Amazon Redshift materialized views allows you to considerably enhance efficiency of advanced queries. Materialized views retailer precomputed question outcomes that future related queries can make the most of, providing a robust resolution for knowledge warehouse environments the place purposes usually have to execute resource-intensive queries towards massive tables. This optimization approach enhances question velocity and effectivity by permitting many computation steps to be skipped, with precomputed outcomes returned straight. Materialized views are notably helpful for dashing up predictable and repeated queries, resembling these used to populate dashboards or generate reviews. As a substitute of repeatedly performing resource-intensive operations, purposes can question a materialized view and retrieve precomputed outcomes, resulting in vital efficiency positive factors and improved consumer expertise. Moreover, materialized views might be incrementally refreshed, making use of logic solely to modified knowledge when knowledge manipulation language (DML) modifications are made to the underlying base tables, additional optimizing efficiency and sustaining knowledge consistency.
This publish demonstrates methods to maximize your Amazon Redshift question efficiency by successfully implementing materialized views. We’ll discover creating materialized views and implementing nested refresh methods, the place materialized views are outlined by way of different materialized views to develop their capabilities. This method is especially highly effective for reusing precomputed joins with totally different combination choices, considerably decreasing processing time for advanced ETL and BI workloads. Let’s discover methods to implement this highly effective characteristic in your knowledge warehouse atmosphere.
Introduction to Nested Materialized Views
Nested materialized views in Amazon Redshift can help you create materialized views based mostly on different materialized views. This functionality allows a hierarchical construction of precomputed outcomes, considerably enhancing question efficiency and knowledge processing effectivity. With nested materialized views, you may construct multi-layered knowledge abstractions, creating more and more advanced and specialised views tailor-made to particular enterprise wants.This layered method affords a number of benefits:
- Improved Question Efficiency: Every degree of the nested materialized view hierarchy serves as a cache, permitting queries to shortly entry pre-computed knowledge with out the necessity to traverse the underlying base tables.
- Decreased Computational Load: By offloading the computational work to the materialized view refresh course of, you may considerably cut back the runtime and useful resource utilization of your day-to-day queries.
- Simplified Information Modeling: Nested materialized views allow you to create a extra modular and extensible knowledge mannequin, the place every layer represents a particular enterprise idea or use case.
- Incremental Refreshes: The Redshift materialized views help incremental refreshes, permitting you to replace solely the modified knowledge inside the nested hierarchy, additional optimizing the refresh course of.
- Cascading Materialized Views: The Redshift materialized views help computerized dealing with of Extract, Load, and Remodel (ELT) type workloads, minimizing the necessity for guide creation and administration of those processes.
You possibly can implement nested materialized views utilizing the CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW assertion, which permits referencing different materialized views within the definition. Frequent use instances embrace:
- Modular knowledge transformation pipelines
- Hierarchical aggregations for progressive evaluation
- Multi-level knowledge validation pipelines
- Historic knowledge snapshot administration
- Optimized BI reporting with precomputed outcomes
Structure

Architectural diagram depicting Amazon Redshift’s nested materialized view construction. Reveals a number of base tables (orange) connecting to materialized views (crimson), with connections to a nested view layer and knowledge sharing desk (inexperienced). Consists of integration factors for customers and QuickSight visualization.
- Base Desk(s): These are the underlying base tables that include the uncooked knowledge on your knowledge warehouse. It may be native tables or knowledge sharing tables.
- Base Materialized View(s): These are the first-level materialized views which are created straight on high of the bottom tables. These views encapsulate widespread knowledge transformations and aggregations. This may function the bottom for the nested materialized view and likewise be accessed by customers straight.
- Nested Materialized View(s): These are the second degree (or increased) materialized views which are created based mostly on the bottom materialized views. The nested materialized view can additional combination, filter, or remodel the info from the bottom materialized views.
- Utility/Customers/BI Reporting: The applying or enterprise intelligence (BI) instruments work together with the nested materialized views to generate reviews and dashboards. The nested views present a extra optimized and precomputed knowledge construction for environment friendly querying and reporting.
