BigQuery Materialized View

[Atabak]

Hi there, I am exploring on BigQuery Materialized view. anyone knows if Materialized view supporting Primary/Foreign Keys? an Is there any plan for adding that feature?

[ms4446 · Accepted solution]

BigQuery materialized views do not directly support Primary Keys and Foreign Keys.

BigQuery primarily enforces data integrity through its schema and data types rather than explicit constraints, as it is a managed, columnar data warehouse.

Reasons for Not Supporting Constraints:

• Performance: Enforcing constraints like primary and foreign keys can add overhead to query performance, something BigQuery prioritizes heavily.
• Scalability: BigQuery excels in handling very large datasets, and enforcing constraints in a massively distributed system like this can be complex.
• Schema Flexibility: BigQuery can manage semi-structured data, and enforcing rigid constraints can get in the way of this flexibility.