In addition to tables, a relational database can contain other structures that help to optimize data organization, encapsulate programmatic actions, and improve the speed of access. In this unit, you learn about three of these structures in more detail: views, stored procedures, and indexes.
What is a view?
A view is a virtual table based on the results of a SELECT query. You can think of a view as a window on specified rows in one or more underlying tables. For example, you could create a view on the Order and Customer tables that retrieves order and customer data to provide a single object that makes it easy to determine delivery addresses for orders.
What is a stored procedure?
A stored procedure defines SQL statements that can be run on command. Stored procedures are used to encapsulate programmatic logic in a database for actions that applications need to perform when working with data.
You can define a stored procedure with parameters to create a flexible solution for common actions that might need to be applied to data based on a specific key or criteria. For example, the following stored procedure could be defined to change the name of a product based on the specified product ID.
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