What Is a Materialized View?

Materialized view definition

A materialized view refers to the result of a query on a table in your database. With a materialized view, you don't have to process expensive queries whenever you want to recover relevant data from a database.

Instead, a materialized view saves your query information so you can easily access the data whenever you need it.

Materialized views can save you time and money, as it can be costly to process queries each time you need to retrieve data. And the faster you get this data, the more efficient your data analysis will be.

Creating a materialized view may take up more storage space, but it's much faster than creating a standard view. Materialized views are a powerful tool that can simplify complex queries and make life easier when it comes to the maintenance of data products.

For example, say you have a database for your entire company that contains data about employees in different departments, but you only want to retrieve data about the employees in a specific department. Rather than processing complex queries for each department, which can be expensive and time-consuming, you can retrieve data for the particular department in question with materialized views.

It's even possible to enforce security measures with materialized views to ensure that only authorized personnel can access the relevant data. Retrieving data can be complex, but materialized views can improve your data management strategy.

View vs. materialized view

Before you get started with using materialized views as part of your data management strategy, it's essential that you know the difference between a standard view vs. materialized view. Both help to optimize data, as you can combine data from multiple tables into one table. However, the process of retrieving this data differs between a standard view vs. materialized view.

A standard view is a table that contains relevant data from a previous query. This data gets automatically updated every time you access the view to keep your information accurate and up-to-date. However, any updates in the view will push the data to the base table and vice versa. It can take a while for the regular view to accurately reflect the data you're looking for. Since all changes must be reflected in both the view and the base table, this process tends to be more time-consuming and inaccurate.

A materialized view is a game changer when it comes to query performance. Materialized views pre-compute data derived from a specific query and automatically save it when at the point it was retrieved.

A materialized view will not update the data whenever someone interacts with it. This is unlike a standard view, where changes in the view or base tables are automatically reflected in the regular table. The main benefit of a materialized view is that it will save you time because you can quickly retrieve the data you need without having to re-read all the data in the specific query.

Why use a materialized view?

There are many benefits of using a materialized view to retrieve data. Standard views can be complex and expensive but materialized views lead to much more efficient data retrieval. Here are some of the reasons why you should use a materialized view with your data storage:

Saves you money

Each time you query a database, it costs you money. Materialized views can save costs by pre-computing expensive queries, so you don't have to run separate queries each time you need to retrieve data.

Improves query performance

By using materialized views, you can skip several computing steps and get pre-computed results delivered directly to you. These pre-computed results can save you time and improve query performance by maintaining the data storage.

Increases the speed of queries

It can take a while to analyze data, but materialized views can cut back on that time. Regular data queries can take a while, especially with large databases. Materialized views can increase the speed of queries because it keeps data pre-computed and stored so that you can get results more rapidly.

Simplifies optimizing data

Standard views tend to be more complex and challenging to navigate, but materialized views can simplify the query process. Materialized views will keep your data up to date, which can improve executive and speed up computing power.

When to use a materialized view

There are various situations when it would be beneficial to use a materialized view. Materialized views can alleviate complex network loads and create mass deployment environments. You can also use materialized views to enable data subsetting and disconnected computing.

Materialized views can alleviate complex network loads by replicating databases throughout different geographical areas. This is beneficial if an organization has multiple locations and wants to keep its network traffic to a minimum. Using a materialized view can lead to less network traffic and faster response times to queries, which can benefit the company's communication.

Another instance when materialized views are beneficial is when creating mass deployment environments. In this case, materialized views can help to deliver data quickly across different sites while still maintaining the quality of the data. Getting your data delivered quickly is especially beneficial with mass deployment environments because you can easily distribute information to the desired location.

You can also use materialized views to enable data subsetting, which can save query time and data storage costs. With data subsetting, you can copy individual portions of a database that are specific to one department.

This allows particular departments to easily access the recent data they need without having to query the entire database. Data subsetting is also beneficial when dealing with multiple clients because they can access materialized view sites instead of the source sites so that you can distribute user load even more.

Lastly, materialized views are beneficial for disconnected computing. For the most part, materialized views do not require a network connection to work, so you can still access necessary data when your internet is down.

This is particularly beneficial for departments with employees who work on their personal computers or in different time zones, as they can still send and receive materialized views even if they don't have a reliable network connection.

How to create a materialized view

Creating materialized views is a pretty straightforward process. To create a materialized view, you should start with databases where the base relations are unclustered. You want to focus on resource-intensive processes so that you can use materialized views for complex queries.

You also want to optimize base table operations with materialized views. To do this, you can batch the data manipulation language operations on the base table to create a more efficient batch process.

There are many complex operations that you can do with materialized views. However, it's best to start small, so you can fully understand how to create a materialized view before you move on to more complicated processes.

Beware stale data

One thing you want to avoid when creating materialized views is stale data. Stale data can occur when query results change often and no longer accurately reflect the data in the table. So, you must be careful to avoid this, especially when dealing with large databases.

Analyze data with a materialized view

Analyzing data can be challenging, but using a materialized view can help make the process easier. Materialized views can save time and money when running complex queries. If you want to use materialized views with your data management, consider using Mailchimp.

Mailchimp can help with everything from materialized view creation to audience management and customer segmentation. With Mailchimp, you can easily manage audience data to improve your marketing strategy and customer relationships. Whether you need help with data tracking or data reporting, Mailchimp has all the necessary resources to grow your business.