There is a requirement to rename the DB tables and column names,
so all the tools/application taking data from the source will have to change their queries. The solution we are planning to implement is that for every table name change we will create a VIEW with the original table name. Easy and simple to implement. No query change required, but there are cases where a table name remains the same but a column name changes within the table, so we can't create another view (any object with the same object name).
Is there a Column Synonym kind of thing which we can propose here?
Any solutions/ideas are welcome. Requirement is to have queries containing original column names referring to the new columns in the same tables.
For example:
Table Name: DATA_TABLE
Existing Column Name: PM_DATE_TIME
New Column Name: PM_DATETIME
Existing Query select pm_Date_time from Data_Table; should refer to new column pm_Datetime
You could consider renaming your original table, and then create a View in its place providing both the old and the new column-names:
CREATE TABLE Data_Table ( pm_Date_time DATE );
ALTER TABLE Data_Table RENAME TO Data_Table_;
CREATE VIEW Data_Table AS
(
SELECT pm_Date_time,
pm_Date_time AS pm_Datetime -- Alias to provide the new column name
FROM Data_table_
);
-- You can use both the old columnn-name...
INSERT INTO Data_Table( pm_Date_time ) VALUES ( SYSDATE );
-- ... or the new one
UPDATE Data_Table SET pm_Datetime = SYSDATE;
There are things that won't work the same way as before:
-- INSERT without stating column-names will fail.
INSERT INTO Data_Table VALUES ( SYSDATE );
-- SELECT * will return both columns (should not do this anyway)
SELECT * FROM Data_Table
Once you are done with your changes drop the view and rename the table and the columns.
You'll want to add virtual columns:
ALTER TABLE Data_Table ADD pm_Date_time as (pm_Datetime);
UPDATE: Oracle (11g at least) doesn't accept this and raises "ORA-54016: Invalid column expression was specified". Please use Peter Lang's solution, where he pseudo-adds zero days:
ALTER TABLE Data_Table ADD (pm_Datetime + 0) AS pm_Date_time;
This works like a view; when accessing pm_Date_time you are really accessing pm_Datetime.
Rextester demo: http://rextester.com/NPWFEW17776
And Peter is also right in this point that you can use it in queries, but not in INSERT/columns or UPDATE/SET clauses.
This was basically touched on in the answer by Thorsten Kettner, but what your looking for is a pseudocolumn.
This solution looks a little hacky because the syntax for a pseudocolumn requires an expression. The simplest expression I can think of is the case statement below. Let me know if you can make it more simple.
ALTER TABLE <<tablename>> ADD (
<<new_column_name>> AS (
CASE
WHEN 1=1 THEN <<tablename>>.<<old_column_name>>
END)
);
This strategy basically creates a new column on the fly by evaluating the case statement and copying the value of <old_column_name> to <new_column_name>. Because you are dynamically interpolating this column there is a performance penalty vs just selecting the original column.
One gotcha here is that this will only work if you are duplicating a column once. Multiple pseudocolumns cannot contain duplicate expressions in Oracle.
we cant create a another view (any object with the same object name).
That's true within a schema. Another somewhat messy approach is to create a new user/schema with appropriate privileges and create all your views in that, with those querying the modified tables in the original schema. You could include instead-of triggers if you need to do more than query. They would only need the old columns names (as aliases), not the new ones, so inserts that don't specify the columns (which is bad, of course) would still work too.
You could also create synonyms to packages etc. in the original schema if the applications/tools call any and their specifications haven't changed. And if they have changed you can create wrapper packages in your new schema.
Then your legacy tools/applications can connect to that new schema and if it's all set up right will see things apparently as they were before. That could potentially be done by setting current_schema, perhaps through a login trigger, if the way they connect or the account they connect to can't be modified.
As the tools and applications are upgraded to work with the new table/column names they can switch back to the original schema.
Related
I'm currently working on a project that uses a Redshift table with 51 columns. However, the person who made the table forgot to add a sortkey to our time column which will hurt performance for our use case if we don't add it.
How can I make a version of the table with our time column as the sortkey? I'm aware that you can't make a column a sortkey if its a member of an existing table, but I was hoping there's a way to do it that doesn't involve writing out the CREATE TABLE syntax by hand; for example, something like this would be nice:
timecube=# CREATE TABLE foo (like bar) sortkey(time);
ERROR: CREATE TABLE LIKE is not supported with DISTSTYLE, DISTKEY(), or SORTKEY() clauses
but as you can see its not supported. Is there another way? As we're still developing we don't need any of existing data.
Using traditional tools like pgdump didn't work well because they don't include any of the Redshift extras like encoding.
Redshift supports specifying the DIST and SORT keys as part of CREATE TABLE AS statements, as per the docs.
CREATE TABLE table_name
DISTSTYLE KEY
DISTKEY ( column )
SORTKEY ( column )
AS
(SELECT *
FROM source_table)
;
First step you need to do use get create table statement for existing table. Then create new table this time add sort key to new table.
