SQL is a standard language for accessing and manipulating databases.

What is SQL?
 SQL stands for Structured Query Language
 SQL lets you access and manipulate databases
 SQL became a standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986, and
of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1987

What Can SQL do?

 SQL can execute queries against a database
 SQL can retrieve data from a database
 SQL can insert records in a database
 SQL can update records in a database
 SQL can delete records from a database
 SQL can create new databases
 SQL can create new tables in a database
 SQL can create stored procedures in a database
 SQL can create views in a database
 SQL can set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

In the era where data is being generated in humongous amounts, there is a constant
need to handle data in databases. Relational databases are one of the most popular
databases, and SQL is the basis of relational databases. Therefore SQL skills are
indispensable in most of the job roles. In this article on SQL Commands, I will discuss
the top commands and statements that you need to understand in SQL.

The topics covered in this blog are mainly divided into 4 categories:

 Data Definition Language(DDL) – Consists of commands which are used to

define the database.
 Data Manipulation Language(DML) – Consists of commands which are used
to manipulate the data present in the database.
 Data Control Language(DCL) – Consists of commands which deal with the user
permissions and controls of the database system.
 Transaction Control Language(TCL) – Consist of commands which deal with
the transaction of the database.

Apart from the above commands, the following topics will also be covered in this article:
  Comments in SQL
 Different Types Of Keys In Database
 Constraints Used In Database
 Nested Queries
 Joins
 Set Operations
 Dates & Auto Increment
 Views
 Stored Procedures
 Triggers

In this article on SQL Commands, I am going to consider the below database as an

example, to show you how to write commands.

Emergency
EmployeeI EmployeeNam PhoneNumb Countr
ContactNam Address City
D e er y
e
Oberoi
01 Shanaya Abhinay 9898765612 Street Mumbai India
23
Marathal
02 Anay Soumya 9432156783 li House Delhi India
No 23
Queens Bangalor
03 Preeti Rohan 9764234519 India
Road 45 e
Brigade
Hyderaba
04 Vihaan Akriti 9966442211 Road India
d
Block 4
Mayo
05 Manasa Shourya 9543176246 Kolkata India
Road 23
So, let’s get started now!

Comments in SQL
There are two ways in which you can comment in SQL, i.e. either the Single-Line
Comments or the Multi-Line Comments.

Single-Line Comments

The single line comment starts with two hyphens (–). So, any text mentioned after (–),
till the end of a single line will be ignored by the compiler.

Example:

1 --Select all:
 2 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info;
Multi-Line Comments

The Multi-line comments start with /* and end with */. So, any text mentioned between /*
and */ will be ignored by the compiler.

Example:

1 /*Select all the columns

2 of all the records
3 from the Employee_Info table:*/
4 SELECT * FROM Students;

SQL Commands: Data Definition Language

Commands (DDL)
This section of the article will give you an insight into the commands through which you
can define your database. The commands are as follows:


 CREATE
 DROP
 TRUNCATE
 ALTER
 BACKUP DATABASE

CREATE

This statement is used to create a table or a database.

The ‘CREATE DATABASE’ Statement

As the name suggests, this statement is used to create a database.

Syntax

CREATE DATABASE DatabaseName;

Example

1 CREATE DATABASE Employee;

The ‘CREATE TABLE’ Statement

This statement is used to create a table.

Syntax
CREATE TABLE TableName (
Column1 datatype,
Column2 datatype,
Column3 datatype,
....

ColumnN datatype
);
Example

1
2 CREATE TABLE Employee_Info
(
3 EmployeeID int,
4 EmployeeName varchar(255),
5 Emergency ContactName varchar(255),
6 PhoneNumber int,
Address varchar(255),
7
City varchar(255),
8 Country varchar(255)
9 );
10
You can also create a table using another table. Refer the below sytax and example:

The ‘CREATE TABLE AS’ Statement

Syntax

CREATE TABLE NewTableName AS

SELECT Column1, column2,..., ColumnN
FROM ExistingTableName
WHERE ....;
Example

1 CREATE TABLE ExampleTable AS

2 SELECT EmployeeName, PhoneNumber
3 FROM Employee_Info;
DROP

This statement is used to drop an existing table or a database.

The ‘DROP DATABASE’ Statement

This statement is used to drop an existing database. When you use this statement,
complete information present in the database will be lost.

Syntax

DROP DATABASE DatabaseName;

Example

1 DROP DATABASE Employee;

The ‘DROP TABLE’ Statement

This statement is used to drop an existing table. When you use this statement, complete
information present in the table will be lost.

Syntax

DROP TABLE TableName;

Example

1 DROP Table Employee_Info;

TRUNCATE

This command is used to delete the information present in the table but does not delete
the table. So, once you use this command, your information will be lost, but not the
table.

Syntax

TRUNCATE TABLE TableName;

Example

1 TRUNCATE Table Employee_Info;

ALTER

This command is used to delete, modify or add constraints or columns in an existing

table.

The ‘ALTER TABLE’ Statement

This statement is used to add, delete, modify columns in an existing table.

