Re: Views - Under the Hood

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 12:43 PM, Terry Lee Tucker <terry(at)chosen-ones(dot)org> wrote:
> Greetings:
>
> Lately, I've begun using views quite often especially when queries for various
> reports, etc. become complicated. I am now wondering if there is a price to
> pay in terms of overhead for this. In truth, I don't really understand how a
> view works. I know that it takes on many of the attributes of a table, but is
> it a table? Is the data pulled together when one selects from the view or is
> it maintained as a table all along. Guidance to the ignorant appreciated...

In pgsql a view is actually a rule that fires off the original query
for you. So it's a simple wrapper, and is the same, for the most
part, as simply typing in the original query again. So, it's pretty
simple, and there's no real overhead to worry about.