---
title: "Materialized View"
sidebarTitle: "Materialized View"
description: "CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW and SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS; refreshing is a REFRESH statement."
icon: table
keywords: ["materialized view", "create materialized view", "show materialized views", "sql"]
---

<Badge color="red">Enterprise</Badge> [SQL runs in LanceDB Enterprise.](/sql)

A materialized view stores a query's result as rows, kept current by a refresh
-- the counterpart to a [view](/sql/ddl/view), which stores only the query.

<Note>
Materialized views are off by default in LanceDB Enterprise and have to be enabled
there. Which statements and query shapes a deployment accepts, whether it needs
the source table to have stable row ids, and how it refreshes a view depend on
its LanceDB Enterprise version and configuration.
</Note>

## CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW {#create}

```sql
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW <name> AS SELECT ...
```

Once created, a materialized view can be queried like a table. Use the
statements below to list, refresh and drop it. For SDK methods, see
[Materialized views](/management/materialized-view#create).

## SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS {#show}

```sql
SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS
```

<Note>
This asks the server for its views, as the SDK's `list_materialized_views` does
on a `db://` connection.
</Note>

## Refreshing one {#refresh}

```sql
REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW chunks
```

See [REFRESH](/sql/dml/refresh#refresh-materialized-view) for the full syntax,
and compatibility notes for older server versions.

## Dropping one {#drop}

A materialized view **is** a table, so it is dropped with
[`DROP TABLE`](/sql/ddl/table#drop) -- which is also why dropping one removes
stored rows, unlike dropping a [view](/sql/ddl/view#drop).

<Note>
**Enterprise job type:** `mat_view_refresh` for a refresh, or `sql` on a
deployment that rebuilds views through SQL. Dropping one runs the same job as
dropping any table, `drop_table` or `drop_object`.
</Note>

## What to read next {#next}

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Materialized View" icon="table" href="/management/materialized-view">
    Creating one from the SDK.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Refresh a materialized view" icon="arrows-rotate" href="/feature-engineering/materialized-views">
    How a refresh works, locally and in LanceDB Enterprise.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>