>> I have been reading up on them and trying to determine whether the data in the view gets refreshed when the underlying tables get new records [sic: rows are not records!] or do you have to execute the view every time you refresh it? <<

A VIEW is a virtual table. Whenever you invoke its name, the
optimizer decides if it wants to make it into a materialized table in
physical storage, or if it wants to expand it in the query like an in-
line macro. Either way, its data is always current when you use it.
It is refreshed only if it has to be.