Creating and utilizing nested materialized views
To show how nested materialized views work in Amazon Redshift, we’ll use the TPC-DS dataset. We’ll create three queries utilizing the STORE, STORE_SALES, CUSTOMER, and CUSTOMER_ADDRESS tables to simulate knowledge warehouse reviews. This instance will illustrate how a number of reviews can share consequence units and the way materialized views can enhance each useful resource effectivity and question efficiency.Let’s think about the next queries as dashboard queries:
SELECT cust.c_customer_id,
cust.c_first_name,
cust.c_last_name,
gross sales.ss_item_sk,
gross sales.ss_quantity,
cust.c_current_addr_sk
FROM store_sales gross sales INNER JOIN buyer cust
ON gross sales.ss_customer_sk = cust.c_customer_sk;
SELECT cust.c_customer_id,
cust.c_first_name,
cust.c_last_name,
gross sales.ss_item_sk,
gross sales.ss_quantity,
cust.c_current_addr_sk,
retailer.s_store_name
FROM store_sales gross sales INNER JOIN buyer cust
ON gross sales.ss_customer_sk = cust.c_customer_sk
INNER JOIN retailer retailer
ON gross sales.ss_store_sk = retailer.s_store_sk;
SELECT cust.c_customer_id,
cust.c_first_name, cust.c_last_name,
gross sales.ss_item_sk,
gross sales.ss_quantity,
addr.ca_state
FROM store_sales gross sales INNER JOIN buyer cust
ON gross sales.ss_customer_sk = cust.c_customer_sk
INNER JOIN retailer retailer
ON gross sales.ss_store_sk = retailer.s_store_sk
INNER JOIN customer_address addr
ON cust.c_current_addr_sk = addr.ca_address_sk;
Discover that the be part of between STORE_SALES and CUSTOMER tables is current in any respect 3 queries (dashboards).
The second question provides a be part of with STORE desk and the third question is the second with an additional be part of with CUSTOMER_ADDRESS desk. This sample is widespread in enterprise intelligence situations. As talked about earlier, utilizing a materialized view can velocity up queries as a result of the consequence set is saved and able to be delivered to the consumer, avoiding reprocessing of the identical knowledge. In instances like this, we are able to use nested materialized views to reuse already processed knowledge.When reworking our queries right into a set of nested materialized views, the consequence could be as beneath:
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW StoreSalesCust as
SELECT cust.c_customer_id,
cust.c_first_name,
cust.c_last_name,
gross sales.ss_item_sk,
gross sales.ss_store_sk,
gross sales.ss_quantity,
cust.c_current_addr_sk
FROM store_sales gross sales INNER JOIN buyer cust
ON gross sales.ss_customer_sk = cust.c_customer_sk;
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW StoreSalesCustStore as
SELECT storesalescust.c_customer_id,
storesalescust.c_first_name,
storesalescust.c_last_name,
storesalescust.ss_item_sk,
storesalescust.ss_quantity,
storesalescust.c_current_addr_sk,
retailer.s_store_name
FROM StoreSalesCust storesalescust INNER JOIN retailer retailer
ON storesalescust.ss_store_sk = retailer.s_store_sk;
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW StoreSalesCustAddress as
SELECT storesalescuststore.c_customer_id,
storesalescuststore.c_first_name,
storesalescuststore.c_last_name,
storesalescuststore.ss_item_sk,
storesalescuststore.ss_quantity,
addr.ca_state
FROM StoreSalesCustStore storesalescuststore INNER JOIN customer_address addr
ON storesalescuststore.c_current_addr_sk = addr.ca_address_sk;
Nested materialized views can enhance efficiency and useful resource effectivity by reusing preliminary view outcomes, minimizing redundant joins, and dealing with smaller consequence units. This creates a hierarchical construction the place materialized views rely on each other. Attributable to these dependencies, it’s essential to refresh the views in a particular order.

SQL question consequence indicating dependency situation for REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW StoreSalesCustAddress.
