Namespaces

Materialize mimics SQL standard’s namespace hierarchy, which is:

• Databases (highest level)
• Schemas
• Tables, views, sources
• Columns (lowest level)

Each layer in the hierarchy can contain elements directly beneath it. For example, databases can contain schemas.

Details

• All namespaces must adhere to identifier rules.

Reaching namespaces

Namespaces are specified using a format like parent.child.

For example, in a situation where a statement expects a source name, you could use:

• schema.source to reach a source in another schema
• database.schema.source to reach a source in another database.

Database details

• Unlike PostgreSQL, Materialize allows cross-database queries.
• By default, Materialize instances have a database named materialize.
• By default, each database has a schema called public.
• You can specify which database you connect to either when you connect (e.g. psql -d my_db ...) or within SQL using SET (e.g. SET DATABASE = my_db).