Why Use Views?
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Simplification and Abstraction:
- Views encapsulate complex queries, allowing users to interact with data without needing to understand the underlying structure. This simplifies data retrieval by hiding complexity.
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Security:
- Views restrict access to specific data by granting users access to views instead of underlying tables, which can help protect sensitive information. Note: Access controls may vary by database system (e.g., not available in SQLite).
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Reusability and Maintainability:
- Define complex queries once in a view and reuse them across multiple applications, simplifying maintenance when logic changes.
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Data Consistency and Integrity:
- Ensure consistent data presentation across applications and users by encapsulating business logic for uniform calculations.
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Performance Optimization:
- While regular views do not inherently improve performance, materialized views can enhance performance by storing precomputed results.
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Logical Data Independence:
- Provide a layer of abstraction between physical data storage and access methods, allowing schema changes without affecting view users.
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Aggregation and Partitioning:
- Views can be used to calculate and store aggregated results (e.g., average ratings) and organize data by specific criteria (e.g., years or categories).