Views (including updatable views) are implemented beginning
with MySQL Server 5.0.1. See Chapter 22, Views.
Views are useful for allowing users to access a set of
relations (tables) as if it were a single table, and limiting
their access to just that. Views can also be used to restrict
access to rows (a subset of a particular table). For access
control to columns, you can also use the sophisticated
privilege system in MySQL Server. See
Section 5.7, “The MySQL Access Privilege System”.
In designing an implementation of views, our ambitious goal,
as much as is possible within the confines of SQL, has been
full compliance with “Codd's Rule #6” for
relational database systems: “All views that are
theoretically updatable, should in practice also be
updatable.”
