A view can be considered a named query or a wrapper around a SELECT statement. Views are the essential building blocks of relational databases from a UML modeling perspective; a view can be thought of as a method for a UML class. Views share several advantages with functions; the following benefits are shared between views and stored procedures. Views can be used for the following purposes:
- Simplifying complex queries and increasing code modularity
- Tuning performance by caching the view results for later use
- Decreasing the amount of SQL code
- Bridging the gap between relational databases and object-oriented languages, especially updatable views
- Implementing authorization at the row level, by leaving out rows that do not meet a certain predicate
- Implementing interfaces and the abstraction layer between high-level languages and relational databases
- Implementing last-minute...
