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Jack Ye
52684d50b9
OSS docs now own the full usage content for features that only run against an Enterprise deployment, since the client interface itself lives here; Enterprise docs keep only the parts specific to its own behavior. Sophon's overlay for these five pages is dropped since the OSS versions are now the complete reference. SQL Reference is restructured to match an object-type SQL manual (DDL by object, then DML, then DQL, then Expressions) instead of the old flat, loosely-ordered page list, absorbing the SQL client-connection guide and FTS-via-SQL examples into it.
100 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
100 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: "Materialized view"
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sidebarTitle: "Materialized View"
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description: "Create, open, list and drop a table whose contents are defined by a query."
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icon: table
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keywords: ["materialized view", "create_materialized_view", "catalog", "ddl"]
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---
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A materialized view is a table whose contents are defined by a query over
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another table. The query is recorded in the view's schema; a refresh computes
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the rows.
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The result is an ordinary table -- queryable, indexable, searchable, and present
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in `table_names()`. Nothing about reading it is special.
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This page covers creating and managing one. Keeping it current is
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[Refresh a materialized view](/feature-engineering/materialized-views).
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<Note>
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In SQL, see [`REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW`](/sql/dml/refresh#refresh-materialized-view) and [`SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS`](/sql/ddl/materialized-view#show).
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</Note>
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## Creating one {#create}
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<CodeGroup>
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```python Python icon="python"
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view = db.create_materialized_view(
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"recent_docs",
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source="documents",
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select=["id", "title", "embedding"],
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where="created_at > '2026-01-01'",
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)
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```
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```typescript TypeScript icon="square-js"
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const view = await db.createMaterializedView("recent_docs", {
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source: "documents",
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select: ["id", "title", "embedding"],
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where: "created_at > '2026-01-01'",
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});
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```
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</CodeGroup>
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`source` names the table it derives from. `select`, `where` and `limit` record
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the query -- there is no separate definition step.
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<Warning>
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The source table must have **stable row ids**, and they cannot be enabled after
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a table exists. A table created without them cannot become a view's source
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without being recreated.
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Set `new_table_enable_stable_row_ids` in
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[storage options](/management/database#storage-options) when you create the
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source, not when you create the view.
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</Warning>
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## Opening, listing and dropping {#manage}
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| | Python | TypeScript | SQL |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| create | `create_materialized_view` | `createMaterializedView` | -- |
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| open | `open_materialized_view` | `openMaterializedView` | -- |
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| list | `list_materialized_views` | `listMaterializedViews` | `SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS` |
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| refresh | `refresh` | `refresh` | `REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW` |
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| drop | `drop_table` | `dropTable` | `DROP TABLE` |
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<Note>
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`list_materialized_views` finds views by reading every table's schema, so it
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costs one open per table. `SHOW MATERIALIZED VIEWS` asks the server instead and
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is cheaper on a catalog with many tables.
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</Note>
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A view is dropped with `drop_table`, because a materialized view **is** a table.
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That also means dropping one removes stored rows -- unlike dropping a
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[view](/management/view), which removes only a saved query.
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## Working with the view {#working}
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`view.table()` returns the underlying table, for querying, indexing, or search.
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`view.definition()` returns the recorded query -- select list, predicate, limit
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-- which is how you check what a view contains without inferring it from the
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rows.
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## Against a deployment {#deployment}
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<Badge color="red">Enterprise</Badge> `create_materialized_view` works on a
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`db://` connection as well as a local one. What changes is that a refresh runs
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across the cluster rather than in your process, and SQL can drive it.
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## What to read next {#next}
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<CardGroup cols={2}>
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<Card title="Refresh a materialized view" icon="arrows-rotate" href="/feature-engineering/materialized-views">
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Incremental refreshes, and what they cost.
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</Card>
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<Card title="Views" icon="eye" href="/management/view">
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The non-materialized counterpart, defined in SQL.
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</Card>
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</CardGroup>
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