Difference between View and table in sql

A table contains data, a view is just a SELECT statement which has been saved in the database (more or less, depending on your database).

The advantage of a view is that it can join data from several tables thus creating a new view of it. Say you have a database with salaries and you need to do some complex statistical queries on it.

Instead of sending the complex query to the database all the time, you can save the query as a view and then SELECT * FROM view

Table: Table is a preliminary storage for storing data and information in RDBMS. A table is a collection of related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.

View: A view is a virtual table whose contents are defined by a query. Unless indexed, a view does not exist as a stored set of data values in a database. Advantages over table are

• We can combine columns/rows from multiple table or another view and have a consolidated view.
• Views can be used as security mechanisms by letting users access data through the view, without granting the users permissions to directly access the underlying base tables of the view
• It acts as abstract layer to downstream systems, so any change in schema is not exposed and hence the downstream systems doesn't get affected.