The ‘ALTER TABLE’ Statement with ADD/DROP COLUMN

You can use the ALTER TABLE statement with ADD/DROP Column command
according to your need. If you wish to add a column, then you will use the ADD
command, and if you wish to delete a column, then you will use the DROP COLUMN
command.

Syntax

ALTER TABLE TableName

ADD ColumnName Datatype;
ALTER TABLE TableName
DROP COLUMN ColumnName;
Example

1 --ADD Column BloodGroup:

2
3 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
4 ADD BloodGroup varchar(255);
5
6 --DROP Column BloodGroup:
7
8 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
DROP COLUMN BloodGroup ;
9
The ‘ALTER TABLE’ Statement with ALTER/MODIFY COLUMN

This statement is used to change the datatype of an existing column in a table.

Syntax

ALTER TABLE TableName

ALTER COLUMN ColumnName Datatype;
Example

1 --Add a column DOB and change the data type to Date.

2
3 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
4 ADD DOB year;
5
6 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
ALTER DOB date;
7
BACKUP DATABASE

This statement is used to create a full backup of an existing database.

Syntax

BACKUP DATABASE DatabaseName

TO DISK = 'filepath';
Example

1 BACKUP DATABASE Employee

2 TO DISK = 'C:UsersSahitiDesktop';
You can also use a differential back up. This type of back up only backs up the parts
of the database, which have changed since the last complete backup of the database.

Syntax
BACKUP DATABASE DatabaseName
TO DISK = 'filepath'
WITH DIFFERENTIAL;
Example

1 BACKUP DATABASE Employee

2 TO DISK = 'C:UsersSahitiDesktop'
3 WITH DIFFERENTIAL;
Now that you know the data definition commands, let me take you through the various
types of Keys and Constraints that you need to understand before learning how to
manipulate the databases.

SQL Commands: Different Types Of Keys In Database

There are mainly 7 types of Keys, that can be considered in a database. I am going to
consider the below tables to explain to you the various keys.





 Candidate
Key – A set of
attributes which can uniquely identify a table can be termed as a Candidate Key.
 A table can have more than one candidate key, and out of the chosen candidate
keys, one key can be chosen as a Primary Key. In the above example, since
EmployeeID, InsuranceNumber and PanNumber can uniquely identify every
tuple, they would be considered as a Candidate Key.
 Super Key – The set of attributes which can uniquely identify a tuple is known as
Super Key. So, a candidate key, primary key, and a unique key is a superkey,
but vice-versa isn’t true.
 Primary Key – A set of attributes which are used to uniquely identify every tuple
is also a primary key. In the above example, since EmployeeID,
InsuranceNumber and PanNumber are candidate keys, any one of them can be
chosen as a Primary Key. Here EmployeeID is chosen as the primary key.
 Alternate Key – Alternate Keys are the candidate keys, which are not chosen as
a Primary key. From the above example, the alternate keys are PanNumber and
Insurance Number.
 Unique Key – The unique key is similar to the primary key, but allows one NULL
value in the column. Here the Insurance Number and the Pan Number can be
considered as unique keys.
 Foreign Key – An attribute that can only take the values present as the values of
some other attribute, is the foreign key to the attribute to which it refers. in the
above example, the Employee_ID from the Employee_Information Table is
referred to the Employee_ID from the Employee_Salary Table.
 Composite Key – A composite key is a combination of two or more columns that
identify each tuple uniquely. Here, the Employee_ID and Month-Year_Of_Salary
can be grouped together to uniquely identify every tuple in the table.

SQL Commands: Constraints Used In Database

Constraints are used in a database to specify the rules for data in a table. The following
are the different types of constraints:

 NOT NULL
 UNIQUE
 CHECK
 DEFAULT
 INDEX

NOT NULL

This constraint ensures that a column cannot have a NULL value.

Example

1 --NOT NULL on Create Table

2
3 CREATE TABLE Employee_Info
4 (
 5 EmployeeID int NOT NULL,
6 EmployeeName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
Emergency ContactName varchar(255),
7 PhoneNumber int NOT NULL,
8 Address varchar(255),
9 City varchar(255),
10 Country varchar(255)
);
11
12 --NOT NULL on ALTER TABLE
13
14 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
15 MODIFY PhoneNumber int NOT NULL;
16
17
UNIQUE

This constraint ensures that all the values in a column are unique.

Example

1 --UNIQUE on Create Table

2
CREATE TABLE Employee_Info
3 (
4 EmployeeID int NOT NULL UNIQUE,
5 EmployeeName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
6 Emergency ContactName varchar(255),
PhoneNumber int NOT NULL,
7 Address varchar(255),
8 City varchar(255),
9 Country varchar(255)
10 );
11
12 --UNIQUE on Multiple Columns
13
CREATE TABLE Employee_Info
14 (
15 EmployeeID int NOT NULL,
16 EmployeeName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
17 Emergency ContactName varchar(255),
PhoneNumber int NOT NULL,
18 Address varchar(255),
19 City varchar(255),
20 Country varchar(255),
21 CONSTRAINT UC_Employee_Info UNIQUE(Employee_ID, PhoneNumber)
22 );
23
--UNIQUE on ALTER TABLE
24
25 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
26 ADD UNIQUE (Employee_ID);
27
 28 --To drop a UNIQUE constraint
29
30 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
DROP CONSTRAINT UC_Employee_Info;
31
32
33
34
35
36
CHECK

This constraint ensures that all the values in a column satisfy a specific condition.

