Meet Neha, a data analyst at a company called GreenGlow Organics.

Every week, her boss asks:

“Can you send me a list of active customers and their last purchase amount?”

Neha opens her SQL tool and writes a query that:

• Joins 3 tables
• Filters only active customers
• Picks just a few columns

She copies it, pastes it, tweaks it… every. single. time.

Finally, she asks:

“Isn’t there a way to save this query so I don’t have to rewrite it every week?”

Her colleague smiles:

“Yes! It’s called a view.”

What is a SQL View?

A view is like a saved query that acts like a virtual table.

• It doesn’t store data itself.
• It just shows the result of a query—like a window into the data.
• You can treat it almost like a table in SELECT statements.

Neha’s View in Action

Here’s the original query Neha kept reusing:

SELECT c.CustomerName, o.LastOrderAmount
FROM Customers c
JOIN Orders o ON c.CustomerID = o.CustomerID
WHERE c.IsActive = 1;

She turned it into a view:

CREATE VIEW ActiveCustomerSummary AS
SELECT c.CustomerName, o.LastOrderAmount
FROM Customers c
JOIN Orders o ON c.CustomerID = o.CustomerID
WHERE c.IsActive = 1;

Now, every time her boss asks, she just runs:

SELECT * FROM ActiveCustomerSummary;

Why Use a View?

1. 

Saves Time

You write the logic once, then reuse it anytime.

2. 

Improves Security

You can show only specific columns from a table—perfect for hiding salary, passwords, or internal notes.

3. 

Simplifies Complex Queries

Views can hide multiple joins, filters, and calculations from users who just need the output.

4. 

Keeps Things Organized

You can make a view for:

• Sales summary
• Active users
• Quarterly reports

And keep raw tables untouched.

Analogy: The Restaurant Kitchen

Think of the database as a kitchen full of ingredients (raw tables).

A view is like a prepared plate—ready to serve, arranged exactly how the diner (user) wants it.

You don’t move the ingredients, you just show them nicely.

Conclusion: Views Are the Shortcut with Power

Neha now builds views for every report—and her team loves how easy it is to pull clean, formatted data.

“It’s like having a lens that shows just the data I want, without changing the original.”

That’s the magic of SQL views:

One query. Many uses. Zero mess.