Oracle Views efficency

Is my understanding correct that views are essentially pre compiled SQL statements?

Lets say I create a view such that -

CREATE VIEW myview AS
SELECT name, department FROM employee;

And now, I execute the following SQL against the view-

SELECT name FROM myview WHERE department = 'HR';

My understanding is the that Oracle will - 1. Execute the view SQL
2. Filter the o/p of the view SQL where department = 'HR'

A coworker of mine argues that Oracle will add my WHERE clause to the view SQL and then execute it efficiently-

SELECT name FROM employee WHERE department = 'HR';

Any one has any idea who is right?

-jiggy Received on Thu Nov 18 1999 - 00:00:00 CET