Example

1 --CHECK Constraint on CREATE TABLE

2
3 CREATE TABLE Employee_Info
(
4 EmployeeID int NOT NULL,
5 EmployeeName varchar(255),
6 Emergency ContactName varchar(255),
7 PhoneNumber int,
Address varchar(255),
8 City varchar(255),
9 Country varchar(255) CHECK (Country=='India')
10 );
11
12 --CHECK Constraint on multiple columns
13
14 CREATE TABLE Employee_Info
(
15 EmployeeID int NOT NULL,
16 EmployeeName varchar(255),
17 Emergency ContactName varchar(255),
18 PhoneNumber int,
Address varchar(255),
19
City varchar(255),
20 Country varchar(255) CHECK (Country = 'India' AND Cite = 'Hyderabad')
21 );
22
23 --CHECK Constraint on ALTER TABLE
24
25 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
ADD CHECK (Country=='India');
26
27 --To give a name to the CHECK Constraint
28
29 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
30 ADD CONSTRAINT CheckConstraintName CHECK (Country=='India');
31
 32 --To drop a CHECK Constraint
33
34 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
DROP CONSTRAINT CheckConstraintName;
35
36
37
38
39
40
DEFAULT

This constraint consists of a set of default values for a column when no value is
specified.

Example

1
2 --DEFAULT Constraint on CREATE TABLE
3
4 CREATE TABLE Employee_Info
5 (
6 EmployeeID int NOT NULL,
7 EmployeeName varchar(255),
Emergency ContactName varchar(255),
8 PhoneNumber int,
9 Address varchar(255),
10 City varchar(255),
11 Country varchar(255) DEFAULT 'India'
12 );
13
--DEFAULT Constraint on ALTER TABLE
14
15 ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
16 ADD CONSTRAINT defau_Country
17 DEFAULT 'India' FOR Country;
18
19 --To drop the Default Constraint
20
ALTER TABLE Employee_Info
21 ALTER COLUMN Country DROP DEFAULT;
22
23
INDEX

This constraint is used to create indexes in the table, through which you can create and
retrieve data from the database very quickly.

Syntax
--Create an Index where duplicate values are allowed
CREATE INDEX IndexName
ON TableName (Column1, Column2, ...ColumnN);

--Create an Index where duplicate values are not allowed

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX IndexName
ON TableName (Column1, Column2, ...ColumnN);
Example

1 CREATE INDEX idex_EmployeeName

2 ON Persons (EmployeeName);
3
4 --To delete an index in a table
5
6 DROP INDEX Employee_Info.idex_EmployeeName;
Now, let us look into the next part of this article i.e. DML Commands.

SQL Commands: Data Manipulation Language

Commands (DML)
This section of the article will give you an insight into the commands through which you
can manipulate the database. The commands are as follows:

MySQL DBA Certification Training

Explore Curriculum


 USE
 INSERT INTO
 UPDATE
 DELETE
 SELECT

Apart from these commands, there are also other manipulative operators/functions such
as:


 Operators
 Aggregate Functions
 NULL Functions
 Aliases & Case Statement
USE

The USE statement is used to select the database on which you want to perform
operations.

Syntax

USE DatabaseName;
Example

1 USE Employee;
INSERT INTO

This statement is used to insert new records into the table.

Syntax

INSERT INTO TableName (Column1, Column2, Column3, ...,ColumnN)

VALUES (value1, value2, value3, ...);

--If you don't want to mention the column names then use the below
syntax

INSERT INTO TableName

VALUES (Value1, Value2, Value3, ...);
Example

INSERT INTO Employee_Info(EmployeeID, EmployeeName, Emergency ContactName,

1 PhoneNumber, Address, City, Country)
VALUES ('06', 'Sanjana','Jagannath', '9921321141', 'Camel Street House No
2 12', 'Chennai', 'India');
3
4 INSERT INTO Employee_Info
5 VALUES ('07', 'Sayantini','Praveen', '9934567654', 'Nice Road 21', 'Pune',
'India');
UPDATE

This statement is used to modify the records already present in the table.

Syntax

UPDATE TableName
SET Column1 = Value1, Column2 = Value2, ...
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 UPDATE Employee_Info
 2 SET EmployeeName = 'Aahana', City= 'Ahmedabad'
3 WHERE EmployeeID = 1;

DELETE

This statement is used to delete the existing records in a table.

Syntax

DELETE FROM TableName WHERE Condition;

Example

1 DELETE FROM Employee_Info

2 WHERE EmployeeName='Preeti';
SELECT

This statement is used to select data from a database and the data returned is stored in
a result table, called the result-set.

