A view is simply a saved select statement. It does have some limitations that can be hacked around, but with views, “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” A view can be called just like a table, and a view can call other views. The limitations on views are as follows:
The select statement has to be the first statement in a view definition with the exception of CTEs.
You can’t order data in a view definition unless you use a TOP statement or FOR XML (I’ve seen plenty of SELECT TOP 100% in my day).
Views cannot have default column values or constraints.
Views cannot call temporary ...
