staging and unnests the column, the
same operator as UNNEST over a list column the table already holds. Row
ids repeat per element, so eviction and incremental append are
unchanged. A local database refuses a Function in FROM position, since
it has no executor.
This commit is contained in:
Wyatt Alt
2026-09-18 12:16:25 -07:00
committed by GitHub
parent 7955c50929
commit 01ee01dbc8
13 changed files with 2262 additions and 460 deletions
+1 -1
View File
@@ -479,7 +479,7 @@ impl Table {
let view = lancedb::MaterializedView::from_table(inner)
.await
.default_error()?;
serde_json::to_string(view.definition()).map_err(|err| {
view.definition().to_json().map_err(|err| {
napi::Error::from_reason(format!(
"failed to serialize materialized-view definition: {err}"
))