Syntax

SELECT Column1, Column2, ...ColumN

FROM TableName;

--(*) is used to select all from the table

SELECT * FROM table_name;

-- To select the number of records to return use:

SELECT TOP 3 * FROM TableName;
Example

1 SELECT EmployeeID, EmployeeName

2 FROM Employee_Info;
3
4 --(*) is used to select all from the table
5 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info;
6
7 -- To select the number of records to return use:
SELECT TOP 3 * FROM Employee_Info;
8
Apart from just using the SELECT keyword individually, you can use the following
keywords with the SELECT statement:


 DISTINCT
 ORDER BY
 GROUP BY
 HAVING Clause
  INTO

The ‘SELECT DISTINCT’ Statement

This statement is used to return only different values.

Syntax

SELECT DISTINCT Column1, Column2, ...ColumnN

FROM TableName;
Example

1 SELECT DISTINCT PhoneNumber FROM Employee_Info;

The ‘ORDER BY’ Statement

The ‘ORDER BY’ statement is used to sort the required results in ascending or
descending order. The results are sorted in ascending order by default. Yet, if you wish
to get the required results in descending order, you have to use the DESC keyword.

Syntax

SELECT Column1, Column2, ...ColumnN

FROM TableName
ORDER BY Column1, Column2, ... ASC|DESC;
Example

-- Select all employees from the 'Employee_Info' table sorted by

1 EmergencyContactName:
SELECT * FROM Employee_Info
2 ORDER BY EmergencyContactName;
3
4 -- Select all employees from the 'Employee_Info' table sorted by
5 EmergencyContactName in Descending order:
6 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info
ORDER BY EmergencyContactName DESC;
7
8 -- Select all employees from the 'Employee_Info' table sorted by
9 EmergencyContactName and EmployeeName:
10 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info
11 ORDER BY EmergencyContactName, EmployeeName;
12
13 /* Select all employees from the 'Employee_Info' table sorted by
EmergencyContactName in Descending order and EmployeeName in Ascending
14 order: */
15 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info
ORDER BY EmergencyContactName ASC, EmployeeName DESC;
The ‘GROUP BY’ Statement

This ‘GROUP BY’ statement is used with the aggregate functions to group the result-set
by one or more columns.
Syntax

SELECT Column1, Column2,..., ColumnN

FROM TableName
WHERE Condition
GROUP BY ColumnName(s)
ORDER BY ColumnName(s);
Example

1 -- To list the number of employees from each city.

2
3 SELECT COUNT(EmployeeID), City
4 FROM Employee_Info
5 GROUP BY City;
The ‘HAVING’ Clause

The ‘HAVING’ clause is used in SQL because the WHERE keyword cannot be used
everywhere.

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition
GROUP BY ColumnName(s)
HAVING Condition
ORDER BY ColumnName(s);
Example

/* To list the number of employees in each city. The employees should be

1 sorted high to low and only those cities must be included who have more
2 than 5 employees:*/
3
4 SELECT COUNT(EmployeeID), City
5 FROM Employee_Info
6 GROUP BY City
HAVING COUNT(EmployeeID) > 2
7 ORDER BY COUNT(EmployeeID) DESC;
The ‘SELECT INTO’ Statement

The ‘SELECT INTO’ statement is used to copy data from one table to another.

Syntax

SELECT *
INTO NewTable [IN ExternalDB]
FROM OldTable
WHERE Condition;
Example

1
2 -- To create a backup of database 'Employee'
SELECT * INTO EmployeeBackup
3 FROM Employee;
4
5 --To select only few columns from Employee
6 SELECT EmployeeName, PhoneNumber INTO EmployeeContactDetails
7 FROM Employee;
8
SELECT * INTO BlrEmployee
9 FROM Employee
10 WHERE City = 'Bangalore';
11
Now, as I mentioned before, let us move onto our next section in this article on SQL
Commands, i.e. the Operators.

Operators in SQL

The different set of operators available in SQL are as follows:

Let us look into each one of them, one by one.

Arithmetic Operators

Operator Description
% Modulous [A % B]
/ Division [A / B]
* Multiplication [A * B]
– Subtraction [A – B]
+ Addition [A + B]
Bitwise Operators

Operator Description
^ Bitwise Exclusive OR (XOR) [A ^ B]
| Bitwise OR [A | B]
& Bitwise AND [A & B]
Comparison Operators

Operator Description
<> Not Equal to [A < > B]
 <= Less than or equal to [A <= B]
>= Greater than or equal to [A >= B]
< Less than [A < B]
> Greater than [A > B]
= Equal to [A = B]
Compound Operators

Operator Description
|*= Bitwise OR equals [A |*= B]
^-= Bitwise Exclusive equals [A ^-= B]
&= Bitwise AND equals [A &= B]
%= Modulo equals [A %= B]
/= Divide equals [A /= B]
*= Multiply equals [A*= B]
-= Subtract equals [A-= B]
+= Add equals [A+= B]
Logical Operators

The Logical operators present in SQL are as follows:


 AND
 OR
 NOT
 BETWEEN
 LIKE
 IN
 EXISTS
 ALL
 ANY

AND Operator

This operator is used to filter records that rely on more than one condition. This operator
displays the records, which satisfy all the conditions separated by AND, and give the
output TRUE.
Syntax

