What causes "View already exists as data table" in prestodb/presto?

Choose a different name for the view

prestodb/presto · error · PrestoException

INVALID_VIEW

INVALID_VIEW

Error message

View already exists as data table

What it means

Thrown by createView when the requested view name collides with an existing DATA TABLE (not a view) in the same schema. The connector distinguishes tables from views in its metadata, and creating a view on top of a table name is invalid, so it fails with INVALID_VIEW before any metadata is written.

Source

Thrown at presto-accumulo/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/accumulo/AccumuloClient.java:547

        }

        if (tableManager.exists(newTable.getMetricsTableName())) {
            throw new PrestoException(ACCUMULO_TABLE_EXISTS, format("Table %s already exists", newTable.getMetricsTableName()));
        }

        tableManager.renameAccumuloTable(oldTable.getIndexTableName(), newTable.getIndexTableName());
        tableManager.renameAccumuloTable(oldTable.getMetricsTableName(), newTable.getMetricsTableName());
    }

    public void createView(SchemaTableName viewName, String viewData)
    {
        if (getSchemaNames().contains(viewName.getSchemaName())) {
            if (getViewNames(viewName.getSchemaName()).contains(viewName.getTableName())) {
                throw new PrestoException(ALREADY_EXISTS, "View already exists");
            }

            if (getTableNames(viewName.getSchemaName()).contains(viewName.getTableName())) {
                throw new PrestoException(INVALID_VIEW, "View already exists as data table");
            }
        }

        metaManager.createViewMetadata(new AccumuloView(viewName.getSchemaName(), viewName.getTableName(), viewData));
    }

    public void createOrReplaceView(SchemaTableName viewName, String viewData)
    {
        if (getView(viewName) != null) {
            metaManager.deleteViewMetadata(viewName);
        }

        metaManager.createViewMetadata(new AccumuloView(viewName.getSchemaName(), viewName.getTableName(), viewData));
    }

    public void dropView(SchemaTableName viewName)
    {
        metaManager.deleteViewMetadata(viewName);

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

Choose a different name for the view
Drop or rename the existing data table if it is no longer needed
Move the data table to another schema/name, then create the view
Verify with SHOW TABLES vs SHOW VIEWS which object occupies the name

Example fix

// before
CREATE VIEW my_schema.events AS SELECT ...; -- my_schema.events is a data table
// after
ALTER TABLE my_schema.events RENAME TO my_schema.events_raw;
CREATE VIEW my_schema.events AS SELECT ...;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

-- Pre-check that the name is not occupied by a table
SELECT count(*) FROM system.jdbc.tables WHERE table_schema = 'my_schema' AND table_name = 'my_view'; -- expect 0

Type guard

boolean nameNotATable(SchemaTableName name) {
    return !getSchemaNames().contains(name.getSchemaName())
        || !getTableNames(name.getSchemaName()).contains(name.getTableName());
}

Try / catch

try {
    client.createView(viewName, viewData);
} catch (PrestoException e) {
    if (e.getErrorCode().getName().equals("INVALID_VIEW")) {
        // a data table holds this name: rename/drop the table or pick a new view name
    } else {
        throw e;
    }
}

Prevention

Maintain separate naming conventions for tables vs views (e.g. vw_ prefix)
Run SHOW TABLES and SHOW VIEWS before creating a view
Remove or rename stale tables left by failed migrations before re-running scripts
Document and enforce that view names never shadow table names in a schema

When it happens

Trigger: Calling createView(viewName, viewData) where getTableNames(viewName.getSchemaName()).contains(viewName.getTableName()) is true — the target name is an existing Accumulo-backed data table.

Common situations: Naming a view the same as a table that was created earlier in the schema; migration scripts that convert tables to views but leave the old table in place; confusion after sync/rename operations left a table with the intended view name.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7ea9732a74099f2d. Report an issue: GitHub.