View
This term would benefit from additional depth and examples. Have knowledge to contribute? Create a discussion in the docs.getdbt.com GitHub repository to begin the process of becoming a glossary contributor!
A view (as opposed to a table) is a defined passthrough SQL query that can be run against a database (or data warehouse). A view doesn’t store data, like a table does, but it defines the logic that you need to fetch the underlying data.
For example, you might define a SQL view to count new users in a day:
select
created_date,
count(distinct(user_id)) as new_users
from users
group by created_date
But this SQL might get tedious to write over and over again, so instead you could define it as a view called new_users, and instead query select * from new_users.
When that new_users query runs, the underlying view compiles and runs against the database.
Tips on using views
A healthy relationship with views is built on expectations.
You shouldn’t expect a view in itself to be your final destination in terms of data modeling (they’re slow + often more costly to query than tables, not great for connecting to a downstream process like reporting), but you should trust them to get you from point A to point B.