Method and apparatus for efficiently refreshing sets of summary tables and materialized views in a database management system

Abstract

A method and apparatus for refreshing stale materialized views is provided. Prior to executing a query to refresh a materialized view from data in the base tables of the materialized view, the query is rewritten to refresh the materialized view from data in one or more other materialized views. To take advantage of the efficiency gained by refreshing a materialized view based on another materialized view, a refresh sequence is established based on the dependencies between materialized views in the database system. The dependencies indicate which materialized views can be refreshed from which other materialized views. When a materialized view can be refreshed based on any one of a number of eligible materialized views, the refresh sequence may additionally take into account the relative benefit associated with refreshing the materialized view with each of the eligible materialized views.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.