ptg 854 CHAPTER 27 Creating and Managing Views in SQL Server FROM Sales.CreditCard UPDATE vw_CreditCard SET ExpYear = ExpYear + 1 WHERE ExpYear < 2006 In general, updatable views are similar to the previous example. The following specific conditions allow a view to be updatable: . Any data modification via a view must reference columns from a single base table. This does not restrict a view to only one table, but the columns referenced in the data modification can be for only one of the tables defined in the view. . The columns affected by the data modification must directly reference the underly- ing tables. They cannot be derived through an aggregate function (for example, AVG, COUNT, SUM) and cannot contain computations from an expression that utilizes columns from another table. . The TOP clause cannot be part of the SELECT statement that defines the view when the WITH CHECK OPTION clause is used. . The columns affected by the data modification cannot be affected by GROUP BY, HAVING, or DISTINCT clauses in the view definition. You can overcome these restrictions by using INSTEAD OF triggers to perform the data modifications. You can create INSTEAD OF triggers on a view, and the logic within the trig- gers performs the actual database updates. INSTEAD OF triggers are discussed in detail in Chapter 30, “Creating and Managing Triggers.” Partitioned views are another means for performing data modifications via a view. Partitioned views can be updatable and are not subject to all the restrictions listed for conventional views. However, some additional restrictions apply to partitioned views. These additional restrictions and other details about partitioned views are discussed in the next section. Partitioned Views Partitioned views are used to access data that has been horizontally split, or partitioned, across multiple tables. These tables can be in the same or different databases—or even spread across multiple servers. Partitioning of tables is done to spread the I/O and process- ing load of large tables across multiple disks or servers. You combine the tables in a partitioned view by using a UNION ALL statement that causes the data from the separate tables to appear as if they were one table. These separate tables are referred to as member tables or base tables. The member tables in a SELECT statement of the view must all be structured in the same way, and the view must adhere to the follow- ing restrictions: . All the columns from the member tables should be included in the view definition. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 855 Partitioned Views 27 . Columns with the same ordinal position in the SELECT list should have the same data type. . The same column cannot be used multiple times in the SELECT list. . A partitioning column that segments the data must be identified and needs to have the same ordinal position across all the member table SELECT statements. . The partitioning column cannot be a computed column, an identity, a default, or a time stamp. . The data values in the partitioning column cannot overlap in the underlying tables. . The partitioning column must be part of the primary key of the member table. . The member tables in the partitioned view need a CHECK constraint on the partition- ing column. . A table can appear only once as part of the UNION ALL statement. . The member tables cannot have indexes created on computed columns in the table. . The number of columns in the member table primary key constraints should be the same. . All member tables should have the same ANSI PADDING setting when created. The list of restrictions for creating partitioned views is extensive, but the creation of a partitioned view is relatively straightforward and intuitive. Consider, for example, the Sales.SalesOrderHeader table in the Adventureworks2008 database. This table is relatively small, but it is the type of table that could have a large number of rows and experience heavy utilization. To balance the workload against this table, you could use a partitioned view that utilizes base tables that each contain a separate year’s data. Listing 27.4 shows the CREATE TABLE statements to create the base tables for each year. The yearly tables are intended to hold summarized daily numbers, and each contains only a subset of the columns in the Sales.SalesOrderHeader table. LISTING 27.4 Creating the Base Tables for a Partitioned View CREATE TABLE Sales.Sales_2001 ( OrderDay datetime NOT NULL CHECK (OrderDay BETWEEN ‘20010101’ AND ‘20011231’), SubTotal money NOT NULL , TaxAmt money not null, Freight money not null, CONSTRAINT PK_Sales_2001_OrderDay PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (OrderDay ASC) ) CREATE TABLE Sales.Sales_2002 ( Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 856 CHAPTER 27 Creating and Managing Views in SQL Server OrderDay datetime NOT NULL, CHECK (OrderDay BETWEEN ‘20020101’ AND ‘20021231’), SubTotal money NOT NULL , TaxAmt money not null, Freight money not null, CONSTRAINT PK_Sales_2002_OrderDay PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (OrderDay ASC) ) CREATE TABLE Sales.Sales_2003 ( OrderDay datetime NOT NULL CHECK (OrderDay BETWEEN ‘20030101’ AND ‘20031231’), SubTotal money NOT NULL , TaxAmt money not null, Freight money not null, CONSTRAINT PK_Sales_2003_OrderDay PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (OrderDay ASC) ) CREATE TABLE Sales.Sales_2004 ( OrderDay datetime NOT NULL CHECK (OrderDay BETWEEN ‘20040101’ AND ‘20041231’), SubTotal money NOT NULL , TaxAmt money not null, Freight money not null, CONSTRAINT PK_Sales_2004_OrderDay PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (OrderDay ASC) ) Notice that each table has a primary key on OrderDay, the