ALTER [ALGORITHM = {UNDEFINED | MERGE | TEMPTABLE}]
    VIEW view_name [(column_list)]
    AS select_statement
    [WITH [CASCADED | LOCAL] CHECK OPTION]

This statement changes the definition of an existing view. The syntax is similar to that for CREATE VIEW. See Section 20.2, “CREATE VIEW Syntax”. This statement requires the CREATE VIEW and DELETE privileges for the view, and some privilege for each column referred to in the SELECT statement.

This statement was added in MySQL 5.0.1.

CREATE [OR REPLACE] [ALGORITHM = {UNDEFINED | MERGE | TEMPTABLE}]
    VIEW view_name [(column_list)]
    AS select_statement
    [WITH [CASCADED | LOCAL] CHECK OPTION]

This statement creates a new view, or replaces an existing one if the OR REPLACE clause is given. The select_statement is a SELECT statement that provides the definition of the view. The statement can select from base tables or other views.

This statement requires the CREATE VIEW privilege for the view, and some privilege for each column selected by the SELECT statement. For columns used elsewhere in the SELECT statement you must have the SELECT privilege. If the OR REPLACE clause is present, you must also have the DELETE privilege for the view.

A view belongs to a database. By default, a new view is created in the current database. To create the view explicitly in a given database, specify the name as db_name.view_name when you create it.

mysql> CREATE VIEW test.v AS SELECT * FROM t;

Tables and views share the same namespace within a database, so a database cannot contain a table and a view that have the same name.

Views must have unique column names with no duplicates, just like base tables. By default, the names of the columns retrieved by the SELECT statement are used for the view column names. To define explicit names for the view columns, the optional column_list clause can be given as a list of comma-separated identifiers. The number of names in column_list must be the same as the number of columns retrieved by the SELECT statement.

Columns retrieved by the SELECT statement can be simple references to table columns. They can also be expressions that use functions, constant values, operators, and so forth.

Unqualified table or view names in the SELECT statement are interpreted with respect to the default database. A view can refer to tables or views in other databases by qualifying the table or view name with the proper database name.

A view can be created from many kinds of SELECT statements. It can refer to base tables or other views. It can use joins, UNION, and subqueries. The SELECT need not even refer to any tables. The following example defines a view that selects two columns from another table, as well as an expression calculated from those columns:

mysql> CREATE TABLE t (qty INT, price INT);
mysql> INSERT INTO t VALUES(3, 50);
mysql> CREATE VIEW v AS SELECT qty, price, qty*price AS value FROM t;
mysql> SELECT * FROM v;
+------+-------+-------+
| qty  | price | value |
+------+-------+-------+
|    3 |    50 |   150 |
+------+-------+-------+

A view definition is subject to the following restrictions:

ORDER BY is allowed in a view definition, but it is ignored if you select from a view using a statement that has its own ORDER BY.

For other options or clauses in the definition, they are added to the options or clauses of the statement that references the view, but the effect is undefined. For example, if a view definition includes a LIMIT clause, and you select from the view using a statement that has its own LIMIT clause, it is undefined which limit applies. This same principle applies to options such as ALL, DISTINCT, or SQL_SMALL_RESULT that follow the SELECT keyword, and to clauses such as INTO, FOR UPDATE, LOCK IN SHARE MODE, and PROCEDURE.

If you create a view and then change the query processing environment by changing system variables, that may affect the results you get from the view:

mysql> CREATE VIEW v AS SELECT CHARSET(CHAR(65)), COLLATION(CHAR(65));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SET NAMES 'latin1';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM v;
+-------------------+---------------------+
| CHARSET(CHAR(65)) | COLLATION(CHAR(65)) |
+-------------------+---------------------+
| latin1            | latin1_swedish_ci   |
+-------------------+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM v;
+-------------------+---------------------+
| CHARSET(CHAR(65)) | COLLATION(CHAR(65)) |
+-------------------+---------------------+
| utf8              | utf8_general_ci     |
+-------------------+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The optional ALGORITHM clause is a MySQL extension to standard SQL. ALGORITHM takes three values: MERGE, TEMPTABLE, or UNDEFINED. The default algorithm is UNDEFINED if no ALGORITHM clause is present. The algorithm affects how MySQL processes the view.

For MERGE, the text of a statement that refers to the view and the view definition are merged such that parts of the view definition replace corresponding parts of the statement.

For TEMPTABLE, the results from the view are retrieved into a temporary table, which then is used to execute the statement.

For UNDEFINED, MySQL chooses which algorithm to use. It prefers MERGE over TEMPTABLE if possible, because MERGE is usually more efficient and because a view cannot be updatable if a temporary table is used.

A reason to choose TEMPTABLE explicitly is that locks can be released on underlying tables after the temporary table has been created and before it is used to finish processing the statement. This might result in quicker lock release than the MERGE algorithm so that other clients that use the view are not blocked as long.

