CS220 – DATABASE SYSTEMS

WEEK 11 LECTURE 2
SQL VIEWS

Ms. Hirra Anwar

Assistant Professor
Faculty of Computing
[email protected]
VIEWS

2
 Objectives
3

After completing this lesson, you

should be able to do the following:
 Describe a view

 Create, alter, and drop a view

 Retrieve data through View

 Insert, update, and delete data through

a view
 Database Objects
4

Object Description

Table Basic unit of storage; composed of rows

and columns

View Logically represents subsets of data from

one or more tables

Sequence Generates primary key values

Index Improves the performance of some queries

Synonym Alternative name for an object

 What is a View?
5

EMPLOYEES Table:
 Why use Views?
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 To restrict data access

 To make complex queries easy
 To provide data independence
 To present different views of the same
data
 Simple and Complex Views
7

Feature Simple Views Complex Views

Number of tables One One or more
Contain functions No Yes
Contain groups of dataNo Yes
DML operations
through a view Yes Not always
 Creating a View
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 You embed a subquery within the CREATE VIEW

statement.

CREATE
CREATE [OR
[OR REPLACE]
REPLACE] VIEW
VIEW view
view
[(alias[,
[(alias[, alias]...)]
alias]...)]
AS
AS subquery
subquery
[WITH
[WITH CHECK
CHECK OPTION
OPTION [CONSTRAINT
[CONSTRAINT constraint]]
constraint]]
[WITH
[WITH READ
READ ONLY
ONLY [CONSTRAINT
[CONSTRAINT constraint]];
constraint]];
 The subquery can contain complex SELECT syntax.

 With read only is not supported by MySQL.

 Creating a View
9

 Create a view, EMPVU80, that contains

details of employees in department 80.
CREATE VIEW empvu80
AS SELECT employee_id, last_name, salary
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 80;
View created.

 Describe the structure of the view by using

the SHOW CREATE VIEW viewname
command.
SHOW
SHOW CREATE
CREATE VIEW
VIEW empvu80
empvu80
 Creating a View
10

 Create a view by using column aliases in

the subquery.
CREATE VIEW salvu50
AS SELECT employee_id ID_NUMBER, last_name NAME,
salary*12 ANN_SALARY
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 50;
View created.

 Select the columns from this view by the

given alias names.
 Retrieving data from view
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SELECT *
FROM salvu50;
 Querying a View
12

Database Server

SQL Developer
USER_VIEWS
SELECT * EMPVU80
FROM empvu80; SELECT employee_id,
last_name, salary
FROM employees
WHERE department_id=80;

EMPLOYEES
 Modifying a View
13

 Modify the EMPVU80 view by using DROP

VIEW and CREATE View clause. Add an
alias for each column name.
CREATE VIEW empvu80
(id_number, name, sal, department_id)
AS SELECT employee_id, first_name || ' ' || last_name,
salary, department_id
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 80;
View created.

 Column aliases in the CREATE VIEW clause

are listed in the same order as the
columns in the subquery.
 Creating a Complex View
14

Create a complex view that contains group

functions to display values from two tables.
Complex views are not supported in MySQL.
CREATE VIEW dept_sum_vu
(name, minsal, maxsal, avgsal)
AS SELECT d.department_name, MIN(e.salary),
MAX(e.salary),AVG(e.salary)
FROM employees e, departments d
WHERE e.department_id = d.department_id
GROUP BY d.department_name;
View created.
 Rules for Performing
DML Operations on a View
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 You can perform DML operations on simple views.

 You cannot remove a row if the view contains the
following:
 Group functions
 A GROUP BY clause
 The DISTINCT keyword
 Multiple tables
 Rules for Performing
DML Operations on a View
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You cannot modify data in a view if it contains:

 Group functions

 A GROUP BY clause

 The DISTINCT keyword

 The pseudocolumn ROWNUM keyword

 Columns defined by expressions

 Rules for Performing
DML Operations on a View
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You cannot add data through a view if the view

includes:
 Group functions

 A GROUP BY clause

 The DISTINCT keyword

 The pseudocolumn ROWNUM keyword

 Columns defined by expressions

 NOT NULL columns in the base tables that

are not selected by the view

 Using the WITH CHECK OPTION Clause
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 You can ensure that DML operations performed

on the view stay within the domain of the view
by using the WITH CHECK OPTION clause.
CREATE VIEW empvu20
AS SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 20
WITH CHECK OPTION;
View created.

