The CREATE DATABASE Statement

The CREATE DATABASE statement is used to create a database.

SQL CREATE DATABASE Syntax

CREATE DATABASE database_name

CREATE DATABASE Example

Now we want to create a database called "my_db".

We use the following CREATE DATABASE statement:

CREATE DATABASE my_db

Database tables can be added with the CREATE TABLE statement.

The CREATE TABLE Statement

The CREATE TABLE statement is used to create a table in a database.

SQL CREATE TABLE Syntax

CREATE TABLE table_name

(
column_name1 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
column_name3 data_type,
....
)

The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a complete
reference of all the data types available in MS Access, MySQL, and SQL Server,
go to our complete Data Types reference.
CREATE TABLE Example
Now we want to create a table called "Persons" that contains five columns:
P_Id, LastName, FirstName, Address, and City.

We use the following CREATE TABLE statement:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int,
LastName varchar(255),
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

The P_Id column is of type int and will hold a number. The LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City columns are of type varchar with a maximum
length of 255 characters.

The empty "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

         

The empty table can be filled with data with the INSERT INTO statement.

SQL Constraints
Constraints are used to limit the type of data that can go into a table.

Constraints can be specified when a table is created (with the CREATE TABLE
statement) or after the table is created (with the ALTER TABLE statement).

We will focus on the following constraints:

 NOT NULL
 UNIQUE

 PRIMARY KEY

 FOREIGN KEY
  CHECK

 DEFAULT

The next chapters will describe each constraint in details.

SQL NOT NULL Constraint

The NOT NULL constraint enforces a column to NOT accept NULL values.

The NOT NULL constraint enforces a field to always contain a value. This means
that you cannot insert a new record, or update a record without adding a value
to this field.

The following SQL enforces the "P_Id" column and the "LastName" column to not accept NULL values:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

SQL UNIQUE Constraint

The UNIQUE constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table.

The UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints both provide a guarantee for
uniqueness for a column or set of columns.

A PRIMARY KEY constraint automatically has a UNIQUE constraint defined on it.

Note that you can have many UNIQUE constraints per table, but only one
PRIMARY KEY constraint per table.
SQL UNIQUE Constraint on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column when the
"Persons" table is created:

MySQL:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
UNIQUE (P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL UNIQUE,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE constraint

on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID UNIQUE (P_Id,LastName)
)
SQL UNIQUE Constraint on ALTER TABLE
To create a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is already
created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD UNIQUE (P_Id)

To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE constraint

on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID UNIQUE (P_Id,LastName)

To DROP a UNIQUE Constraint

To drop a UNIQUE constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP INDEX uc_PersonID

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint

The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table.

Primary keys must contain unique values.

A primary key column cannot contain NULL values.

Each table should have a primary key, and each table can have only ONE
primary key.

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a PRIMARY KEY on the "P_Id" column when the
"Persons" table is created:

MySQL:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName)
)

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a PRIMARY KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)

To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName)

Note: If you use the ALTER TABLE statement to add a primary key, the primary
key column(s) must already have been declared to not contain NULL values
(when the table was first created).

To DROP a PRIMARY KEY Constraint

To drop a PRIMARY KEY constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP PRIMARY KEY
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint

A FOREIGN KEY in one table points to a PRIMARY KEY in another table.

Let's illustrate the foreign key with an example. Look at the following two
tables:

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 2
4 24562 1

Note that the "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table points to the "P_Id" column in
the "Persons" table.

The "P_Id" column in the "Persons" table is the PRIMARY KEY in the "Persons"
table.

The "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table is a FOREIGN KEY in the "Orders" table.

The FOREIGN KEY constraint is used to prevent actions that would destroy links
between tables.
The FOREIGN KEY constraint also prevents that invalid data form being inserted
into the foreign key column, because it has to be one of the values contained in
the table it points to.

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a FOREIGN KEY on the "P_Id" column when the
"Orders" table is created:

MySQL:

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
FOREIGN KEY (P_Id) REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a FOREIGN KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the "Orders"
table is already created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders

ADD FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)

To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY
constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders

ADD CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders
FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)

To DROP a FOREIGN KEY Constraint

To drop a FOREIGN KEY constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Orders

DROP FOREIGN KEY fk_PerOrders

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders

DROP CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders
SQL CHECK Constraint
The CHECK constraint is used to limit the value range that can be placed in a
column.

If you define a CHECK constraint on a single column it allows only certain values
for this column.

If you define a CHECK constraint on a table it can limit the values in certain
columns based on values in other columns in the row.

SQL CHECK Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a CHECK constraint on the "P_Id" column when the
"Persons" table is created. The CHECK constraint specifies that the column
"P_Id" must only include integers greater than 0.

