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_COND         


        

Answer 1

For reference from SQL Server 2016 SP1+ you could use CREATE OR ALTER VIEW syntax.

MSDN CREATE VIEW:

CREATE [ OR ALTER ] VIEW [ schema_name . ] view_name [ (column [ ,...n ] ) ]   
[ WITH <view_attribute> [ ,...n ] ]   
AS select_statement   
[ WITH CHECK OPTION ]   
[ ; ]

OR ALTER

Conditionally alters the view only if it already exists.

db<>fiddle demo

Answer 2

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 3

The solutions above though they will get the job done do so at the risk of dropping user permissions. I prefer to do my create or replace views or stored procedures as follows.

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[vw_myView]'))
    EXEC sp_executesql N'CREATE VIEW [dbo].[vw_myView] AS SELECT ''This is a code stub which will be replaced by an Alter Statement'' as [code_stub]'
GO

ALTER VIEW [dbo].[vw_myView]
AS
SELECT 'This is a code which should be replaced by the real code for your view' as [real_code]
GO