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GIFT School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences
Spring 2024
CS-244: Database Systems-Lab
Lab-13 Manual
Introduction to SQL Views
Lab -13 Manual 2024
Introduction to Lab
This lab introduces students to select data from views. View is a data object which does not contain
any data. Contents of the view are the resultant of a base table. They are operated just like base table
but they don’t contain any data of their own. The difference between a view and a table is that views
are definitions built on top of other tables (or views). If data is changed in the underlying table, the
same change is reflected in the view. A view can be built on top of a single or multiple tables.
The main topics of this lab include:
1. Why Views?
2. How to Create MySQL View?
3. Restrictions on View definition
4. Tools to create MySQL Views
5. Alter a MySQL view
6. DROP a MySQL view
7. MySQL CREATE VIEW with WHERE
8. MySQL CREATE VIEW with AND and OR
9. MySQL CREATE VIEW with GROUP BY
10. MySQL CREATE VIEW with ORDER BY
11. MySQL CREATE VIEW with JOIN
12. MySQL CREATE VIEW with BETWEEN and IN
13. MySQL CREATE VIEW with LIKE
14. MySQL CREATE VIEW using subqueries
Objectives of this Lab
At the end of this lab, students should be able to:
1. Create a simple view
2. Create a view by applying different data filtering methods students in previous labs.
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1. Why views?
Views can be effective copies of base tables.
Views can have column names and expressions.
You can use any clauses in views.
Views can be used in INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE.
Views can contain expressions in the select list.
Views can be views of views.
Check the privileges of the current user:
The CREATE VIEW statement requires the CREATE VIEW privilege for the view and some privilege
for each column selected by the SELECT statement. The following command shows the user
privileges.
SHOW PRIVILEGES;
2. How to Create MYSQL Views
Before creating a view we must select a database. Following command shows the list of databases.
SHOW DATABASES;
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Now select the database 'hr' and list the tables:
USE hr;
SHOW TABLES;
Create View:
Following statements create a view. By default, a view is associated with the default database
(currently used the database). To associate the view with a given database, specify the name as
database_name. view_name when you create it. Here is the complete syntax:
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CREATE VIEW view_name AS
SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;
Explanation:
The CREATE VIEW statement creates a new view.
view_name: view_name is the name of the view. A view always belongs to a database. By default, a
new view is created in the currently used database. The view name may also be used with the
database name, as database_name.view_name, but it is unnecessary if database_name is the default
database.
select_statement: The select_statement is a SELECT statement and provides the definition of the
view. select_statement can select data from base tables or other views.
Example:
CREATE VIEW my_v1 AS
SELECT
*
FROM jobs;
SELECT * FROM `my_v1`
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Note: A view always shows up-to-date data! The database engine recreates the view, every time a
user queries it.
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3. Restriction on views definition
The SELECT statement cannot contain a subquery in the FROM clause.
The SELECT statement cannot refer to system or user variables.
Within a stored program, the definition cannot refer to program parameters or local
variables.
The SELECT statement cannot refer to prepared statement parameters.
Any table or view referred to in the definition must exist.
The definition cannot refer to a TEMPORARY table, and you cannot create a TEMPORARY
view.
Any tables named in the view definition must exist at definition time.
You cannot associate a trigger with a view.
Aliases for column names in the SELECT statement are checked against the maximum column
length of 64 characters (not the maximum alias length of 256 characters).
4. Alter a MYSQL View
ALTER VIEW statement changes the definition of an existing view. The syntax of the statement is
similar to CREATE VIEW.
Syntax:
ALTER
VIEW view_name
AS select_statement
Example:
ALTER VIEW
my_v1 AS
SELECT
JOB_ID,
JOB_TITLE
FROM
jobs;
SELECT * FROM `my_v1`
Lab-13 Manual 2024
5. DROP a MYSQL View
DROP VIEW statement is used to remove one or more views. To drop a view, you must have DROP
privilege for each view. Here is the syntax:
Syntax:
DROP VIEW [IF EXISTS]
view_name [, view_name] ...
[RESTRICT | CASCADE]
The IF EXISTS clause prevents an error from occurring for views that don't exist.
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Example:
DROP VIEW my_v1;
After executing this query my_v1 view has been dropped.
6. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with WHERE
CREATE VIEW command can be used with WHERE clause.
Example:
Sample Table: Employees
CREATE VIEW emp_of_dept_60 AS SELECT
*
FROM
employees
WHERE
DEPARTMENT_ID = 60;
The above MySQL statement will create a view ‘emp_of_dept_60’ taking records (for all
columns) of employees table if those records contain the value ‘60’ for department_ID column.
7. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with AND and OR
CREATE VIEW command can be used with AND and OR operators.
Example-01:
Sample table: Employees
CREATE VIEW my_v2 AS SELECT
FROM
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employees
WHERE
FIRST_NAME LIKE "S%" AND SALARY > 10000;
The above MySQL statement will create a view 'my_v2' taking all records of employee table, if
(A)(i)value of the first_name column begins with ‘S’, and (ii)value of the Salary Column is more than
10,000.
Example-02:
Sample table: Employees
CREATE VIEW my_v3 AS SELECT
EMPLOYEE_ID,
FIRST_NAME,
LAST_NAME,
SALARY,
DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM
employees
WHERE
FIRST_NAME LIKE "A%" OR DEPARTMENT_ID = 60;
The above MySQL statement will create a view 'my_v2' taking all records Employee_ID, first_name,
last_name, salary and department_id column of employee table, if (A)(i)value of the first_name
column begins with ‘A’, and (ii)value of the Department_ID Column is ‘60’.
8. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with GROUP BY
CREATE VIEW command can be used with GROUP BY clause.
Example:
Sample table: Employees and Jobs
CREATE VIEW my_v4 AS SELECT
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j.JOB_TITLE,
COUNT(*) "No of Employee"
FROM
employees e
NATURAL JOIN jobs j
GROUP BY
j.JOB_TITLE;
The above statement will create a view 'my_v4' taking all records grouped w.r.t. job_title, from
employee_jobs and number of employees hired for each job_title (emp_jobs).
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9. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with ORDER BY
CREATE VIEW command can be used with ORDER BY clause.
Example:
Sample table: Employees and Jobs
CREATE VIEW my_v5 AS SELECT
j.JOB_TITLE,
COUNT(*) "No of Employee"
FROM
employees e
NATURAL JOIN jobs j
GROUP BY
j.JOB_TITLE ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC;
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The above statement will create a view 'my_v4' taking all records grouped w.r.t. job_title, from
employee_jobs and number of employees hired for each job_title and sorted against the no of
employees working in each job.
10. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with JOINS
CREATE VIEW command can be used along with a JOIN statement.
Example:
Sample table: Employees and departments
CREATE VIEW my_v8 AS SELECT
e.FIRST_NAME,
d.DEPARTMENT_NAME,
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e.SALARY
FROM
employees e
NATURAL JOIN departments d;
The above MySQL statement will create a view 'my_v8' along with a JOIN statement.
The JOIN statement here retrieves first_name, salary from employee table and department_name
from department table if department_id of employee table and that of department table are same.
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11. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with BETWEEN and IN
CREATE VIEW command can be used with BETWEEN and IN operator.
Example:
Sample table: Employees
CREATE VIEW my_v6 AS SELECT
e.FIRST_NAME, e.LAST_NAME, e.SALARY, j.JOB_TITLE
FROM
employees e
NATURAL JOIN jobs j WHERE
e.SALARY BETWEEN 5000 AND 15000 AND j.JOB_TITLE IN(
"Accountant",
"President",
"Programmer",
"Stock Manager"
);
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The above statement will create a view 'my_v6' taking all the records of employees and jobs table, if
(A)employee’s salary is between 5000 and 15000 and (B) employee’s job title is any of the following
Accountant, President, Programmer, Stock Manager.
12. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with LIKE
CREATE VIEW command can be used with LIKE operator.
CREATE VIEW my_v7 AS SELECT
e.FIRST_NAME, e.LAST_NAME, e.SALARY
FROM
employees e
WHERE
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e.FIRST_NAME NOT LIKE "A%" AND e.FIRST_NAME NOT LIKE "J%";
The above MySQL statement will create a view 'my_v7' taking all the records of employees table if
(A)first name of the employee (first_name) does not start with 'A' and (B) first name of the employee
(first_name) does not start with 'J'.
13. MYSQL CREATE VIEW with Subqueries
CREATE VIEW command can be used with subqueries.
Example:
Sample table: Employees
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CREATE VIEW my_v9 AS SELECT
employees.FIRST_NAME,
employees.SALARY,
employees.DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM
employees
WHERE
employees.DEPARTMENT_ID =(
SELECT
DEPARTMENT_ID
FROM
departments
WHERE
DEPARTMENT_NAME = "IT"
);
The above MySQL statement will create a view 'my_v9' taking all the records of first_name, salary and
department_id columns of employees table, if department_id satisfies the condition defined within a
subquery (followed by department_id=).
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The subquery retrieves only department_id of “IT department” from department table.
The End
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