# Views A view provides a mechanism to hide certain data from the view of certain users. Any relation that is not in the conceptual model but is made visible to a user as a “virtual relation” is called a view. A view is defined using the **create view** statement which has the form: ``` create view v as ``` where \ is any legal SQL expression. The view name is represented by v. Example: A view of instructors without their salary: ``` create view faculty as select ID, name, dept_name from instructor ``` Once a view is defined, the view name can be used to refer to the virtual relation that the view generates. Note that updates made to a view will reflect in the relation from which the view was created. Since the view may not have all attributes of the relation, the remaining attributes will be given null values. In the above example, if a new record is inserted into the view faculty, a new record will be inserted into instructor as well, but salary will be null. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://vikram-bajaj.gitbook.io/cs-gy-6083-principles-of-database-systems/main-1/sql/intermediate-sql/views.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.