Hi Ming,
An Analytic View is an OLAP Cube, an n-dimensional array of data. Classical data warehouses copy data into OLAP Cubes in a 3-step process called Extract-Transform-Load(ETL). Copies are materialized, i.e. the data is saved to physical tables in its transformed state. An analytic View is not a transformed copy of data, it is the plan how to transform data on-the-fly.
In contrast to a physical table, an Analytic View is not 'flat'. Data must be 'flattened out' during extraction by aggregating along the dimensions of the data cube. In terms of SQL, 'flattening out' means reading with a GROUP BY clause and aggregation functions (SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX).
As Joins are not specified for n-dimensional data, Analytic Views cannot be joined to flat tables. Data must be extracted and flattened out before joining.
Technically, an Analytic View is a set of physical tables, interconnected in a star schema.
You may refer to the following blogs for more clarification:
SAP HANA - How to create an Analytic View intro
Thanks & Regards,
Pragati Gupta