SELECT Column1, Column2, ..., ColumnN

FROM TableName
WHERE Condition1 AND Condition2 AND Condition3 ...;
Example
 1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info
2 WHERE City='Mumbai' AND City='Hyderabad';</pre>
OR Operator

This operator displays all those records which satisfy any of the conditions separated by
OR and give the output TRUE.
Syntax

SELECT Column1, Column2, ..., ColumnN

FROM TableName
WHERE Condition1 OR Condition2 OR Condition3 ...;
Example

1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info

2 WHERE City='Mumbai' OR City='Hyderabad';
NOT Operator

The NOT operator is used, when you want to display the records which do not satisfy a
condition.
Syntax

SELECT Column1, Column2, ..., ColumnN

FROM TableName
WHERE NOT Condition;
Example

1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info

2 WHERE NOT City='Mumbai';
NOTE: You can also combine the above three operators and write a query as follows:
1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info
2 WHERE NOT Country='India' AND (City='Bangalore' OR City='Hyderabad');
NOTE: You can also combine the above three operators and write a query as follows:
1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info
2 WHERE NOT Country='India' AND (City='Bangalore' OR City='Hyderabad');
BETWEEN Operator

The BETWEEN operator is used, when you want to select values within a given range.
Since this is an inclusive operator, both the starting and ending values are considered.
Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName
WHERE ColumnName BETWEEN Value1 AND Value2;
Example

1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Salary

 2 WHERE Salary BETWEEN 40000 AND 50000;
LIKE Operator

The LIKE operator is used in a WHERE clause to search for a specified pattern in a
column of a table. There are mainly two wildcards that are used in conjunction with the
LIKE operator:

 % – It matches 0 or more character.

 _ – It matches exactly one character.
Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName

Like Operator Condition Description

WHERE CustomerName LIKE ‘v% Finds any values that start with “v”
WHERE CustomerName LIKE ‘%v’ Finds any values that end with “v”
WHERE CustomerName LIKE ‘%and%’ Finds any values that have “and” in any position
Finds any values that have “q” in the second
WHERE CustomerName LIKE ‘_q%’
position.
Finds any values that start with “u” and are at least
WHERE CustomerName LIKE ‘u_%_%’
3 characters in length
WHERE ContactName LIKE ‘m%a’ Finds any values that start with “m” and end with “a”
WHERE ColumnName LIKE pattern;
Refer to the following table for the various patterns that you can mention with the LIKE
operator.
Example

1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info

2 WHERE EmployeeName LIKE 'S%';
IN Operator

This operator is used for multiple OR conditions. This allows you to specify multiple
values in a WHERE clause.
Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName
WHERE ColumnName IN (Value1,Value2...);
Example

1 SELECT * FROM Employee_Info

2 WHERE City IN ('Mumbai', 'Bangalore', 'Hyderabad');
NOTE: You can also use IN while writing Nested Queries.
EXISTS Operator

The EXISTS operator is used to test if a record exists or not.

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName
WHERE EXISTS
(SELECT ColumnName FROM TableName WHERE condition);
Example

1 SELECT EmergencyContactName
FROM Employee_Info
2 WHERE EXISTS (SELECT EmergencyContactName FROM Employee_Info WHERE
3 EmployeeId = 05 AND City = 'Kolkata');
ALL Operator

The ALL operator is used with a WHERE or HAVING clause and returns TRUE if all of
the subquery values meet the condition.
Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName
WHERE ColumnName operator ALL
(SELECT ColumnName FROM TableName WHERE condition);
Example

1 SELECT EmployeeName
FROM Employee_Info
2 WHERE EmployeeID = ALL (SELECT EmployeeID FROM Employee_Info WHERE City =
3 'Hyderabad');
ANY Operator

Similar to the ALL operator, the ANY operator is also used with a WHERE or HAVING
clause and returns true if any of the subquery values meet the condition.
Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName
WHERE ColumnName operator ANY
(SELECT ColumnName FROM TableName WHERE condition);
Example

1 SELECT EmployeeName
FROM Employee_Info
2 WHERE EmployeeID = ANY (SELECT EmployeeID FROM Employee_Info WHERE City =
3 'Hyderabad' OR City = 'Kolkata');
Next, in this article on SQL Commands, let us look into the various Aggregate Functions
provided in SQL.

Aggregate Functions

This section of the article will include the following functions:


 MIN()
 MAX()
 SUM()
 AVG()

MIN() Function

The MIN function returns the smallest value of the selected column in a table.

Syntax

SELECT MIN(ColumnName)
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 SELECT MIN(EmployeeID) AS SmallestID

2 FROM Employee_Info;
MAX() Function

The MAX function returns the largest value of the selected column in a table.

Syntax

SELECT MAX(ColumnName)
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 SELECT MAX(Salary) AS LargestFees

2 FROM Employee_Salary;
SELECT COUNT(ColumnName)
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 SELECT COUNT(EmployeeID)
2 FROM Employee_Info;
SUM() Function
The SUM function returns the total sum of a numeric column that you choose.

