Hi everyone, I'd like to start a discussion of FLIP-550 Add similar support for CREATE/ALTER operations for MATERIALIZED TABLEs as for TABLEs [1].
This FLIP is another step towards making tables and materialized tables more consistent. There was already one improvement in that direction like FLIP-542 [2] to add DISTRIBUTION and SHOW MATERIALIZED TABLES support. However there were several more things noticed comparing behavior for CREATE and ALTER operations. For instance right now for materialized tables it is impossible to set anything but table constraint while for tables (CREATE TABLE AS) it is possible to provide schema definition since FLIP-463 [3], also ALTER operations for TABLE is a way more mature than for MATERIALIZED TABLE. This FLIP is about to decrease the difference by enabling more similar features for materialized tables. Introducing schema definition support for materialized tables will provide users with greater control and flexibility and also will unify usage of tables and materialized tables. [1] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=387648095 [2] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FLINK/FLIP-542%3A+Make+materialized+table+DDL+consistent+with+regular+tables [3] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FLINK/FLIP-463%3A+Schema+Definition+in+CREATE+TABLE+AS+Statement -- Best regards, Sergey
