Radim Marek shows off how the PostgreSQL database engine can inline a view:
Database VIEWs are powerful tools that often don’t get the attention they deserve when building database-driven applications. They make our database work easier in several ways:
- They let us reuse common query patterns instead of writing them over and over
- They give us a place to define business rules once and use them everywhere
- They help us write cleaner, more organized queries
Let’s see how this works with a practical example.
I’m not sure how well PostgreSQL manages nested views, as the biggest problem in SQL Server with inlining views comes when you have overly complicated views made up of views joined to views made up of views joined to–well, you get the idea. That said, Radim does point out a variety of scenarios in which inlining doesn’t happen in PostgreSQL.