[NEWBIE] How to view contents of a view

Question

I have to check the content of the v$sql_text view or rather SQL_TEXT column of v$sql or v$sqlarea view to see which SQL statements are executed but, how can I view the contents of a view?
Aqua Data Studio 4.7.2 that I use is ok for viewing the data of a table but I cannot seem to find a way to display the contents of a view :-C

Answer 1

A View is a stored query. You store a query by name in the database and then query against it.
SQL> Create table dept( dno number, dname varchar2(30));
SQL> insert into dept values ( 10, 'Finance');
SQL> insert into dept values ( 20, 'Sales');
SQL> insert into dept values ( 30, 'HR');
SQL> Commit;
Now create a view on dept table, and restrict the view to query only dept no. 30:
SQL> Create or replace view dept_30 as select * from dept where dno =30;
Now, run a query against this view, like below:
SQL> select * from dept_30;
To see what is the underlying query on which the veiw is built, query "USER_VEIWS"
SQL> set long 50000
SQL> select text from USER_VIEWS;
Regards