title: Materialized Views - Identifying the last refresh
body: <p>I presently access a series of views and materialized views.  The materialized are maintained by a third party who offers little information regarding the frequency and success of the materialization. Of late the materialized views have failed to refresh and I have sent out numerous reports with incorrect/delayed data contained within.</p>
  
  <p>At present I am querying each materialized I intend to use to establish when the latest update occurred within the transactional system, if it has not been refreshed then the rest of the code does not execute, however this a lot of wasted effort and can sometimes lead to an incorrect assumption (the materialized view may have been refreshed, but there were no additional transactions made - therefore the remainder of the code does not execute) and I would prefer another method.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to identify whether a materialized view has been refreshed using an Oracle system table?  If not, does anyone have any ideas how I would do this without having to contact the third party?</p>