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Background documentation Database Views  Locate the document in its SAP Library structure

Data about an application object is often distributed on several database tables. A database view provides an application-specific view on such distributed data.

Database views are defined in the ABAP Dictionary. A database view is automatically created in the underlying database when it is activated.

Application programs can access the data of a database view using the database interface. You can access the data in ABAP programs with both OPEN SQL and NATIVE SQL. However, the data is actually selected in the database. Since the join operation is executed in the database in this case, you can minimize the number of database accesses in this way. Database views implement an inner join (see Inner and Outer Join).

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If the database view only contains a single table, the maintenance status can be used to determine if data records can also be inserted with the view. If the database view contains more than one table, you can only read the data.

Database views should be created if want to select logically connected data from different tables simultaneously. Selection with a database view is generally faster than access to individual tables. When selecting with views, you should also ensure that there are suitable indexes on the tables contained in the view.

Since a database view is implemented in the database, a database view may only contain transparent tables.

The technical settings of a database view control whether the view data should be buffered.

See also:

Creating Database Views

Includes in Database Views