IDENTIFIER in SQL Views not supported?

Richard3
New Contributor III

‎12-08-2025 05:31 AM

Dear community,

We are phasing out the dollar param `${catalog_name}` because it has been deprecated since runtime 15.2.Richard3_0-1765199283388.png

We use this parameter in many queries and should now be replaced by the IDENTIFIER clause.

In the query below where we retrieve data from a single catalog, we can switch to the default catalog environment variable from the cluster and remove the catalog from the namespace.

Old situation:

CREATE OR REPLACE TEMPORARY VIEW vw_example as (

SELECT * FROM ${bronze.env}.schema.table 
)

New situation with default catalog environment

CREATE OR REPLACE TEMPORARY VIEW vw_example as (

SELECT * FROM schema.table

)

Where we cannot replace the current dollar param 1-to-1 is in queries where we use multiple catalogs.

Example:

CREATE OR REPLACE TEMPORARY VIEW vw_example as (

SELECT *

FROM ${bronze.env}.schema.table

JOIN ${metadata.env}.schema.table

ON 1 = 1 )

According to the documentation, views are supported.

Richard3_1-1765199860462.png

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/sql/language-manual/sql-ref-names-identifier-clau...

But I can't get this to work with test cases. I might be doing something wrong. CTEs work, but views don't, and I'd like to call the view in a different notebook cell.

If I create the view in one cell and try to call it in another, I get the error message:

A column, variable, or function parameter with the name `env` cannot be resolved.
First cell:

%sql
DECLARE OR REPLACE env STRING DEFAULT 'dev';

CREATE OR REPLACE TEMPORARY VIEW vw_example AS (
SELECT
*
FROM
IDENTIFIER('silver_' || env || '.schema.table') AS u
JOIN
IDENTIFIER('gold_' || env || '.schema.table') AS m
ON 1 = 1)

Second cell:

%sql
Select * from vw_example

Error: A column, variable, or function parameter with name `env` cannot be resolved. SQLSTATE: 42703

Curious about your perspective on implementing the IDENTIFIER clause in views with various catalogs as a replacement for the dollar param. I might be doing something wrong and it might just work out of the box.

Thanks! 

Regards,
Richard