Syntax

SELECT SUM(ColumnName)
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 SELECT SUM(Salary)
2 FROM Employee_Salary;
AVG() Function

The AVG function returns the average value of a numeric column that you choose.

Syntax

SELECT AVG(ColumnName)
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 SELECT AVG(Salary)
2 FROM Employee_Salary;
NULL Functions

The NULL functions are those functions which let you return an alternative value if an
expression is NULL. In the SQL Server, the function is ISNULL().

Example

1 SELECT EmployeeID * (Month_Year_of_Salary + ISNULL(Salary, 0))

2 FROM Employee_Salary;
Aliases & Case Statement

In this section of this article on SQL Commands, you will go through

the Aliases and Case statement one after the other.

Aliases

Aliases are used to give a column/table a temporary name and only exists for a duration
of the query.

Syntax

--Alias Column Syntax

SELECT ColumnName AS AliasName
FROM TableName;

--Alias Table Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM TableName AS AliasName;
Example

1 SELECT EmployeeID AS ID, EmployeeName AS EmpName

2 FROM Employee_Info;
3
4 SELECT EmployeeName AS EmpName, EmergencyContactName AS [Contact Name]
5 FROM Employee_Info;
Case Statement

This statement goes through all the conditions and returns a value when the first
condition is met. So, if no conditions are TRUE, it returns the value in the ELSE clause.
Also, if no conditions are true and there is no ELSE part, then it returns NULL.

Syntax

CASE
WHEN Condition1 THEN Result1
WHEN Condition2 THEN Result2
WHEN ConditionN THEN ResultN
ELSE Result
END;
Example

1
SELECT EmployeeName, City
2 FROM Employee_Info
3 ORDER BY
4 (CASE
5 WHEN City IS NULL THEN 'Country is India by default'
ELSE City
6 END);
7
Now, that I have told you a lot about DML commands in this article on SQL Commands,
let me just tell you in short about Nested Queries, Joins, Set Operations, and Dates &
Auto Increment.

SQL Commands: Nested Queries

Nested queries are those queries which have an outer query and inner subquery. So,
basically, the subquery is a query which is nested within another query such
as SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE.
SQL Commands: Joins
JOINS are used to combine rows from two or more tables, based on a related column
between those tables. The following are the types of joins:

 INNER JOIN: This join returns those records which have matching values in both
the tables.
 FULL JOIN: This join returns all those records which either have a match in the
left or the right table.
 LEFT JOIN: This join returns records from the left table, and also those records
which satisfy the condition from the right table.
 RIGHT JOIN: This join returns records from the right table, and also those
records which satisfy the condition from the left table.

Let’s consider the below table apart from the Employee_Info table, to understand the
syntax of joins.

TechID EmpID TechName ProjectStartDate

1 10 DevOps 04-01-2019
2 11 Blockchain 06-07-2019
3 12 Python 01-03-2019
INNER JOIN

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM Table1
INNER JOIN Table2 ON Table1.ColumnName = Table2.ColumnName;
Example

1 SELECT Technologies.TechID, Employee_Info.EmployeeName

2 FROM Technologies
3 INNER JOIN Employee_Info ON Technologies.EmpID = Employee_Info.EmpID;
FULL JOIN

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM Table1
FULL OUTER JOIN Table2 ON Table1.ColumnName = Table2.ColumnName;
Example
 1 SELECT Employee_Info.EmployeeName, Technologies.TechID
2 FROM Employee_Info
3 FULL OUTER JOIN Orders ON Employee_Info.EmpID=Employee_Salary.EmpID
4 ORDER BY Employee_Info.EmployeeName;

LEFT JOIN

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM Table1
LEFT JOIN Table2 ON Table1.ColumnName = Table2.ColumnName;
Example

1 SELECT Employee_Info.EmployeeName, Technologies.TechID

2 FROM Employee_Info
3 LEFT JOIN Technologies ON Employee_Info.EmployeeID = Technologies.EmpIDID
4 ORDER BY Employee_Info.EmployeeName;

RIGHT JOIN

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s)
FROM Table1
RIGHT JOIN Table2 ON Table1.ColumnName = Table2.ColumnName;
Example

1 SELECT Technologies.TechID
2 FROM Technologies
3 RIGHT JOIN Employee_Info ON Technologies.EmpID = Employee_Info.EmployeeID
4 ORDER BY Technologies.TechID;

SQL Commands: Set Operations

There are mainly three set operations:UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT. You can refer to
the image below to understand the set operations in SQL.
UNION

This operator is used to combine the result-set of two or more SELECT statements.

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName(s) FROM Table1

UNION
SELECT ColumnName(s) FROM Table2;
INTERSECT

This clause used to combine two SELECT statements and return the intersection of the
data-sets of both the SELECT statements.

Syntax

SELECT Column1 , Column2 ....

FROM TableName
WHERE Condition

INTERSECT

SELECT Column1 , Column2 ....

FROM TableName
WHERE Condition
EXCEPT

This operator returns those tuples that are returned by the first SELECT operation, and
are not returned by the second SELECT operation.