Check encoding for old table ( when you load data using copy command it automatically adds compression encodings)
select "column", type, encoding
from pg_table_def where tablename = 'old_table'
When creating new table add encoding type for each column. Create table with Sort key .
Once new table is created use below command
insert into new table ( select * from old table order by time asc)
I'm working on Oracle SQL database, quite big database. One of (among 150 tables) this table has to be changed because it's redundant (it can be generated through a join). I have been asked to delete a column from this table, to get rid of the redundancy. The problem is that now I have to change code everywhere someone made a insert/update/etc on this table (and don't forget the constraint!). I thought "I can make a view that do the right join" so the problem it's solved for all the select, but it's not working for the insert, because I'm updating 2 tables... Is there a way to solve this problem?
My goal is to rename my original table original_table in original_table_smaller (with one less column) and create a view (or something like a view) called original_table that work like the original table.
Is this possible?
As your view will contain one column that is not present in the real table, you will need to use an instead of trigger to make the view updateable.
Something like this:
create table smaller_table
(
id integer not null primary key,
some_column varchar(20)
);
create view real_table
as
select id,
some_column,
null as old_column
from smaller_table;
Now your old code would run something like this:
insert into real_table
(id, some_column, old_column)
values
(1, 'foo', 'bar');
which results in:
ORA-01733: virtual column not allowed here
To get around this, you need an INSTEAD OF trigger:
create or replace trigger comp_trigger
instead of insert on smaller_table
begin
insert into old_table
(id, some_column)
values
(:new.id, :new.some_column);
end;
/
Now the value for the "old_column" will be ignored. You need something similar for updates as well.
If your view contains a join, then you can handle that situation as well in the trigger. Simply do an update/insert according to the data to two different tables
For more details and examples, see the manual
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/appdev.112/e25519/triggers.htm#i1006376
It is possible to insert/update on views.
You might want to check with USER_UPDATABLE_COLUMNS which columns you can insert to the view.
Check with this query:
select * from user_updatable_columns where table_name = 'VIEW_NAME';
Oracle has two different ways of making views updatable:-
The view is "key preserved" with respect to what you are trying to update. This means the primary key of the underlying table is in the view and the row appears only once in the view. This means Oracle can figure out exactly which underlying table row to update OR
You write an instead of trigger.
I'm trying to setup temporary tables for unit-testing purposes. So far I managed to create a temporary table which copies the structure of an existing table:
CREATE TEMP TABLE t_mytable (LIKE mytable INCLUDING DEFAULTS);
But this lacks the data from the original table. I can copy the data into the temporary table by using a CREATE TABLE AS statement instead:
CREATE TEMP TABLE t_mytable AS SELECT * FROM mytable;
But then the structure of t_mytable will not be identical, e.g. column sizes and default values are different. Is there a single statement which copies everything?
Another problem with the first query using LIKE is that the key column still references the SEQUENCE of the original table, and thus increments it on insertion. Is there an easy way to create the new table with its own sequence, or will I have to set up a new sequence by hand?
I'm using the following code to do it:
CREATE TABLE t_mytable (LIKE mytable INCLUDING ALL);
ALTER TABLE t_mytable ALTER id DROP DEFAULT;
CREATE SEQUENCE t_mytable_id_seq;
INSERT INTO t_mytable SELECT * FROM mytable;
SELECT setval('t_mytable_id_seq', (SELECT max(id) FROM t_mytable), true);
ALTER TABLE t_mytable ALTER id SET DEFAULT nextval('t_my_table_id_seq');
ALTER SEQUENCE t_mytable_id_seq OWNED BY t_mytable.id;
Postgres 10 or later
Postgres 10 introduced IDENTITY columns conforming to the SQL standard (with minor extensions). The ID column of your table would look something like:
id integer PRIMARY KEY GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY
Syntax in the manual.
Using this instead of a traditional serial column avoids your problem with sequences. IDENTITY columns use exclusive, dedicated sequences automatically, even when the specification is copied with LIKE. The manual:
Any identity specifications of copied column definitions will only be
copied if INCLUDING IDENTITY is specified. A new sequence is created
for each identity column of the new table, separate from the sequences
associated with the old table.
And:
INCLUDING ALL is an abbreviated form of INCLUDING DEFAULTS INCLUDING IDENTITY INCLUDING CONSTRAINTS INCLUDING INDEXES INCLUDING STORAGE INCLUDING COMMENTS.
The solution is simpler now:
CREATE TEMP TABLE t_mytable (LIKE mytable INCLUDING ALL);
INSERT INTO t_mytable TABLE mytable;
SELECT setval(pg_get_serial_sequence('t_mytable', 'id'), max(id)) FROM tbl;
As demonstrated, you can still use setval() to set the sequence's current value. A single SELECT does the trick. pg_get_serial_sequence()]6 gets the name of the sequence.
db<>fiddle here
Related:
How to reset postgres' primary key sequence when it falls out of sync?
Is there a shortcut for SELECT * FROM?
