---
title: "What is a view?"
description: "A view is a derived table whose rows are produced from a base table, often one row per frame, chunk, or other iterator output, and stay aligned when the base changes."
url: "https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-a-view"
updated: "2026-09-29"
vertical: "Multimodal data"
doc: "https://docs.pixeltable.com/howto/cookbooks/video/video-extract-frames"
---

# What is a view?

A view is a derived table whose rows are produced from a base table, often one row per frame, chunk, or other iterator output, and stay aligned when the base changes.

Updated: 2026-09-29


## On this page

- [How it works](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-a-view#how-it-works)
- [What it is not](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-a-view#what-it-is-not)
- [Comparison](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-a-view#comparison)
- [Where Pixeltable fits](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-a-view#where-pixeltable-fits)
- [Questions](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-a-view#questions)

## How it works {#how-it-works}


- The view names its base table.
- An iterator expands one source row into many child rows.
- Child rows keep a pointer to the source, so a hit can name the original file.

## What it is not {#what-it-is-not}

It is not a one-shot export you re-run by hand, and it is not only a SQL view over scalar columns.

## view: this, and the thing it is confused with {#comparison}

|  | This | Not this |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Rows | Derived from a base | Inserted by the application |
| When the base changes | Affected child rows update | You reload a dump |
| Typical shape | Frames, passages, sentences | A joined report of numbers |

## Where Pixeltable fits {#where-pixeltable-fits}

In Pixeltable a view is a TableModel subclass with base= and, when it expands rows, iterator=.

## Questions {#questions}

### How does view work? {#faq-1}

The view names its base table. An iterator expands one source row into many child rows. Child rows keep a pointer to the source, so a hit can name the original file.

### What is view often confused with? {#faq-2}

It is not a one-shot export you re-run by hand, and it is not only a SQL view over scalar columns.

## Related

- [Documentation](https://docs.pixeltable.com/howto/cookbooks/video/video-extract-frames)
- [Pixeltable Core Concepts](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-core-concepts)
- [Iterate on Your Data, Not Your Infrastructure: The Multimodal Experimentation Loop](https://pixeltable.com/blog/iterate-on-data-not-infrastructure)
- [Video intelligence pipeline](https://pixeltable.com/use-cases/video-content-analysis)
- [Production RAG](https://pixeltable.com/use-cases/production-rag-implementation)