Syntax

SELECT ColumnName
FROM TableName

EXCEPT

SELECT ColumnName
FROM TableName;
Next, in this article, let us look into the date functions and auto-increment fields.

SQL Commands: Dates & Auto Increment

In this section of this article, I will explain to you how to use the Date functions and also
the Auto-Increment fields.
 Dates

The following data types are present in a SQL Server to store a date or a date/time
value in a database.

Data Type Format

DATE YYYY-MM-DD
DATETIME YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS
SMALLDATETIME YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS
TIMESTAMP A Unique Number
Example

1 SELECT * FROM Technologies WHERE ProjectStartDate='2019-04-01'

Auto Increment

This field generates a unique number automatically when a new record is inserted into a
table. The MS SQL Server uses the IDENTITY keyword for this feature.

1 <span>/* To define the "EmployeeID" column to be an auto-increment primary

2 key field in the "Employee_Info" table */</span>
3
<span>CREATE TABLE Employee_Info (</span>
4 <span>EmployeeID INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,</span>
5 <span>EmployeeName VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL</span>
6 <span>EmergencyContactName VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,</span>
7 <span>);</span>

Example

Now, that you guys know the DML commands, let’s move onto our next section in this
article on SQL Commands i.e. the DCL commands.

SQL Commands: Data Control Language Commands

(DCL)
This section of the article will give you an insight into the commands which are used to
enforce database security in multiple user database environments. The commands are
as follows:


 GRANT
 REVOKE
GRANT

This command is used to provide access or privileges on the database and its objects to
the users.

Syntax

GRANT PrivilegeName
ON ObjectName
TO {UserName |PUBLIC |RoleName}
[WITH GRANT OPTION];
where,

 PrivilegeName – Is the privilege/right/access granted to the user.

 ObjectName – Name of a database object like TABLE/VIEW/STORED PROC.
 UserName – Name of the user who is given the access/rights/privileges.
 PUBLIC – To grant access rights to all users.
 RoleName – The name of a set of privileges grouped together.
 WITH GRANT OPTION – To give the user access to grant other users with
rights.

Example

1 -- To grant SELECT permission to Employee_Info table to user1

2 GRANT SELECT ON Employee_Info TO user1;
REVOKE

This command is used to withdraw the user’s access privileges given by using
the GRANT command.

Syntax

REVOKE PrivilegeName
ON ObjectName
FROM {UserName |PUBLIC |RoleName}
Example

1 -- To revoke the granted permission from user1

2 REVOKE SELECT ON Employee_Info TO user1;
Now, next in this article on SQL Commands, I will discuss Views, Stored Procedures,
and Triggers.

SQL Commands: Views

A view in SQL is a single table, which is derived from other tables. So, a view contains
rows and columns similar to a real table and has fields from one or more table.

The ‘CREATE VIEW’ statement

This statement is used to create a view, from a table.

Syntax

CREATE VIEW ViewName AS

SELECT Column1, Column2, ..., ColumnN
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 CREATE VIEW [Kolkata Employees] AS

2 SELECT EmployeeName, PhoneNumber
3 FROM Employee_Info
4 WHERE City = "Kolkata";

The ‘CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW’ statement

This statement is used to update a view.

Syntax

CREATE VIEW OR REPLACE ViewName AS

SELECT Column1, Column2, ..., ColumnN
FROM TableName
WHERE Condition;
Example

1 CREATE VIEW OR REPLACE [Kolkata Employees] AS

2 SELECT EmployeeName, PhoneNumber
3 FROM Employee_Info
4 WHERE City = "Kolkata";
The ‘DROP VIEW’ statement

This statement is used to delete a view.

Syntax

DROP VIEW ViewName;

Example
SQL Commands: Stored Procedures
A code which you can save and reuse it again is known as StoredProcedures.

Syntax

CREATE PROCEDURE ProcedureName

AS
SQLStatement
GO;
Example

SQL Commands: Triggers

Triggers are a set of SQL statements which are stored in the database catalog. These
statements are executed whenever an event associated with a table occurs. So,
a trigger can be invoked either BEFORE or AFTER the data is changed
by INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE statement.

Syntax

CREATE TRIGGER [TriggerName]

[BEFORE | AFTER]
{INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE}
on [TableName]
[FOR EACH ROW]
[TriggerBody]
Now, let’s move on to the last section of this article on SQL Commands i.e. the
Transaction Control Language Commands.

SQL Commands: Transaction Control Language

Commands (TCL)
This section of the article will give you an insight into the commands which are used to
manage transactions in the database. The commands are as follows:


 COMMIT
 ROLLBACK
 SAVEPOINT
COMMIT

This command is used to save the transaction into the database.

Syntax

COMMIT;
ROLLBACK

This command is used to restore the database to the last committed state.

Syntax

ROLLBACK;
NOTE: When you use ROLLBACK with SAVEPOINT, then you can directly jump to a
savepoint in an ongoing transaction. Syntax: ROLLBACK TO SavepointName;
SAVEPOINT

This command is used to temporarily save a transaction. So if you wish to rollback to

any point, then you can save that point as a ‘SAVEPOINT’.

