Posted On: May 10, 2022
You can now use Amazon Athena to query views stored in your self-managed Apache Hive metastores. Hive views are defined using the Hive Query Language (HiveQL) which is not fully compatible with Athena's standard SQL. With this new capability, Athena automatically handles HiveQL syntax differences so you can query Hive views without changing your view definitions or maintaining a complex translation layer.
A view is a logical table created using the results of a query that executes against a physical table each time the view is referenced. Views are commonly used to focus, simplify, and optimize access to underlying data. They can provide users with an isolated subset of curated data, combine disparate tables with optimized JOIN operations, or hide the complexities of data partitioning. With Athena’s new Hive views support, you can bring these same benefits and use cases that you’ve developed for your Hadoop users directly to your Athena users. Views can be listed and examined from the Athena console to provide your analysts with a more complete picture of your Hive metastore. Views can be queried using the Athena drivers, API, or console and are available in all supported regions.
To learn more about this new capability, see Working with Hive Views in the Athena user documentation.