How to see the CREATE VIEW code for a view in PostgreSQL?

Question

Is there an easy way to see the code used to create a view using the PostgreSQL command-line client?

Something like the SHOW CREATE VIEW from MySQL.

Answer 1

Kept having to return here to look up pg_get_viewdef (how to remember that!!), so searched for a more memorable command... and got it:

\d+ viewname

You can see similar sorts of commands by typing \? at the pgsql command line.

Bonus tip: The emacs command sql-postgres makes pgsql a lot more pleasant (edit, copy, paste, command history).

Answer 2

select pg_get_viewdef('viewname', true)

A list of all those functions is available in the manual:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-info.html

Answer 3

select definition from pg_views where viewname = 'my_view'

Answer 4

If you want an ANSI SQL-92 version:

select view_definition from information_schema.views where table_name = 'view_name';

Answer 5

Good news from v9.6 and above. View editing are now native from psql. Just invoke \ev command. View definitions will show in your configured editor.

julian@assange=# \ev your_view_names

Bonus. Some useful command to interact with query buffer.

Query Buffer
  \e [FILE] [LINE]       edit the query buffer (or file) with external editor
  \ef [FUNCNAME [LINE]]  edit function definition with external editor
  \ev [VIEWNAME [LINE]]  edit view definition with external editor
  \p                     show the contents of the query buffer
  \r                     reset (clear) the query buffer
  \s [FILE]              display history or save it to file
  \w FILE                write query buffer to file

Answer 6

These is a little thing to point out.
Using the function pg_get_viewdef or pg_views or information_schema.views you will always get a rewrited version of your original DDL.
The rewited version may or not be the same as your originl DDL script.

If the Rule Manager rewrite your view definition your original DLL will be lost and you will able to read the only the rewrited version of your view definition.
Not all views are rewrited but if you use sub-select or joins probably your views will be rewrited.