View - Definition and Overview

This article should be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page.

A view is what can be seen in a range of vision, as described in the Seeing section of The senses. View may also be used as a synonym of point of view in the first sense. View may also be used figuratively or with special significance—for example, to imply a scenic outlook or special vantage point:

The barrier Rhine hath flashed, through battle-smoke,
On men who gaze heart-smitten by the view,
As if all Germany had felt the shock!

- from The Germans on the Heights of Hochheim (1816) by William Wordsworth

In database theory, a view is a virtual or logical table composed of the result set of a pre-compiled query. Unlike ordinary tables in a relational database, a view is not part of the physical schema: it is a dynamic, virtual table computed or collated from data in the database. Changing the data in a view alters the data stored in the database. See also stored procedure.

In satellite communications, the view is the quality or degree of visibility of a satellite to a ground station; i.e., the degree to which the satellite is sufficiently above the horizon and clear of obstructions so that it is within the line-of-sight of an Earth terminal. See also mutual view. Sources: Federal Standard 1037C and MIL-STD-188

View was also the name of a word processor program for the BBC Micro home computer of the 1980s.