SQL Server equivalent to Oracle's CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW

Question

In Oracle, I can re-create a view with a single statement, as shown here:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW MY_VIEW AS
SELECT SOME_FIELD
FROM SOME_TABLE
WHERE SOME_CONDITIONS

As the syntax implies, this will drop the old view and re-create it with whatever definition I've given.

Is there an equivalent in MSSQL (SQL Server 2005 or later) that will do the same thing?

Answer 1

The solutions above though they will get the job done do so at the risk of dropping user permissions. I prefer to do my create or replace views or stored procedures as follows.

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[vw_myView]'))
    EXEC sp_executesql N'CREATE VIEW [dbo].[vw_myView] AS SELECT ''This is a code stub which will be replaced by an Alter Statement'' as [code_stub]'
GO

ALTER VIEW [dbo].[vw_myView]
AS
SELECT 'This is a code which should be replaced by the real code for your view' as [real_code]
GO

Answer 2

For reference from SQL Server 2016 SP1+ you could use CREATE OR ALTER VIEW syntax.

MSDN CREATE VIEW:

CREATE [ OR ALTER ] VIEW [ schema_name . ] view_name [ (column [ ,...n ] ) ]   
[ WITH <view_attribute> [ ,...n ] ]   
AS select_statement   
[ WITH CHECK OPTION ]   
[ ; ]

OR ALTER

Conditionally alters the view only if it already exists.

db<>fiddle demo

Answer 3

You can use 'IF EXISTS' to check if the view exists and drop if it does.

IF EXISTS (SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS
        WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'MyView')
    DROP VIEW MyView
GO

CREATE VIEW MyView
AS 
     ....
GO

Answer 4

I use:

IF OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[myView]') IS NOT NULL
DROP VIEW [dbo].[myView]
GO
CREATE VIEW [dbo].[myView]
AS

...

Recently I added some utility procedures for this kind of stuff:

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.DropView
@ASchema VARCHAR(100),
@AView VARCHAR(100)
AS
BEGIN
  DECLARE @sql VARCHAR(1000);
  IF OBJECT_ID('[' + @ASchema + '].[' + @AView + ']') IS NOT NULL
  BEGIN
    SET @sql  = 'DROP VIEW ' + '[' + @ASchema + '].[' + @AView + '] ';
    EXEC(@sql);
  END 
END

So now I write

EXEC dbo.DropView 'mySchema', 'myView'
GO
CREATE View myView
...
GO

I think it makes my changescripts a bit more readable

Answer 5

I typically use something like this:

if exists (select * from dbo.sysobjects
  where id = object_id(N'dbo.MyView') and
  OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N'IsView') = 1)
drop view dbo.MyView
go
create view dbo.MyView [...]

Answer 6

As of SQL Server 2016 you have

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [foo];

MSDN source

Answer 7

It works fine for me on SQL Server 2017:

USE MSSQLTipsDemo 
GO
CREATE OR ALTER PROC CreateOrAlterDemo
AS
BEGIN
SELECT TOP 10 * FROM [dbo].[CountryInfoNew]
END
GO

https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/4640/new-create-or-alter-statement-in-

Answer 8

In SQL Server 2016 (or newer) you can use this:

CREATE OR ALTER VIEW VW_NAMEOFVIEW AS ...

In older versions of SQL server you have to use something like

DECLARE @script NVARCHAR(MAX) = N'VIEW [dbo].[VW_NAMEOFVIEW] AS ...';

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE name = 'VW_NAMEOFVIEW')
-- IF OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[VW_NAMEOFVIEW]') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN EXEC('CREATE ' + @script) END
ELSE
BEGIN EXEC('ALTER ' + @script) END

Or, if there are no dependencies on the view, you can just drop it and recreate:

IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE name = 'VW_NAMEOFVIEW')
-- IF OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[VW_NAMEOFVIEW]') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN 
   DROP VIEW [VW_NAMEOFVIEW];
END

CREATE VIEW [VW_NAMEOFVIEW] AS ...

Answer 9

You can use ALTER to update a view, but this is different than the Oracle command since it only works if the view already exists. Probably better off with DaveK's answer since that will always work.