topic Re: Unable to add column comment on a View. Any way to update comments on multiple columns in bulk? in Get Started Discussions

Unable to add column comment on a View. Any way to update comments on multiple columns in bulk?

prasad_vaze — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 19:54:00 GMT

I noticed that unlike "Alter Table" there is no "Alter View" command to add comment on a column in the existing view. This is a regular view created on Tables (and not Materialized view).

If the underlying table column has comment then the View inherits it but I want to update that only on View column. I am owner of the tables and View. Has anyone solved this or is this a gap in functionality or bug?

Alternatively ,Is there a way to mass apply or upload column comment on multiple columns across Tables or Views? I have a spreadsheet with column descriptions and want to mass apply /upload in Unity catalog instead of "Alter Table" command for each column

Re: Unable to add column comment on a View. Any way to update comments on multiple columns in bulk?

prasad_vaze — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 16:24:54 GMT

Thanks, @Retired_mod for the detailed reply. Similar to "Alter Table <name> Alter column <name > comment '<>' " option will there be an option for Views in the future? This will be handy as compared to recreating the Views.

We are currently SQL script to mass-apply ALTER statements. I was hoping any alternative such as excel import/export way

Re: Unable to add column comment on a View. Any way to update comments on multiple columns in bulk?

Pinei — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:04:41 GMT

Use COMMENT ON

COMMENT ON | Databricks on AWS

Re: Unable to add column comment on a View. Any way to update comments on multiple columns in bulk?

RandoMcgee — Wed, 28 May 2025 14:36:06 GMT

Comment On doesn't work with views.

Re: Unable to add column comment on a View. Any way to update comments on multiple columns in bulk?

DavidThomasDBX — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 18:07:16 GMT

you can use COMMENT ON to set or update the comment on an view

-- View-level comment (use TABLE for views)
COMMENT ON TABLE catalog.schema.my_view IS 'View for user info';

-- Column-level comment on a view
COMMENT ON COLUMN catalog.schema.my_view.name IS 'User display name';

Docs: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/sql/language-manual/sql-ref-syntax-ddl-comment