Question: If I want to list some items from a database, do I need to add a `UIView` and a `UITableView` to my ViewController? or just add the `UITableView` to my `ViewController`?

Answer: 
You must already be having a `UIView` as part of your `ViewController`, Just add `UITableView` as a subview to your `UIView`.

The `UIView` of a `ViewController` can be accessed as `[self.view];`. So what you need to do is `[self.view addSubview:yourTableView];`. Using `setFrame` properly sets it in the x,y,width,height that you need.
its just depend on your project layout if you want to add tableview then you can use predefined function like didselectrow,moverow,editingrow,willdisplay etc...it totally depend on your need and layout specification and last thing tableview is better than using view instead on another view.