Syntax

SAVEPOINT SAVEPOINTNAME;
Consider the below example to understand the working of transactions in the database.

EmployeeID EmployeeName
01 Ruhaan
02 Suhana
03 Aayush
04 Rashi
Now, use the below SQL queries to understand the transactions in the database.

1
2 INSERT INTO Employee_Table VALUES(05, 'Avinash');
COMMIT;
3
UPDATE Employee_Table SET name = 'Akash' WHERE id = '05';
4 SAVEPOINT S1;
5 INSERT INTO Employee_Table VALUES(06, 'Sanjana');
6 SAVEPOINT S2;
7 INSERT INTO Employee_Table VALUES(07, 'Sanjay');
SAVEPOINT S3;
8 INSERT INTO Employee_Table VALUES(08, 'Veena');
9 SAVEPOINT S4;
10 SELECT * FROM Employee_Table;
11
The output to the above set of queries would be as follows:
 EmployeeID EmployeeName
01 Ruhaan
02 Suhana
03 Aayush
04 Rashi
05 Akash
06 Sanjana
07 Sanjay
08 Veena
Now, if you rollback to S2 using the below queries, the output is mentioned in the
below table.

1 ROLLBACK TO S2;
2 SELECT * FROM Employee_Table;
EmployeeID EmployeeName
01 Ruhaan
02 Suhana
03 Aayush
04 Rashi
05 Akash
06 Sanjana

Constraints in DBMS
Constraints enforce limits to the data or type of data that can be inserted/updated/deleted from a
table. The whole purpose of constraints is to maintain the data integrity during an
update/delete/insert into a table. In this tutorial we will learn several types of constraints that can be
created in RDBMS.

Types of constraints
 NOT NULL
 UNIQUE
 DEFAULT
 CHECK
 Key Constraints – PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY
 Domain constraints
 Mapping constraints

NOT NULL:
NOT NULL constraint makes sure that a column does not hold NULL value. When we don’t provide
value for a particular column while inserting a record into a table, it takes NULL value by default. By
specifying NULL constraint, we can be sure that a particular column(s) cannot have NULL values.

Example:

CREATE TABLE STUDENT(

ROLL_NO INT NOT NULL,
STU_NAME VARCHAR (35) NOT NULL,
STU_AGE INT NOT NULL,
STU_ADDRESS VARCHAR (235),
PRIMARY KEY (ROLL_NO)
);
Read more about this constraint here.

UNIQUE:
UNIQUE Constraint enforces a column or set of columns to have unique values. If a column has a
unique constraint, it means that particular column cannot have duplicate values in a table.

CREATE TABLE STUDENT(

ROLL_NO INT NOT NULL,
STU_NAME VARCHAR (35) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
STU_AGE INT NOT NULL,
STU_ADDRESS VARCHAR (35) UNIQUE,
PRIMARY KEY (ROLL_NO)
);
Read more about it here.

DEFAULT:
The DEFAULT constraint provides a default value to a column when there is no value provided while
inserting a record into a table.

CREATE TABLE STUDENT(

ROLL_NO INT NOT NULL,
STU_NAME VARCHAR (35) NOT NULL,
STU_AGE INT NOT NULL,
EXAM_FEE INT DEFAULT 10000,
STU_ADDRESS VARCHAR (35) ,
PRIMARY KEY (ROLL_NO)
);
Read more: Default constraint

CHECK:
This constraint is used for specifying range of values for a particular column of a table. When this
constraint is being set on a column, it ensures that the specified column must have the value falling
in the specified range.

CREATE TABLE STUDENT(

ROLL_NO INT NOT NULL CHECK(ROLL_NO >1000) ,
STU_NAME VARCHAR (35) NOT NULL,
STU_AGE INT NOT NULL,
EXAM_FEE INT DEFAULT 10000,
STU_ADDRESS VARCHAR (35) ,
PRIMARY KEY (ROLL_NO)
);
In the above example we have set the check constraint on ROLL_NO column of STUDENT table.
Now, the ROLL_NO field must have the value greater than 1000.

Key constraints:
PRIMARY KEY:
Primary key uniquely identifies each record in a table. It must have unique values and cannot
contain nulls. In the below example the ROLL_NO field is marked as primary key, that means the
ROLL_NO field cannot have duplicate and null values.

CREATE TABLE STUDENT(

ROLL_NO INT NOT NULL,
STU_NAME VARCHAR (35) NOT NULL UNIQUE,
STU_AGE INT NOT NULL,
STU_ADDRESS VARCHAR (35) UNIQUE,
PRIMARY KEY (ROLL_NO)
);
FOREIGN KEY:
Foreign keys are the columns of a table that points to the primary key of another table. They act as a
cross-reference between tables.
Read more about it here.

Domain constraints:
Each table has certain set of columns and each column allows a same type of data, based on its
data type. The column does not accept values of any other data type.
Domain constraints are user defined data type and we can define them like this:

Domain Constraint = data type + Constraints (NOT NULL / UNIQUE / PRIMARY KEY / FOREIGN
KEY / CHECK / DEFAULT)