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Applies to: Embedded ❌, Enterprise ✅ A view stores a query, not rows. Reading it runs the query against current data, so a view is never stale, and never faster than the query it wraps. It is the counterpart to a materialized view, which stores rows and is brought up to date by a refresh; both are catalog objects defined by a query, differing only in when that query runs. The SDK methods create_view, describe_view, list_views, and drop_view submit SQL through the connection’s Flight endpoint. drop_view_async returns a job of type query whose single id is the SQL query UUID. Waiting confirms catalog removal; physical cleanup can continue afterward.

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CREATE VIEW

The statement returns one row with UTF-8 name, query, and schema columns. query contains the stored query, including any declared column aliases, and schema contains its Arrow schema as JSON. The schema metadata keys lancedb::view::default_db and lancedb::view::default_namespace identify the defining database and namespace. The root namespace is public; nested namespace components are separated by $. DESCRIBE VIEW "recent_matches" returns the same metadata shape. Anything the dialect supports can define one: joins, predicates, aggregates, window functions.

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Reading one

A view is queried like a table:
Predicates applied to the view compose with the query inside it rather than filtering its output afterwards, so a selective filter does not pay for rows the view would have produced and then discarded.

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DROP VIEW

Removes the saved query. Unlike dropping a table, no data is removed: there was none to begin with.

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Listing

SHOW VIEWS returns ascending name values. The name cursor is scoped to the selected namespace. Object commands retain their small results in shared storage even when general query-result copying is disabled, so asynchronous polling can use any query node. Views and tables share a namespace, and both are things you can query. The catalog distinguishes them: Use the relation listing when the question is “what can I select from,” and the separate listings when the distinction matters: before dropping, for instance, since dropping a view removes only the saved query while dropping a table removes data.

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Choosing between a view and a materialized view

Reach for a view when the query is cheap, or when reading stale rows would be wrong. Reach for a materialized view when the query is expensive and the data changes less often than it is read. The privileges are separate too: CREATE_VIEW and CREATE_MATERIALIZED_VIEW are distinct grants on a namespace, so the ability to create one does not imply the other. See Authorization.

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What to read next

Materialized View

The stored-rows counterpart.

Management

Where views fit among the other catalog objects.