 Any attempt to change the department

number for any row in the view fails because it
violates the WITH CHECK OPTION constraint.
 Denying DML Operations
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CREATE VIEW empvu10

(employee_number, employee_name, job_title)
AS SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 10
View created.
 Denying DML Operations
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 Complex views
 Multiple tables
 Joins
 Group by
 Removing a View
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 You can remove a view without

losing data because a view is based
on underlying tables in the
database.
DROP
DROP VIEW
VIEW IF
IF EXISTS
EXISTS viewname;
viewname;

DROP VIEW empvu80;

View dropped.
 Example
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 Appointments (Appointment_ID,
Doctor_ID, Patient_ID,
Appointment_Date, A_Status)
 Doctors (Doctor_ID, Name,
Specialization)
 Patients (Patient_ID, Name, Age,
Status)
 Example
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 Create a view of active patients and then

insert data into it.

 CREATE VIEW ActivePatients AS

 SELECT PatientID, Name, Status
 FROM Patients
 WHERE Status = 'Active’
 WITH CHECK OPTION;
25
 Without WITH CHECK OPTION:
 Updates and deletes can be made, even
if the record doesn't meet the view's
condition.
 This may lead to inconsistent data where
the data in the view and the underlying
table do not match.
 With WITH CHECK OPTION:
 Any changes made through the view
must satisfy the condition in the WHERE
clause of the view. This prevents
 Example
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 Create a view of active patients and then

insert data into it.

 INSERT INTO ActivePatients (PatientID,

Name, Status, Age) VALUES (201,
'Amina', 'Active', 27);
 INSERT INTO ActivePatients (PatientID,
Name, Status, Age) VALUES (203, Ali',
'Active', 32);


 Example
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 Update as follows and then perform a

delete operation

 DELETE FROM ActivePatients

 WHERE PatientID = 201;
 Example
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 Update data through the view:

 UPDATE ActivePatients
 SET Status = 'Inactive'
 WHERE PatientID = 101;
 Example 2
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 Create a View of Only Confirmed

Appointments.
 Insert data using the view.
 Update data using the view.
 Delete data using the view.
 Version 1
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 CREATE VIEW ConfirmedAppointments AS

 SELECT
 a.AppointmentID,
 d.Name AS DoctorName,
 p.Name AS PatientName,
 a.AppointmentDate,
 a.Status
 FROM Appointments a
 JOIN Doctors d ON a.DoctorID = d.DoctorID
 JOIN Patients p ON a.PatientID = p.PatientID
 WHERE a.Status = 'Confirmed';
 Version 2
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 CREATE VIEW SimpleConfirmedAppointments

AS
 SELECT AppointmentID, DoctorID, PatientID,
AppointmentDate, Status
 FROM Appointments
 WHERE Status = 'Confirmed'
 WITH CHECK OPTION;

 INSERT INTO SimpleConfirmedAppointments

(AppointmentID, DoctorID, PatientID,
AppointmentDate, Status)
 VALUES (1004, 1, 102, '2025-04-26', 'Confirmed');
 Version 2
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 UPDATE SimpleConfirmedAppointments
 SET AppointmentDate = '2025-04-30'
 WHERE AppointmentID = 1004;

 DELETE FROM
SimpleConfirmedAppointments
 WHERE AppointmentID = 1004;
 Summary
33

In this lesson, you should have learned

that a view is
derived from data in other tables or
views and
provides the following advantages:
 Restricts database access

 Simplifies queries

 Provides data independence

 Provides multiple views of the same

data
 Can be dropped without removing the

underlying data
34

THANK YOU