Creating a PostgreSQL sequence to a field (which is not the ID of the record)
Original (old) answer
You can take the create script from a database dump or a GUI like pgAdmin (which reverse-engineers database object creation scripts), create an identical copy (with separate sequence for the serial column), and then run:
INSERT INTO new_tbl
SELECT * FROM old_tbl;
The copy cannot be 100% identical if both tables reside in the same schema. Obviously, the table name has to be different. Index names would conflict, too. Retrieving serial numbers from the same sequence would probably not be in your best interest, either. So you have to (at least) adjust the names.
Placing the copy in a different schema avoids all of these conflicts. While you create a temporary table from a regular table like you demonstrated, that's automatically the case since temp tables reside in their own temporary schema.
Or look at Francisco's answer for DDL code to copy directly.
We've got a view that's defined like this
CREATE VIEW aView as
SELECT * from aTable Where <bunch of conditions>;
The "value" of the view is in the where-condition, so it is okay to use a Select * in this case.
When a new column is added to the underlying table, we have to redefine the view with a
CREATE OR REPLACE FORCE VIEW aView as
SELECT * from aTable Where <bunch of conditions>;
as the Select * seems to get "translated" into all the columns present at the time the view is (re-)defined.
My question: How can we avoid this extra step?
(If the answer is dependent on the RDBMS, we're using Oracle.)
I know you specified Oracle, but the behavior is the same in SQL Server.
One way to update the view with the new column is to use:
exec sp_refreshview MyViewName
go
Of course, I also agree with the other comments about not using a SELECT * in a view definition.
This extra step is mandatory in Oracle: you will have to recompile your view manually.
As you have noticed, the "*" is lost once you create a view:
SQL> create table t (id number);
Table created
SQL> create view v as select * from t;
View created
SQL> select text from user_views where view_name = 'V';
TEXT
-------------------------------------------------------
select "ID" from t
You should not be using * in your views. Specify the columns explicitly.
That way you are only retrieving the data you need, and thus avoid potential issues down the road where someone adds a column to a table that you do not want that view to return (e.g., a large binary column that would adversely impact performance).
Yes, you need to recompile the view to add another column, but this is the correct process. That way you avoid other compilation issues, such as if the view reference two tables, and someone adds a duplicate column name in one of the tables. The compiler would then have issues determining which of the columns was being referred to if you did not prefix a reference to the column with a table alias, or it might complain if there are duplicate column names in the results.
The problem with automatically updating views to add columns comes when you extend your model, for example to
SELECT a.*, std_name_format(a.first_name, a.middle_names, a.last_name) long_name
or even
SELECT a.*, b.* from table_a a join table_b b....
If you have a view of just SELECT * FROM table, then you probably should be using a synonym or addressing the table directly.
If the view is hiding rows (SELECT * FROM table WHERE...), then you can look at the feature variously known as Fine Grained Access Control (FGAC), Row Level Security (RLS) or Virtual Private Database (VPD).
You might be able to do something with a DDL trigger but that would get complicated.
I need a query to create a table which is the exact replica but with different table name and without any data from the source table using a sql query!
You can try this
SELECT * INTO Table_Copy
FROM Table
where 1=2
It will create a empty table with the same structure.
SQL Server Management Studio
Object Explorer
Connect -> Your server
Databases -> Choose Database
Tables
Right Click Your Table
Script Table as -> Create To -> New Query Editor Window
Jonathan has it (upvoted), and you should probably go with that because it's more portable. I normally use something similar:
SELECT TOP 0 * INTO [New_Table] FROM [Old_Table]
I think this better expresses what you're doing, but I like Jonathan's because 'TOP 0' is SQL Server specific, and so his is more portable.
For MySQL, you can call SHOW CREATE TABLE table_name;
It will display a CREATE TABLE query. Simply change the table name in that query and you're good to go.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/show-create-table.html
If you use Postgresql:
CREATE TABLE LIKE table_name
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/sql-createtable.html
SELECT * INTO Table_Copy
FROM Table
where 1=2
This worked very well, when i tried to create a replica of the table without any data's.
SELECT * INTO Table_Copy
FROM Table
This will create a replica with the data's too.
This can help you:
CREATE TABLE foo AS SELECT...
Read more here
select * into newtablename from sourcetablename
go
truncate newtablename
go
That will result in an exact copy but it also copies the data at first which you remove with the truncate statement.
create table <new table name> as select * from <old tale name from which you would like to extract data>
It will create a new table with a different name but will copy all existing data from the old table to new table.
in postgres you can use INHERITS or LIKE keyword to make replica of a table(only copies structure of the table)
CREATE TABLE client_new (LIKE client);
or
CREATE TABLE client_new () INHERITS (client)
Use of INHERITS creates a persistent relationship between the new child table and its parent table(s). Schema modifications to the parent(s) normally propagate to children as well, and by default the data of the child table is included in scans of the parent(s).
LIKE clause specifies a table from which the new table automatically copies all column names, their data types, and their not-null constraints.Unlike INHERITS, the new table and original table are completely decoupled after creation is complete. Changes to the original table will not be applied to the new table, and it is not possible to include data of the new table in scans of the original table.