My SQL:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CHECK (P_Id>0)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL CHECK (P_Id>0),
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)
To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on
multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT chk_Person CHECK (P_Id>0 AND City='Sandnes')
)

SQL CHECK Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a CHECK constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is already
created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CHECK (P_Id>0)

To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on

multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CONSTRAINT chk_Person CHECK (P_Id>0 AND City='Sandnes')

To DROP a CHECK Constraint

To drop a CHECK constraint, use the following SQL:

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CONSTRAINT chk_Person

SQL DEFAULT Constraint

The DEFAULT constraint is used to insert a default value into a column.

The default value will be added to all new records, if no other value is specified.

SQL DEFAULT Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column when the
"Persons" table is created:

My SQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255) DEFAULT 'Sandnes'
)

The DEFAULT constraint can also be used to insert system values, by using functions like GETDATE():

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
OrderDate date DEFAULT GETDATE()
)

SQL DEFAULT Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column when the table is already
created, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER City SET DEFAULT 'SANDNES'

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER COLUMN City SET DEFAULT 'SANDNES'

To DROP a DEFAULT Constraint

To drop a DEFAULT constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER City DROP DEFAULT

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER COLUMN City DROP DEFAULT

The CREATE INDEX statement is used to create indexes in tables.

Indexes allow the database application to find data fast; without

reading the whole table.

Indexes
An index can be created in a table to find data more quickly and efficiently.
The users cannot see the indexes, they are just used to speed up
searches/queries.

Note: Updating a table with indexes takes more time than updating a table
without (because the indexes also need an update). So you should only create
indexes on columns (and tables) that will be frequently searched against.

SQL CREATE INDEX Syntax

Creates an index on a table. Duplicate values are allowed:

CREATE INDEX index_name

ON table_name (column_name)

SQL CREATE UNIQUE INDEX Syntax

Creates a unique index on a table. Duplicate values are not allowed:

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name

ON table_name (column_name)

Note: The syntax for creating indexes varies amongst different databases.

Therefore: Check the syntax for creating indexes in your database.

CREATE INDEX Example

The SQL statement below creates an index named "PIndex" on the "LastName" column in the "Persons"
table:

CREATE INDEX PIndex

ON Persons (LastName)

If you want to create an index on a combination of columns, you can list the column names within the
parentheses, separated by commas:

CREATE INDEX PIndex

ON Persons (LastName, FirstName)
Indexes, tables, and databases can easily be deleted/removed with
the DROP statement.

The DROP INDEX Statement

The DROP INDEX statement is used to delete an index in a table.

DROP INDEX Syntax for MS Access:

DROP INDEX index_name ON table_name

DROP INDEX Syntax for MS SQL Server:

DROP INDEX table_name.index_name

DROP INDEX Syntax for DB2/Oracle:

DROP INDEX index_name

DROP INDEX Syntax for MySQL:

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP INDEX index_name

The DROP TABLE Statement

The DROP TABLE statement is used to delete a table.

DROP TABLE table_name

The DROP DATABASE Statement

The DROP DATABASE statement is used to delete a database.

DROP DATABASE database_name

The TRUNCATE TABLE Statement
What if we only want to delete the data inside the table, and not the table
itself?

Then, use the TRUNCATE TABLE statement:

TRUNCATE TABLE table_name

The ALTER TABLE Statement

The ALTER TABLE statement is used to add, delete, or modify columns in an
existing table.

SQL ALTER TABLE Syntax

To add a column in a table, use the following syntax:

ALTER TABLE table_name

ADD column_name datatype

To delete a column in a table, use the following syntax (notice that some database systems don't allow
deleting a column):

ALTER TABLE table_name

DROP COLUMN column_name

To change the data type of a column in a table, use the following syntax:

ALTER TABLE table_name

ALTER COLUMN column_name datatype

SQL ALTER TABLE Example

Look at the "Persons" table:
P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to add a column named "DateOfBirth" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD DateOfBirth date

Notice that the new column, "DateOfBirth", is of type date and is going to hold a
date. The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a
complete reference of all the data types available in MS Access, MySQL, and
SQL Server, go to our complete Data Types reference.

The "Persons" table will now like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City DateOfBirth

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes  
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes  
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger  

Change Data Type Example

Now we want to change the data type of the column named "DateOfBirth" in the
"Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER COLUMN DateOfBirth year

Notice that the "DateOfBirth" column is now of type year and is going to hold a
year in a two-digit or four-digit format.
DROP COLUMN Example
Next, we want to delete the column named "DateOfBirth" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP COLUMN DateOfBirth

The "Persons" table will now like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Auto-increment allows a unique number to be generated when a

new record is inserted into a table.

AUTO INCREMENT a Field

Very often we would like the value of the primary key field to be created
automatically every time a new record is inserted.

We would like to create an auto-increment field in a table.

Syntax for MySQL

The following SQL statement defines the "P_Id" column to be an auto-increment primary key field in the
"Persons" table:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
)

MySQL uses the AUTO_INCREMENT keyword to perform an auto-increment

feature.