partitioning column. Also notice that a CHECK constraint is defined for each table; it ensures that only orders for the given year can be stored in the table. To demonstrate the power of a partitioned view, it is best to populate the base tables that will be used by the view. Listing 27.5 contains a series of INSERT statements that select from the Sales.SalesOrderHeader table and populate the base tables. The SELECT state- ments summarize several key columns by day and contain a WHERE clause that limits the result to orders for the respective years. LISTING 27.5 Populating the Base Tables for a Partitioned View INSERT Sales.Sales_2001 SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112), SUM(SubTotal), SUM(TaxAmt), SUM(Freight) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader WHERE OrderDate between ‘20010101’ AND ‘20011231’ GROUP BY CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112) Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 857 Partitioned Views 27 INSERT Sales.Sales_2002 SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112), SUM(SubTotal), SUM(TaxAmt), SUM(Freight) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader WHERE OrderDate between ‘20020102’ AND ‘20021231’ GROUP BY CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112) INSERT Sales.Sales_2003 SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112), SUM(SubTotal), SUM(TaxAmt), SUM(Freight) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader WHERE OrderDate between ‘20030101’ AND ‘20031231’ GROUP BY CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112) INSERT Sales.Sales_2004 SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112), SUM(SubTotal), SUM(TaxAmt), SUM(Freight) FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader WHERE OrderDate between ‘20040102’ AND ‘20041231’ GROUP BY CONVERT(VARCHAR(8),OrderDate,112) Now that you have the populated base table, you can create a partitioned view and ensure that the view is selecting only from the base tables that it needs. Two types of partitioned views are discussed in this chapter: local and distributed. A local partitioned view utilizes base tables found on the same server. A distributed partitioned view contains at least one base table that resides on a different (remote) server. The focus in the section is on local partitioned views; distributed partitioned views are discussed later in this chapter. The T-SQL for creating a local partitioned view named Sales.vw_Sales_Daily is shown in Listing 27.6. LISTING 27.6 Creating a Local Partitioned View Create View Sales.vw_Sales_Daily as SELECT * FROM Sales.Sales_2001 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM Sales.Sales_2002 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM Sales.Sales_2003 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM Sales.Sales_2004 Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 858 CHAPTER 27 Creating and Managing Views in SQL Server The best way to validate that a partitioned view is working properly is to run a conditional SELECT against the view and display the execution plan. If the partitioned view is func- tioning properly, it should be accessing only the base tables it needs to satisfy the SELECT and should not access all the tables in the view unless it needs to. The following example shows a sample SELECT against the new partitioned view: SELECT * FROM Sales.vw_Sales_Daily WHERE OrderDay > ‘20040701’ and SubTotal > 2000 If you execute this statement and review the actual execution plan, you see that an index seek is performed against the Sales.Sales_2004 table. This is the correct result, given that the SELECT statement is targeting order data from 2004. NOTE SQL Server Books Online states that the recommended method for partitioning data on a local server in SQL Server 2008 is through the use of partitioned tables and index- es. Partitioned tables and indexes are discussed in Chapter 24, “Creating and Managing Tables.” Modifying Data Through a Partitioned View You can modify data via a partitioned view if the SQL statement performing the modifica- tion meets certain conditions, as described here: . All columns in the partitioned view must be specified in the INSERT statement. Columns that include a DEFAULT constraint or allow nulls are also subject to this requirement. . The DEFAULT keyword cannot be used on inserts to partitioned views or on updates to partitioned views. . UPDATE statements cannot modify PRIMARY KEY columns if the member tables have text, ntext, or image columns. . Inserts and updates to a partitioned view are not allowed if the view contains a time stamp. . Identity columns in a partitioned view cannot be modified by an INSERT or UPDATE statement. . INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements are not allowed against a partitioned view if there is a self-join with the same view or with any of the member tables in the statement. NOTE Data can be modified through partitioned views only in the Enterprise and Developer Editions of SQL Server 2008. