Overview of Materialized Views

Materialized views are schema objects that can be used to summarize,

compute, replicate, and distribute data. They are suitable in various computing
environments such as data warehousing, decision support, and distributed or
mobile computing:
In data warehouses, materialized views are used to compute and store
aggregated data such as sums and averages. Materialized views in these
environments are typically referred to as summaries because they store
summarized data. They can also be used to compute joins with or without
aggregations. If compatibility is set to Oraclei or higher, then materialized
views can be used for !ueries that include filter selections.
The optimizer can use materialized views to improve !uery performance
by automatically recognizing when a materialized view can and should be
used to satisfy a re!uest. The optimizer transparently rewrites the re!uest
to use the materialized view. "ueries are then directed to the materialized
view and not to the underlying detail tables or views.
In distributed environments, materialized views are used to replicate data
at distributed sites and synchronize updates done at several sites with
conflict resolution methods. The materialized views as replicas provide
local access to data that otherwise have to be accessed from remote
sites.
In mobile computing environments, materialized views are used to
download a subset of data from central servers to mobile clients, with
periodic refreshes from the central servers and propagation of updates by
clients bac# to the central servers.
Materialized views are similar to inde$es in several ways:
They consume storage space.
They must be refreshed when the data in their master tables changes.
They improve the performance of %"& e$ecution when they are used for
!uery rewrites.
Their e$istence is transparent to %"& applications and users.
'nli#e inde$es, materialized views can be accessed directly using a SELECT
statement. (epending on the types of refresh that are re!uired, they can also be
accessed directly in an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement.
) materialized view can be partitioned. *ou can define a materialized view on a
partitioned table and one or more inde$es on the materialized view.
Refresh Materialized Views
Oracle maintains the data in materialized views by refreshing them after changes
are made to their master tables. The refresh method can be incremental +fast
refresh, or complete. -or materialized views that use the fast refresh method, a
materialized view log or direct loader log #eeps a record of changes to the
master tables.
Materialized views can be refreshed either on demand or at regular time
intervals. )lternatively, materialized views in the same database as their master
tables can be refreshed whenever a transaction commits its changes to the
master tables.
Materialized View Logs
) materialized view log is a schema object that records changes to a master
table.s data so that a materialized view defined on the master table can be
refreshed incrementally.
/ach materialized view log is associated with a single master table. The
materialized view log resides in the same database and schema as its master
table.
/g.
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW sales_by_month_by_state
TABLESPACE examle
PARALLEL !
BUILD IMMEDIATE
RE"RES# C$MPLETE
ENABLE %UER& REWRITE
AS SELECT t'(alen)a*_month_)es(+ ('(,st_state_*o-.n(e+
SUM/s'amo,nt_sol)0 AS s,m_sales
"R$M t.mes t+ sales s+ (,stome*s (
W#ERE s't.me_.) 1 t't.me_.) AND s'(,st_.) 1
('(,st_.)
2R$UP B& t'(alen)a*_month_)es(+
('(,st_state_*o-.n(e3
4 REFRESH
4 4 FAST 5 COMPLETE 5 FORCE 6
5 ON 4 DEMAND 5 COMMIT 6
5 4 START WITH 5 NEXT 6 )ate
5 WITH 4 PRIMARY KEY 5 ROWID 6
5 USING
4 DEFAULT 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT
5 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT *ollba(9_se:ment
6
7 DEFAULT 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT
5 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT *ollba(9_se:ment
8'''
5 USING
4 ENFORCED 5 TRUSTED 6
CONSTRAINTS
6
7 4 FAST 5 COMPLETE 5 FORCE 6
5 ON 4 DEMAND 5 COMMIT 6
5 4 START WITH 5 NEXT 6 )ate
5 WITH 4 PRIMARY KEY 5 ROWID 6
5 USING
4 DEFAULT 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT
5 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT *ollba(9_se:ment
6
7 DEFAULT 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT
5 7 MASTER 5 LOCAL 8
ROLLBACK SEGMENT *ollba(9_se:ment
8'''
5 USING
4 ENFORCED 5 TRUSTED 6
CONSTRAINTS
8'''
5 NEVER REFRESH
6
NEVER REFRESH Clause
%pecify NEVER RE"RES# to prevent the materialized view from being refreshed
with any Oracle (atabase refresh mechanism or pac#aged procedure. Oracle
(atabase will ignore any RE"RES# statement on the materialized view issued
from such a procedure. To reverse this clause, you must issue an ALTER
MATERIALIZED VIEW ... RE"RES# statement.
BUILD { IMMEDIATE | DEFERRED }
The build_clause lets you specify when to populate the materialized view.
IMMEI!"E %pecify IMMEDIATE to indicate that the materialized view is to be
populated immediately. This is the default.
EFERRE %pecify DE"ERRED to indicate that the materialized view is to be
populated by the ne$t RE"RES# operation. The first +deferred, refresh must
always be a complete refresh. 'ntil then, the materialized view has a staleness
value of UNUSABLE, so it cannot be used for !uery rewrite.
#$ER% RE&RI"E Clause
The %UER& REWRITE clause lets you specify whether the materialized view is
eligible to be used for !uery rewrite.
EN!'LE Clause %pecify ENABLE to enable the materialized view for !uery
rewrite.
Restrictio(s o( E(a)li(g #uer* Rewrite /nabling of !uery rewrite is subject to
the following restrictions:
*ou can enable !uery rewrite only if all user0defined functions in the
materialized view are DETERMINISTIC.
*ou can enable !uery rewrite only if e$pressions in the statement are
repeatable. -or e$ample, you cannot include CURRENT_TIME or USER,
se!uence values +such as the CURRVAL or NE;TVAL pseudo columns,, or
the SAMPLE clause +which may sample different rows as the contents of
the materialized view change,.
Notes+
"uery rewrite is disabled by default, so you must specify this
clause to ma#e materialized views eligible for !uery rewrite.
)fter you create the materialized view, you must collect statistics
on it using the DBMS_STATS pac#age. Oracle (atabase needs the
statistics generated by this pac#age to optimize !uery rewrite.