Efficiently updating materialized views

TLDR

Query processing can be sped up by materializing frequently accessed views, but this benefit requires adequate maintenance to avoid accessing base relations. The study proposes filtering database updates to exclude those that cannot affect the view. The method uses necessary and sufficient, database‑state‑independent conditions to identify irrelevant updates, then applies a differential algorithm that leverages the view definition and update operations to re‑evaluate the view.

Abstract

Query processing can be sped up by keeping frequently accessed users' views materialized. However, the need to access base relations in response to queries can be avoided only if the materialized view is adequately maintained. We propose a method in which all database updates to base relations are first filtered to remove from consideration those that cannot possibly affect the view. The conditions given for the detection of updates of this type, called irrelevant updates, are necessary and sufficient and are independent of the database state. For the remaining database updates, a differential algorithm can be applied to re-evaluate the view expression. The algorithm proposed exploits the knowledge provided by both the view definition expression and the database update operations.