How do you decide when to use a view or a table in your database design? (2024)

Key takeaways from this article

• Assess purpose and usage:

  When you're looking at your database, consider how you'll use the data. For raw data storage and regular updates, tables are your go-to. But if you need a neat summary or limited access for users, views work wonders.

• Evaluate data complexity:

  Got heaps of raw data with intricate relationships? Stick with tables to keep things organized. If you're aiming to streamline complex structures for clarity or reporting, creating views is a smart move that'll make your life easier.

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• Pranav Kumar Pursuing B.tech in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning ||Looking for Internship Opportunities|| MERN Stack Developer || Codes in ( C/ C++/Java) || DSA || Machine Learning (Python)

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  Deciding whether to use a view or a table in your database design depends on the specific requirements of your application and the nature of the data you're dealing with. Here are some factors to consider when making this decision:1.Purpose and Usage:Tables: Use tables to store and manage the actual data in your database. Views: Use views to create virtual tables based on the results of a SELECT query. 2.Data Complexity:Tables: Use tables for storing raw data in its original form. Tables are suitable for storing complex data structures with many columns and relationships.Views: Use views to simplify complex data structures or to present data in a more understandable format.

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• Surajit Das Serving Notice Period | Database Engineer | RDBMS Development | Oracle, PostgreSQL Database | AWS S3, IBM DB2 | Interested in Human-Computer Interaction

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  Views are typically read-only tables that provide a virtual representation of data. You can perform actions based on your requirements without directly manipulating the underlying data or table structure. This can be helpful when data needs to be presented in a specific format.Views' performance can vary. They can be faster than querying underlying tables for smaller datasets, but joining multiple views can sometimes impact performance. Additionally, repeatedly calling a view can also introduce overhead.It's essential to consider these factors when deciding whether to use views in your database design.

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• Surajit Das Serving Notice Period | Database Engineer | RDBMS Development | Oracle, PostgreSQL Database | AWS S3, IBM DB2 | Interested in Human-Computer Interaction

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  Tables are the fundamental building blocks of a database, storing actual data in a structured format with columns and corresponding data types. Directly querying tables can often be faster than querying views, as you're working with the raw data. However, complex queries involving multiple tables or large datasets can still impact performance.CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations directly affect the data within tables. Proper table design and indexing are crucial for maintaining data integrity and efficient query execution.

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• Bryan Hall Data Engineer | AI | Spatial | IOT | Electronics

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  Simple views are just named pre-defined select statements. They can be used to present select data from various tables in an easy to reference format for applications, and sometimes to enforce security for sensitive table columns.Materialized views (Oracle, with similar concepts in many other databases) instead persist (materialize) data outside the tables (or underlying sub views). This allows for much better performance for complex view queries while greatly reducing the load on a database.

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