What are PostgreSQL materialized views and their benefits?

Materialized views store query results physically, unlike regular views that execute queries each time.

Benefits:
• Improved query performance
• Reduced computation overhead
• Snapshot of data at specific time
• Can be indexed for faster access

Example:

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW sales_summary AS
SELECT product_id, SUM(amount) as total_sales
FROM orders
GROUP BY product_id;

-- Refresh data
REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW sales_summary;