SQL Server equivalent to Oracle's CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW

In Oracle, I can re-create a view with a single statement, as shown here:

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW MY_VIEW AS
SELECT SOME_FIELD
FROM SOME_TABLE
WHERE SOME_CONDITIONS

As the syntax implies, this will drop the old view and re-create it with whatever definition I've given.

Is there an equivalent in MSSQL (SQL Server 2005 or later) that will do the same thing?

The solutions above though they will get the job done do so at the risk of dropping user permissions. I prefer to do my create or replace views or stored procedures as follows.

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[vw_myView]'))
	EXEC sp_executesql N'CREATE VIEW [dbo].[vw_myView] AS SELECT ''This is a code stub which will be replaced by an Alter Statement'' as [code_stub]'
GO

ALTER VIEW [dbo].[vw_myView]
AS
SELECT 'This is a code which should be replaced by the real code for your view' as [real_code]
GO

You can use 'IF EXISTS' to check if the view exists and drop if it does.

IF EXISTS (SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'MyView')
DROP VIEW MyView
GO

CREATE VIEW MyView
AS
....
GO

For reference from SQL Server 2016 SP1+ you could use CREATE OR ALTER VIEW syntax.

>MSDN CREATE VIEW: > > CREATE [ OR ALTER ] VIEW [ schema_name . ] view_name [ (column [ ,...n ] ) ]
> [ WITH [ ,...n ] ]
> AS select_statement
> [ WITH CHECK OPTION ]
> [ ; ] > > OR ALTER > > Conditionally alters the view only if it already exists.

db<>fiddle demo

I use:

IF OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[myView]') IS NOT NULL
DROP VIEW [dbo].[myView]
GO
CREATE VIEW [dbo].[myView]
AS

...

Recently I added some utility procedures for this kind of stuff:

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.DropView
@ASchema VARCHAR(100),
@AView VARCHAR(100)
AS
BEGIN
  DECLARE @sql VARCHAR(1000);
  IF OBJECT_ID('[' + @ASchema + '].[' + @AView + ']') IS NOT NULL
  BEGIN
    SET @sql  = 'DROP VIEW ' + '[' + @ASchema + '].[' + @AView + '] ';
    EXEC(@sql);
  END 
END

So now I write

EXEC dbo.DropView 'mySchema', 'myView'
GO
CREATE View myView
...
GO

I think it makes my changescripts a bit more readable

I typically use something like this:

if exists (select * from dbo.sysobjects
  where id = object_id(N'dbo.MyView') and
  OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N'IsView') = 1)
drop view dbo.MyView
go
create view dbo.MyView [...]

As of SQL Server 2016 you have

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS [foo];

MSDN source

It works fine for me on SQL Server 2017:

USE MSSQLTipsDemo 
GO
CREATE OR ALTER PROC CreateOrAlterDemo
AS
BEGIN
SELECT TOP 10 * FROM [dbo].[CountryInfoNew]
END
GO

https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/4640/new-create-or-alter-statement-in-

You can use ALTER to update a view, but this is different than the Oracle command since it only works if the view already exists. Probably better off with DaveK's answer since that will always work.

In SQL Server 2016 (or newer) you can use this:

CREATE OR ALTER VIEW VW_NAMEOFVIEW AS ...

In older versions of SQL server you have to use something like

DECLARE @script NVARCHAR(MAX) = N'VIEW [dbo].[VW_NAMEOFVIEW] AS ...';

IF NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE name = 'VW_NAMEOFVIEW')
-- IF OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[VW_NAMEOFVIEW]') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN EXEC('CREATE ' + @script) END
ELSE
BEGIN EXEC('ALTER ' + @script) END

Or, if there are no dependencies on the view, you can just drop it and recreate:

IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE name = 'VW_NAMEOFVIEW')
-- IF OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[VW_NAMEOFVIEW]') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN 
   DROP VIEW [VW_NAMEOFVIEW];
END

CREATE VIEW [VW_NAMEOFVIEW] AS ...