A view is essentially a fake table that takes it data from other tables. It's dynamic in that it regenerates it's contents on every select statement. For instance, lets say you have two tables called TableA and TableB. TableA stores customer account details such as name, address, and so on. TableB stores sales order data. Now, obviously you'd normally have a foreign key in TableB that links it to a record in TableA to specify which customer is ordering. But what if you'd like one table that stores records with the customer's name and the total price for each sales order. With a view you could construct such a fake table that had those sort of records. This allows you to issue SQL statements like:  
 
select * from FakeTable where CustID = "KMFG100";
 
which could definitely be more readable than the equivalent query to get the data out of the two original tables.

One of the nice things about views is they enable you to put all of your select criteria into the database instead of the application.
If a table definition changes that may affect your select logic, you just re-define the view instead of modifying the application.
Your application would just have a simple select all type statement (i.e. select * from <viewname>)
 
I use a view that defines all of the orders that are ready for shipment.  The Special part of the view is a nested IF statement that extracts  
an email address from one of 4 different locations in the sales order.  It first checks the sales order notes, then the Description, then the 5th
contact in the BKARCUST, and finally the 1st contact in BKARCUST.  With an email address, our shipping system (CPS) can email a 'ShipElert'
that notifies the customer that a shipment to them has been processed.  This email contains the Shipping info and a tracking number.
 
 
 

Quote from kkmfg on 09/27/07 at 06:15:36:

 
I tried to run  NEWINIT because my DDCheck shows 500 errors most all of which are a play company we deleted long ago and now it has mysteriously appeared...   well kinda re-appeared.... there is not a folder for it in DBAMFG but the files are showing up in MAINTAIN DATABASE along with some other previously deleted test companies.   After reading this thread I think I need to figure out what DBAIF is.