---
slug: /en/sql-reference/statements/alter/view
sidebar_position: 50
sidebar_label: VIEW
---

# ALTER TABLE … MODIFY QUERY Statement

You can modify `SELECT` query that was specified when a [materialized view](../create/view.md#materialized) was created with the `ALTER TABLE … MODIFY QUERY` statement without interrupting ingestion process. 

The `allow_experimental_alter_materialized_view_structure` setting must be enabled. 

This command is created to change materialized view created with `TO [db.]name` clause. It does not change the structure of the underling storage table and it does not change the columns' definition of the materialized view, because of this the application of this command is very limited for materialized views are created without `TO [db.]name` clause.

**Example with TO table**

```sql
CREATE TABLE events (ts DateTime, event_type String) 
ENGINE = MergeTree ORDER BY (event_type, ts);

CREATE TABLE events_by_day (ts DateTime, event_type String, events_cnt UInt64) 
ENGINE = SummingMergeTree ORDER BY (event_type, ts);

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW mv TO events_by_day AS 
SELECT toStartOfDay(ts) ts, event_type, count() events_cnt
FROM events
GROUP BY ts, event_type; 

INSERT INTO events 
SELECT Date '2020-01-01' + interval number * 900 second, 
       ['imp', 'click'][number%2+1]
FROM numbers(100);

SELECT ts, event_type, sum(events_cnt)
FROM events_by_day
GROUP BY ts, event_type
ORDER BY ts, event_type;

┌──────────────────ts─┬─event_type─┬─sum(events_cnt)─┐
│ 2020-01-01 00:00:00 │ click      │              48 │
│ 2020-01-01 00:00:00 │ imp        │              48 │
│ 2020-01-02 00:00:00 │ click      │               2 │
│ 2020-01-02 00:00:00 │ imp        │               2 │
└─────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────────────┘

-- Let's add the new measurment `cost` 
-- and the new dimension `browser`.

ALTER TABLE events 
  ADD COLUMN browser String,
  ADD COLUMN cost Float64;

-- Column does not have to match in the materialized view and TO
-- (destination table), so the next alter does not break insertion.

ALTER TABLE events_by_day 
    ADD COLUMN cost Float64,
    ADD COLUMN browser String after event_type,
    MODIFY ORDER BY (event_type, ts, browser);

INSERT INTO events 
SELECT Date '2020-01-02' + interval number * 900 second, 
       ['imp', 'click'][number%2+1],
       ['firefox', 'safary', 'chrome'][number%3+1],
       10/(number+1)%33
FROM numbers(100);

-- New columns `browser` and `cost` are empty because we did not change Materialized View yet.

SELECT ts, event_type, browser, sum(events_cnt) events_cnt, round(sum(cost),2) cost
FROM events_by_day
GROUP BY ts, event_type, browser
ORDER BY ts, event_type;

┌──────────────────ts─┬─event_type─┬─browser─┬─events_cnt─┬─cost─┐
│ 2020-01-01 00:00:00 │ click      │         │         48 │    0 │
│ 2020-01-01 00:00:00 │ imp        │         │         48 │    0 │
│ 2020-01-02 00:00:00 │ click      │         │         50 │    0 │
│ 2020-01-02 00:00:00 │ imp        │         │         50 │    0 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ click      │         │          2 │    0 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ imp        │         │          2 │    0 │
└─────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────┴────────────┴──────┘

SET allow_experimental_alter_materialized_view_structure=1;
  
ALTER TABLE mv MODIFY QUERY 
  SELECT toStartOfDay(ts) ts, event_type, browser,
  count() events_cnt,
  sum(cost) cost
  FROM events
  GROUP BY ts, event_type, browser;

INSERT INTO events 
SELECT Date '2020-01-03' + interval number * 900 second, 
       ['imp', 'click'][number%2+1],
       ['firefox', 'safary', 'chrome'][number%3+1],
       10/(number+1)%33
FROM numbers(100);

SELECT ts, event_type, browser, sum(events_cnt) events_cnt, round(sum(cost),2) cost
FROM events_by_day
GROUP BY ts, event_type, browser
ORDER BY ts, event_type;

┌──────────────────ts─┬─event_type─┬─browser─┬─events_cnt─┬──cost─┐
│ 2020-01-01 00:00:00 │ click      │         │         48 │     0 │
│ 2020-01-01 00:00:00 │ imp        │         │         48 │     0 │
│ 2020-01-02 00:00:00 │ click      │         │         50 │     0 │
│ 2020-01-02 00:00:00 │ imp        │         │         50 │     0 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ click      │ firefox │         16 │  6.84 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ click      │         │          2 │     0 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ click      │ safary  │         16 │  9.82 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ click      │ chrome  │         16 │  5.63 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ imp        │         │          2 │     0 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ imp        │ firefox │         16 │ 15.14 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ imp        │ safary  │         16 │  6.14 │
│ 2020-01-03 00:00:00 │ imp        │ chrome  │         16 │  7.89 │
│ 2020-01-04 00:00:00 │ click      │ safary  │          1 │   0.1 │
│ 2020-01-04 00:00:00 │ click      │ firefox │          1 │   0.1 │
│ 2020-01-04 00:00:00 │ imp        │ firefox │          1 │   0.1 │
│ 2020-01-04 00:00:00 │ imp        │ chrome  │          1 │   0.1 │
└─────────────────────┴────────────┴─────────┴────────────┴───────┘

-- !!! During `MODIFY ORDER BY` PRIMARY KEY was implicitly introduced.

SHOW CREATE TABLE events_by_day FORMAT TSVRaw

CREATE TABLE test.events_by_day
(
    `ts` DateTime,
    `event_type` String,
    `browser` String,
    `events_cnt` UInt64,
    `cost` Float64
)
ENGINE = SummingMergeTree
PRIMARY KEY (event_type, ts)
ORDER BY (event_type, ts, browser)
SETTINGS index_granularity = 8192

-- !!! The columns' definition is unchanged but it does not matter, we are not quering 
-- MATERIALIZED VIEW, we are quering TO (storage) table.
-- SELECT section is updated.

SHOW CREATE TABLE mv FORMAT TSVRaw;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW test.mv TO test.events_by_day
(
    `ts` DateTime,
    `event_type` String,
    `events_cnt` UInt64
) AS
SELECT
    toStartOfDay(ts) AS ts,
    event_type,
    browser,
    count() AS events_cnt,
    sum(cost) AS cost
FROM test.events
GROUP BY
    ts,
    event_type,
    browser
```

**Example without TO table**

The application is very limited because you can only change the `SELECT` section without adding new columns.

```sql
CREATE TABLE src_table (`a` UInt32) ENGINE = MergeTree ORDER BY a;
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW mv (`a` UInt32) ENGINE = MergeTree ORDER BY a AS SELECT a FROM src_table; 
INSERT INTO src_table (a) VALUES (1), (2);
SELECT * FROM mv;
```
```text
┌─a─┐
│ 1 │
│ 2 │
└───┘
```
```sql
set allow_experimental_alter_materialized_view_structure=1;
ALTER TABLE mv MODIFY QUERY SELECT a * 2 as a FROM src_table;
INSERT INTO src_table (a) VALUES (3), (4);
SELECT * FROM mv;
```
```text
┌─a─┐
│ 6 │
│ 8 │
└───┘
┌─a─┐
│ 1 │
│ 2 │
└───┘
```

## ALTER LIVE VIEW Statement

`ALTER LIVE VIEW ... REFRESH` statement refreshes a [Live view](../create/view.md#live-view). See [Force Live View Refresh](../create/view.md#live-view-alter-refresh).