Views and materialized views in MySQL are both ways to save queries and use them later but they work a little differently and have different purposes. A view is like a saved query that you can use as if it’s a table. It doesn’t store any data itself it just runs the query whenever you ask for the view. So you create a view when you want to simplify a complex query and make it easier to use later without typing the whole thing again

For example let’s say you have a big query that joins a few tables and filters data based on some conditions. Instead of writing this query every time you can just create a view. When you want to see the data you query the view like it’s a table and MySQL runs the original query behind the scenes. This makes it really handy for reusing queries that involve lots of joins or calculations. But remember the data in a view is always up to date because it runs the query each time you access it so if the underlying tables change the view shows the latest data

On the other hand materialized views are a bit different. They store the actual data when you create them instead of just saving the query. So when you query a materialized view it doesn’t run the original query again it just returns the stored data. This can make things faster because you don’t need to run complex queries repeatedly but the downside is the data might not always be up to date. You have to manually refresh the materialized view to get the latest data from the underlying tables

Materialized views are good for situations where the data doesn’t change too often and you need fast access to results. Like if you’re running reports or summaries and the data is pretty stable using a materialized view can save you a lot of time. But if your data changes frequently it might not be the best choice unless you keep refreshing it regularly

So in summary views are virtual tables that always show the latest data because they run the query every time while materialized views store the data when they’re created so they’re faster but might not be as fresh unless refreshed manually. Both can simplify complex queries and make your database easier to work with depending on what you need.

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