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 859 Partitioned Views 27 In addition to the conditions shown in this list, you must also satisfy any restrictions that apply to the member tables. Check constraints, foreign key constraints, and any other table-level restrictions must be accounted for in the modification statement. The user executing the modification against the partitioned view must have the appropriate INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE permissions on the member tables for the update to succeed. Distributed Partitioned Views Microsoft provides distributed partitioned views (DPVs) as a primary means to scale out a database server. Scalability allows an application or a database to utilize additional resources, which allows it to perform more work. There are two kinds of scalability: scaleup and scaleout. A scaleup solution focuses on a single server scaled to provide more processing power than its predecessor. An example of scaleup would be migrating from a server with a single dual-core processor to a machine with 4-quad-core processor. Scaleout solutions include the addition of servers to augment the overall processing power. DPVs are similar to local partitioned views, but they utilize one or more tables located on a remote server. The placement of partitioned data on remote servers allows the processing power of more than one server to be utilized. The partitioning is intended to be transpar- ent to the application and allow for additional partitions and servers as the application’s needs scale. The following list outlines the basic requirements for creating a DPV: . A linked server definition is added to each member server that will contain the parti- tioned data. The linked server contains the connection information required to run distributed queries on another member server. . The lazy schema validation option is set to true on each of the member servers, using sp_serveroption. This option is set for performance reasons and allows the query processor to skip schema checking of remote tables if the query can be satis- fied on a single member server. . A DPV is created on each member server. This DPV references the local tables in addition to the tables found on the other member servers. Listing 27.7 shows SQL commands that can be used to satisfy the requirements in the preceding list. The DPV created in the last portion of the script is similar to the local parti- tioned view created in the previous section. The key difference in this DPV example is the inclusion of a distributed query that retrieves records for Sales.Sales_2002 from a remote server. The remote server in this example is named DbSvrXP. LISTING 27.7 Creating a Distributed Partitioned View Exec sp_addlinkedserver @server=’dbsvrxp’, @srvproduct=’’, @provider=’MSDASQL’, @provstr=’DRIVER={SQL Server}; SERVER=dbsvrxp;UID=linklogin;PWD=pw;Initial Catalog=Adventureworks2008’ Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 860 CHAPTER 27 Creating and Managing Views in SQL Server —Set the server option for improved DPV performance exec sp_serveroption dbsvrxp, ‘lazy schema validation’, true Create View Sales.vw_Sales_Daily as SELECT * FROM Sales.Sales_2001 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM dbsvrxp.Adventureworks2008.Sales.Sales_2002 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM Sales.Sales_2003 UNION ALL SELECT * FROM Sales.Sales_2004 The DPV created in Listing 27.7 contains only one remote table. The example could be further expanded to have each table in the UNION clause on a different remote server. Keep in mind that the DPV CREATE statement needs to be adjusted when run on the remote server(s). The tables that are local on one server are now remote on the other server, and those that are remote can now be local. If the DPVs are properly defined, SQL Server 2008 attempts to optimize their performance by minimizing the amount of data transferred between member servers. The query proces- sor retrieves the CHECK constraint definitions from each member table. This allows the query processor to map the specified search arguments to the appropriate table(s). The query execution plan then accesses only the necessary tables and retrieves only the remote rows needed to complete the SQL statement. Data can be modified through a DPV as well. Updatable DPVs, which were introduced in SQL Server 2000, are still available in SQL Server 2008. Data modifications are performed against a view, allowing true transparency. The view is accessed as if it were a base table, and the user or application is unaware of the actual location of the data. If it is configured properly, SQL Server determines via the WHERE clause specified in the update query which partition defined in the view must be updated rather than updating all tables in the join. NOTE Data can be modified through distributed partitioned views only in the Enterprise and Developer Editions of SQL Server 2008. Indexed Views You establish indexed views by creating a unique clustered index on the view itself, inde- pendent of the member tables that it references. The creation of this unique index trans- forms a view from an object that is virtual in nature to one that has physical storage associated with it. Like all other indexes, the index on a view takes up physical storage, Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 861 Indexed Views 27 requires maintenance, and, most importantly, can provide performance benefits that justify its creation. Creating Indexed Views Indexed views were first available for creation in SQL Server 2000 and continue to be a viable means for improving query performance in SQL Server 2008. An index can be created on a view in all versions of SQL Server 2008, but there are limitations on some of the versions. The Developer and Enterprise Editions of SQL Server 2008 are the only editions that support the use of indexed views for queries that don’t specifically reference the views. Other editions of SQL Server must reference the view by name in the SQL state- ments and must also use the NOEXPAND keyword in the query. The details of NOEXPAND are discussed in the section “To Expand or Not to Expand,” later in this chapter. Regardless of the edition of SQL Server you are running, some basic requirements must be satisfied for you to create an indexed view. These requirements, which follow, are detailed in