A view algorithm can be UNDEFINED three ways:

As mentioned earlier, MERGE is handled by merging corresponding parts of a view definition into the statement that refers to the view. The following examples briefly illustrate how the MERGE algorithm works. The examples assume that there is a view v_merge that has this definition:

CREATE ALGORITHM = MERGE VIEW v_merge (vc1, vc2) AS
SELECT c1, c2 FROM t WHERE c3 > 100;

Example 1: Suppose that we issue this statement:

SELECT * FROM v_merge;

MySQL handles the statement as follows:

The resulting statement to be executed becomes:

SELECT c1, c2 FROM t WHERE c3 > 100;

Example 2: Suppose that we issue this statement:

SELECT * FROM v_merge WHERE vc1 < 100;

This statement is handled similarly to the previous one, except that vc1 < 100 becomes c1 < 100 and the view WHERE clause is added to the statement WHERE clause using an AND connective (and parentheses are added to make sure the parts of the clause are executed with correct precedence). The resulting statement to be executed becomes:

SELECT c1, c2 FROM t WHERE (c3 > 100) AND (c1 < 100);

Effectively, the statement to be executed has a WHERE clause of this form:

WHERE (select WHERE) AND (view WHERE)

The MERGE algorithm requires a one-to relationship between the rows in the view and the rows in the underlying table. If this relationship does not hold, a temporary table must be used instead. Lack of a one-to-one relationship occurs if the view contains any of a number of constructs:

Some views are updatable. That is, you can use them in statements such as UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERT to update the contents of the underlying table. For a view to be updatable, there must be a one-to relationship between the rows in the view and the rows in the underlying table. There are also certain other constructs that make a view non-updatable. To be more specific, a view is not updatable if it contains any of the following:

With respect to insertability (being updatable with INSERT statements), an updatable view is insertable if it also satisfies these additional requirements for the view columns:

A view that has a mix of simple column references and derived columns is not insertable, but it can be updatable if you update only those columns that are not derived. Consider this view:

CREATE VIEW v AS SELECT col1, 1 AS col2 FROM t;

This view is not insertable because col2 is derived from an expression. But it is updatable if the update does not try to update col2. This update is allowable:

UPDATE v SET col1 = 0;

This update is not allowable because it attempts to update a derived column:

UPDATE v SET col2 = 0;

It is sometimes possible for a multiple-table view to be updatable, assuming that it can be processed with the MERGE algorithm. For this to work, the view must use an inner join (not an outer join or a UNION). Also, only a single table in the view definition can be updated, so the SET clause must name only columns from one of the tables in the view. Views that use UNION ALL are disallowed even though they might be theoretically updatable, because the implementation uses temporary tables to process them.

For a multiple-table updatable view, INSERT can work if it inserts into a single table. DELETE is not supported.

The WITH CHECK OPTION clause can be given for an updatable view to prevent inserts or updates to rows except those for which the WHERE clause in the select_statement is true.

In a WITH CHECK OPTION clause for an updatable view, the LOCAL and CASCADED keywords determine the scope of check testing when the view is defined in terms of another view. LOCAL keyword restricts the CHECK OPTION only to the view being defined. CASCADED causes the checks for underlying views to be evaluated as well. When neither keyword is given, the default is CASCADED. Consider the definitions for the following table and set of views:

mysql> CREATE TABLE t1 (a INT);
mysql> CREATE VIEW v1 AS SELECT * FROM t1 WHERE a < 2
    -> WITH CHECK OPTION;
mysql> CREATE VIEW v2 AS SELECT * FROM v1 WHERE a > 0
    -> WITH LOCAL CHECK OPTION;
mysql> CREATE VIEW v3 AS SELECT * FROM v1 WHERE a > 0
    -> WITH CASCADED CHECK OPTION;

Here the v2 and v3 views are defined in terms of another view, v1. v2 has a LOCAL check option, so inserts are tested only against the v2 check. v3 has a CASCADED check option, so inserts are tested not only against its own check, but against those of underlying views. The following statements illustrate these differences:

ql> INSERT INTO v2 VALUES (2);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO v3 VALUES (2);
ERROR 1369 (HY000): CHECK OPTION failed 'test.v3'

The updatability of views may be affected by the value of the updatable_views_with_limit system variable. See Section 5.3.3, “Server System Variables”.

The CREATE VIEW statement was added in MySQL 5.0.1. The WITH CHECK OPTION clause was implemented in MySQL 5.0.2.

INFORMATION_SCHEMA contains a VIEWS table from which information about view objects can be obtained. See Section 21.1.15, “The INFORMATION_SCHEMA VIEWS Table”.

DROP VIEW [IF EXISTS]
    view_name [, view_name] ...
    [RESTRICT | CASCADE]

DROP VIEW removes one or more views. You must have the DROP privilege for each view.

You can use the keywords IF EXISTS to prevent an error from occurring for views that don't exist. When this clause is given, a NOTE is generated for each non-existent view. See Section 13.5.4.22, “SHOW WARNINGS Syntax”.

RESTRICT and CASCADE, if given, are parsed and ignored.

This statement was added in MySQL 5.0.1.

SHOW CREATE VIEW view_name

This statement shows a CREATE VIEW statement that creates the given view.

mysql> SHOW CREATE VIEW v;
+------+----------------------------------------------------+
| View | Create View                                        |
+------+----------------------------------------------------+
| v    | CREATE VIEW `test`.`v` AS select 1 AS `a`,2 AS `b` |
+------+----------------------------------------------------+

This statement was added in MySQL 5.0.1.

Previous to MySQL 5.0.11, the output columns from this statement were shown as Table and Create Table.