By default, the starting value for AUTO_INCREMENT is 1, and it will increment

by 1 for each new record.

To let the AUTO_INCREMENT sequence start with another value, use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons AUTO_INCREMENT=100

To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will not have to specify a value for the "P_Id" column
(a unique value will be added automatically):

INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName,LastName)

VALUES ('Lars','Monsen')

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column would be assigned a unique value. The "FirstName" column
would be set to "Lars" and the "LastName" column would be set to "Monsen".

Syntax for SQL Server

The following SQL statement defines the "P_Id" column to be an auto-increment primary key field in the
"Persons" table:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

The MS SQL Server uses the IDENTITY keyword to perform an auto-increment

feature.
By default, the starting value for IDENTITY is 1, and it will increment by 1 for
each new record.

To specify that the "P_Id" column should start at value 10 and increment by 5,
change the identity to IDENTITY(10,5).

To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will not have to specify a value for the "P_Id" column
(a unique value will be added automatically):

INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName,LastName)

VALUES ('Lars','Monsen')

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column would be assigned a unique value. The "FirstName" column
would be set to "Lars" and the "LastName" column would be set to "Monsen".

Syntax for Access

The following SQL statement defines the "P_Id" column to be an auto-increment primary key field in the
"Persons" table:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

The MS Access uses the AUTOINCREMENT keyword to perform an auto-

increment feature.

By default, the starting value for AUTOINCREMENT is 1, and it will increment by

1 for each new record.

To specify that the "P_Id" column should start at value 10 and increment by 5,
change the autoincrement to AUTOINCREMENT(10,5).

To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will not have to specify a value for the "P_Id" column
(a unique value will be added automatically):
INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName,LastName)
VALUES ('Lars','Monsen')

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column would be assigned a unique value. The "FirstName" column
would be set to "Lars" and the "LastName" column would be set to "Monsen".

Syntax for Oracle

In Oracle the code is a little bit more tricky.

You will have to create an auto-increment field with the sequence object (this
object generates a number sequence).

Use the following CREATE SEQUENCE syntax:

CREATE SEQUENCE seq_person

MINVALUE 1
START WITH 1
INCREMENT BY 1
CACHE 10

The code above creates a sequence object called seq_person, that starts with 1
and will increment by 1. It will also cache up to 10 values for performance. The
cache option specifies how many sequence values will be stored in memory for
faster access.

To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will have to use the nextval function (this function
retrieves the next value from seq_person sequence):

INSERT INTO Persons (P_Id,FirstName,LastName)

VALUES (seq_person.nextval,'Lars','Monsen')

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column would be assigned the next number from the seq_person
sequence. The "FirstName" column would be set to "Lars" and the "LastName"
column would be set to "Monsen".
SQL CREATE VIEW Statement
In SQL, a view is a virtual table based on the result-set of an SQL statement.

A view contains rows and columns, just like a real table. The fields in a view are
fields from one or more real tables in the database.

You can add SQL functions, WHERE, and JOIN statements to a view and present
the data as if the data were coming from one single table.

SQL CREATE VIEW Syntax

CREATE VIEW view_name AS

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition

Note: A view always shows up-to-date data! The database engine recreates the
data, using the view's SQL statement, every time a user queries a view.

SQL CREATE VIEW Examples

If you have the Northwind database you can see that it has several views
installed by default.

The view "Current Product List" lists all active products (products that are not discontinued) from the
"Products" table. The view is created with the following SQL:

CREATE VIEW [Current Product List] AS

SELECT ProductID,ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE Discontinued=No

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Current Product List]

Another view in the Northwind sample database selects every product in the "Products" table with a
unit price higher than the average unit price:
CREATE VIEW [Products Above Average Price] AS
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice
FROM Products
WHERE UnitPrice>(SELECT AVG(UnitPrice) FROM Products)

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Products Above Average Price]

Another view in the Northwind database calculates the total sale for each category in 1997. Note that
this view selects its data from another view called "Product Sales for 1997":

CREATE VIEW [Category Sales For 1997] AS

SELECT DISTINCT CategoryName,Sum(ProductSales) AS
CategorySales
FROM [Product Sales for 1997]
GROUP BY CategoryName

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997]

We can also add a condition to the query. Now we want to see the total sale only for the category
"Beverages":

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997]

WHERE CategoryName='Beverages'

SQL Updating a View

You can update a view by using the following syntax:

SQL CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW Syntax

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW view_name AS

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
Now we want to add the "Category" column to the "Current Product List"
view. We will update the view with the following SQL:

CREATE VIEW [Current Product List] AS

SELECT ProductID,ProductName,Category
FROM Products
WHERE Discontinued=No

SQL Dropping a View

You can delete a view with the DROP VIEW command.

SQL DROP VIEW Syntax

DROP VIEW view_name