SQL Server 2008 Books Online: . The ANSI_NULLS and QUOTED_IDENTIFIER options must be set to ON when the CREATE VIEW statement is executed. . The ANSI_NULLS option must be set to ON for the execution of all CREATE TABLE state- ments that create tables referenced by the view. . The view must not reference any other views, only base tables. . All base tables referenced by the view must be in the same database as the view and have the same owner as the view. . The view must be created with the SCHEMABINDING option. Schema binding binds the view to the schema of the underlying base tables. . User-defined functions referenced in the view must be created with the SCHEMABINDING option. . Tables and user-defined functions must be referenced via two-part names in the view. One-part, three-part, and four-part names are not allowed. . All functions referenced by expressions in the view must be deterministic. . If the view definition uses an aggregate function, the SELECT list must also include COUNT_BIG (*). . The DATA ACCESS property of a user-defined function must be NO SQL, and the EXTERNAL ACCESS property must be NO. . CLR functions can appear only in the SELECT list of the view and can reference only fields that are not part of the clustered index key. They cannot appear in the WHERE clause of the view or the ON clause of a JOIN operation in the view. . CLR functions and methods of CLR user-defined types used in the view definition must have the properties set as DETERMINISTIC = TRUE, PRECISE = TRUE, DATA ACCESS = NO SQL, and EXTERNAL ACCESS = NO. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 862 CHAPTER 27 Creating and Managing Views in SQL Server . If GROUP BY is specified, the view SELECT list must contain a COUNT_BIG(*) expres- sion, and the view definition cannot specify HAVING, CUBE, or ROLLUP. . The view cannot contain any of the T-SQL elements shown in the following list: You can see from this list that the number of requirements is extensive. It can therefore be difficult to determine whether all the requirements have been met for a particular view. To simplify this determination, you can query the IsIndexable property, using the OBJECTPROPERTY function. The following example demonstrates the use of the IsIndexable property against the sys.views catalog view: SELECT name AS ViewName ,SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) AS SchemaName ,OBJECTPROPERTYEX(object_id,’IsIndexed’) AS IsIndexed ,OBJECTPROPERTYEX(object_id,’IsIndexable’) AS IsIndexable ,create_date ,modify_date FROM sys.views; The IsIndexable property returns a 1 (or TRUE) if an index can be created on the view and a 0 if it is not indexable. Most of the views in the Adventureworks2008 database are not indexable, but the database does contain a couple of examples of views that have been indexed. The following example shows the CREATE statement for an index on the vProductAndDescription view. The SET options required when creating the index are included in the example as well: SET ARITHABORT ON — for 80 compatibility or earlier GO SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL ON GO * or tablename.* An expression on a column found in the GROUP BY clause A derived table A common table expression (CTE) A rowset function The UNION, EXCEPT,or INTERSECT operators Subqueries Outer joins or self-joins The TOP clause The ORDER BY clause The DISTINCT keyword COUNT (COUNT_BIG is allowed) AVG, MAX, MIN, STDEV, STDEVP, VAR, or VARP A SUM function that references a nullable expression A CLR user-defined aggre- gate function The full text predicate COMPUTE or COMPUTE BY CONTAINS or FREETEXT CROSS APPLY or OUTER APPLY operators Table hints Join hints Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 863 Indexed Views 27 SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON GO SET ANSI_NULLS ON GO SET ANSI_PADDING ON GO SET ANSI_WARNINGS ON GO SET NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT OFF GO CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX [IX_vProductAndDescription] ON [Production].[vProductAndDescription] ( [CultureID] ASC, [ProductID] ASC ) The following example shows the Production.vProductAndDescript view that the index was created on: CREATE VIEW [Production].[vProductAndDescription] WITH SCHEMABINDING AS View (indexed or standard) to display products —and product descriptions by language. SELECT p.[ProductID] ,p.[Name] ,pm.[Name] AS [ProductModel] ,pmx.[CultureID] ,pd.[Description] FROM [Production].[Product] p INNER JOIN [Production].[ProductModel] pm ON p.[ProductModelID] = pm.[ProductModelID] INNER JOIN [Production].[ProductModelProductDescriptionCulture] pmx ON pm.[ProductModelID] = pmx.[ProductModelID] INNER JOIN [Production].[ProductDescription] pd ON pmx.[ProductDescriptionID] = pd.[ProductDescriptionID]; Indexed Views and Performance Adding indexes to tables is a generally accepted means for improving database perfor- mance. Indexes provide a keyed lookup to rows of data that can improve database access and avoid the performance nightmare of a table scan where the entire contents of a table Download from www.wowebook.com . creation in SQL Server 2000 and continue to be a viable means for improving query performance in SQL Server 2008. An index can be created on a view in all versions of SQL Server 2008, but there. @provstr=’DRIVER= {SQL Server} ; SERVER= dbsvrxp;UID=linklogin;PWD=pw;Initial Catalog=Adventureworks2008’ Download from www.wowebook.com ptg 860 CHAPTER 27 Creating and Managing Views in SQL Server —Set the server. needed to complete the SQL statement. Data can be modified through a DPV as well. Updatable DPVs, which were introduced in SQL Server 2000, are still available in SQL Server 2008. Data modifications