Answer to Question 1
A view is a mechanism in SQL that allows the structure of a query to be saved in the RDBMS. A view, which is also known as a virtual table, is not an actual table and does not have any data physically saved. Every time a view is invoked, it executes a query that retrieves the data from the actual tables. A view can be used in SELECT statements just like any other table from a database.
Answer to Question 2
A data warehouse is developed for the retrieval of analytical information, and it is not meant for direct data entry by the users. The only functionality available to the users of the data warehouse is retrieval. The data in the data warehouse is not subject to modifications, insertions, or deletions by the end users. New data in the data warehouse is periodically loaded from the operational data sources and appended to the existing data in an automatic fashion. The data that eventually gets older than the required time horizon is automatically purged from the data warehouse (and possibly archived and/or summarized). However, the data in the data warehouse is not subject to changes. That is why the data in the data warehouse is referred to as nonvolatile, static, or read-only.