Views can be considered as virtual tables. Generally speaking, a table has a set of definition, and it physically stores the data. A view also has a set of definitions, which is build on top of table(s) or other view(s), and it does not physically store the data.
The syntax for creating a view is as follows:
CREATE VIEW "VIEW_NAME" AS "SQL Statement"
Let's use a simple example to illustrate. Say we have the following table:
Table Store_Information
| store_name | Sales | Date |
| Los Angeles | $1500 | Jan-05-1999 |
| San Diego | $250 | Jan-07-1999 |
| Los Angeles | $300 | Jan-08-1999 |
| Boston | $700 | Jan-08-1999 |
| region_name | store_name |
| East | Boston |
| East | New York |
| West | Los Angeles |
| West | San Diego |
TABLE Customer
(First_Name char(50),
Last_Name char(50),
Address char(50),
City char(50),
Country char(25),
Birth_Date date)
and we want to create a view called V_Customer that contains only the First_Name, Last_Name, and Country columns from this table, we would type in,
CREATE VIEW V_Customer
AS SELECT First_Name, Last_Name, Country
FROM Customer
Now we have a view called V_Customer with the following structure:
View V_Customer
(First_Name char(50),
Last_Name char(50),
Country char(25))
CREATE VIEW V_REGION_SALES
AS SELECT A1.region_name REGION, SUM(A2.Sales) SALES
FROM Geography A1, Store_Information A2
WHERE A1.store_name = A2.store_name
GROUP BY A1.region_name
This gives us a view, V_REGION_SALES, that has been defined to store sales by region records. If we want to find out the content of this view, we type in,
SELECT * FROM V_REGION_SALES
Result:
REGION SALES
East $700