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 SQL Server 2005 that will do the same thing?

Answer 1

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 2

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 3

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.

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