With the brand new choice “REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW mv_name CASCADE” it is possible for you to to refresh all the chain of dependencies for the materialized views you have got. Notice that on this instance we’re utilizing the third materialized view, StoreSalesCustAddress, and it will refresh all 3 materialized views as a result of they’re depending on one another.

SQL question exhibiting profitable CASCADE refresh of StoreSalesCustAddress materialized view in Amazon Redshift.
If we use the second materialized view with the CASCADE choice, we’ll refresh solely the primary and second materialized views, leaving the third unchanged. This can be helpful when we have to hold some materialized views with much less present knowledge than others.
The SVL_MV_REFRESH_STATUS system view reveals the refresh sequence of materialized views. When triggering a cascade refresh on StoreSalesCustAddress, the system follows the dependency chain we established: StoreSalesCust refreshes first, adopted by StoreSalesCustStore, and at last StoreSalesCustAddress. This demonstrates how the refresh operation respects the hierarchical construction of our materialized views.

SQL question consequence from SVL_MV_REFRESH_STATUS exhibiting profitable recomputation of three materialized views.
Issues
Think about a dependency chain the place StoreSalesCust (A) → StoreSalesCustStore (B) → StoreSalesCustAddress (C).
- The CASCADE refresh habits works as follows:
- When refreshing C with CASCADE: A, B, and C will all be refreshed.
- When refreshing B with CASCADE: Solely A and B shall be refreshed.
- When refreshing A with CASCADE: Solely A shall be refreshed.
- If you happen to particularly have to refresh A and C however not B, it’s essential to carry out separate refresh operations with out utilizing CASCADE—first refresh A, then refresh C straight.
Finest Practices for Materialized View
- Enhance the supply question: Begin with a well-optimized SELECT assertion on your materialized view. That is particularly necessary for views that want full rebuilds throughout every refresh.
- Plan refresh methods: When creating materialized views that rely on different materialized views, you can’t use AUTO REFRESH YES. As a substitute, implement orchestrated refresh mechanisms utilizing Redshift Information API with Amazon EventBridge for scheduling and AWS Step Capabilities for workflow administration.
- Leverage distribution and kind keys: Correctly configure distribution and kind keys on materialized views based mostly on their question patterns to optimize efficiency. Nicely-chosen keys enhance question velocity and cut back I/O operations.
- Think about incremental refresh functionality: When potential, design materialized views to help incremental refresh, which solely updates modified knowledge somewhat than rebuilding all the view, significantly bettering refresh efficiency.
- To be taught extra concerning the Automated materialized view (auto-MV) characteristic to spice up your workload efficiency, this clever system screens your workload and robotically creates materialized views to boost general efficiency. For extra detailed info on this characteristic, please consult with Automated materialized views.
Clear up
Full the next steps to scrub up your assets:
- Delete the Redshift provisioned reproduction cluster or the Redshift serverless endpoints created for this train
or
- Drop solely the Materialized view which you have got created for testing
Conclusion
This publish confirmed methods to create nested Amazon Redshift materialized views and refresh the kid materialized views utilizing the brand new REFRESH CASCADE choice. You possibly can shortly construct and preserve environment friendly knowledge processing pipelines and seamlessly lengthen the low latency question execution advantages of materialized views to knowledge evaluation.
Concerning the authors
Ritesh Kumar Sinha is an Analytics Specialist Options Architect based mostly out of San Francisco. He has helped prospects construct scalable knowledge warehousing and large knowledge options for over 16 years. He likes to design and construct environment friendly end-to-end options on AWS. In his spare time, he loves studying, strolling, and doing yoga.
Raza Hafeez is a Senior Product Supervisor at Amazon Redshift. He has over 13 years {of professional} expertise constructing and optimizing enterprise knowledge warehouses and is keen about enabling prospects to appreciate the ability of their knowledge. He makes a speciality of migrating enterprise knowledge warehouses to AWS Fashionable Information Structure.
Ricardo Serafim is a Senior Analytics Specialist Options Architect at AWS. He has been serving to corporations with Information Warehouse options since 2007.