What Happens If You Delete a Table That Is Used by a View?

Assuming that you have a table which is used by a view, and you try to delete that table. SQL Server will let you delete the table without any trouble.

But that view will become invalid. The tutorial exercise below shows you what happens to the view, when the underlying table is deleted:

USE FyiCenterData;
GO

SELECT * INTO fyi_links_copy 
   FROM fyi_links WHERE counts > 0;
GO

CREATE VIEW fyi_links_view AS
   SELECT * FROM fyi_links_copy;
GO

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM fyi_links_view;
GO
50015

DROP TABLE fyi_links_copy;
GO

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM fyi_links_view;
GO
Msg 208, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Invalid object name 'fyi_links_copy'.
Msg 4413, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Could not use view or function 'fyi_links_view' 
   because of binding errors.