VIEWS view

This Information Schema view displays a row for each view in the specified (or current) database, including the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views for the database.

See also:

TABLES view

Columns

Column Name

Data Type

Description

TABLE_CATALOG

TEXT

Database that the view belongs to.

TABLE_SCHEMA

TEXT

Schema that the view belongs to.

TABLE_NAME

TEXT

Name of the view.

TABLE_OWNER

TEXT

Name of the role that owns the view.

VIEW_DEFINITION

TEXT

Text of the view’s query expression.

CHECK_OPTION

TEXT

Not applicable for Snowflake.

IS_UPDATABLE

TEXT

Not applicable for Snowflake.

INSERTABLE_INTO

TEXT

Not applicable for Snowflake.

IS_SECURE

TEXT

Specifies whether the view is secure.

CREATED

TIMESTAMP_LTZ

Creation time of the view.

LAST_ALTERED

TIMESTAMP_LTZ

Date and time the object was last altered by a DML, DDL, or background metadata operation. See Usage Notes.

LAST_DDL

TIMESTAMP_LTZ

Timestamp of the last DDL operation performed on the table or view.

All supported table/view DDL operations update this field:

  • { CREATE | ALTER | DROP | UNDROP } TABLE

  • { CREATE | ALTER | DROP } VIEW

All ALTER TABLE operations update this field, including setting or unsetting a table parameter (for example, COMMENT, DATA_RETENTION_TIME, etc.) and changes to table columns (ADD / MODIFY / RENAME / DROP).

For more information, see the Usage Notes.

LAST_DDL_BY

TEXT

The current username for the user who executed the last DDL operation. If the user has been dropped, shows DROPPED_USER(<id>).

For dropped users, you can join the <id> with the USER_ID column in the USERS view.

COMMENT

TEXT

Comment for this view.

Usage notes

  • The view only displays objects for which the current role for the session has been granted access privileges. The view does not honor the MANAGE GRANTS privilege and consequently may show less information compared to a SHOW command when both are executed with a role that was granted the MANAGE GRANTS privilege.

    This behavior also applies to other account-level privileges and Information Schema views for which there is a corresponding SHOW command.

  • To remove the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views from your queries, filter using a WHERE clause, e.g.:

    ... WHERE table_schema != 'INFORMATION_SCHEMA'

  • The LAST_ALTERED column is updated when the following operations are performed on an object:

    • DDL operations.

    • DML operations (for tables only). This column is updated even when no rows are affected by the DML statement.

    • Background maintenance operations on metadata performed by Snowflake.

    For views and tables, use the LAST_DDL column for the last modification time for an object.

  • The value in the LAST_DDL column is updated as follows:

    • When a table or view is created, the LAST_DDL timestamp is the same as the CREATED timestamp.

    • When a table or view is dropped, the LAST_DDL timestamp is the same as the DELETED timestamp.

    • Last DDL data is not available for operations that occurred before the columns were added. The new DDL fields contain null until a DDL operation is executed.

    • For replicated databases, the LAST_DDL and LAST_DDL_BY fields are only updated for objects in the primary database. After failover, the LAST_DDL and LAST_DDL_BY fields are updated for DDL operations for the tables and views in the newly promoted primary database. These fields will remain unchanged for objects in the now secondary database.

    • For objects in secondary databases that are newly created during a refresh operation, these fields are null.