SQL Notes
SQL Notes
Query
Language
1
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 is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard
However, to be compliant with the ANSI standard, they all support at least the major
commands (such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE) in a similar manner.
Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary extensions in
addition to the SQL standard!
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RDBMS
RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System.
RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like MS SQL Server,
IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL , and Microsoft Access.
A table is a collections of related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.
SQL Syntax
Database Tables
A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g.
"Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows) with data.
The table above contains three records (one for each person) and five columns (P_Id,
LastName, FirstName, Address, and City).
SQL Statements
Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL statements.
The following SQL statement will select all the records in the "Persons" table:
In this tutorial we will teach you all about the different SQL statements.
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Semicolon after SQL Statements?
Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of each SQL statement.
Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that
allow more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.
We are using MS Access and SQL Server 2000 and we do not have to put a semicolon after
each SQL statement, but some database programs force you to use it.
The query and update commands form the DML part of SQL:
The DDL part of SQL permits database tables to be created or deleted. It also define indexes
(keys), specify links between tables, and impose constraints between tables. The most
important DDL statements in SQL are:
4
and
Now we want to select the content of the columns named "LastName" and "FirstName"
from the table above.
LastName FirstName
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari
SELECT * Example
Now we want to select all the columns from the "Persons" table.
5
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Navigation in a Result-set
Most database software systems allow navigation in the result-set with programming
functions, like: Move-To-First-Record, Get-Record-Content, Move-To-Next-Record, etc.
Programming functions like these are not a part of this tutorial. To learn about accessing
data with function calls, please visit our ADO tutorial or our PHP tutorial.
The DISTINCT keyword can be used to return only distinct (different) values.
Now we want to select only the distinct values from the column named "City" from the
table above.
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SELECT DISTINCT City FROM Persons
Now we want to select only the persons living in the city "Sandnes" from the table above.
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Quotes Around Text Fields
SQL uses single quotes around text values (most database systems will also accept double
quotes).
This is correct:
This is wrong:
This is correct:
This is wrong:
Operator Description
= Equal
<> Not equal
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
BETWEEN Between an inclusive range
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LIKE Search for a pattern
IN If you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of the columns
The AND & OR operators are used to filter records based on more than one condition.
The OR operator displays a record if either the first condition or the second condition is
true.
Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove" AND the last
name equal to "Svendson":
OR Operator Example
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Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove" OR the first
name equal to "Ola":
Now we want to select only the persons with the last name equal to "Svendson" AND the
first name equal to "Tove" OR to "Ola":
If you want to sort the records in a descending order, you can use the DESC keyword.
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SQL ORDER BY Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name(s) ASC|DESC
ORDER BY Example
The "Persons" table:
Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we want to sort the
persons by their last name.
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The result-set will look like this:
The first form doesn't specify the column names where the data will be inserted, only their
values:
The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be inserted:
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INSERT INTO Persons
VALUES (4,'Nilsen', 'Johan', 'Bakken 2', 'Stavanger')
The following SQL statement will add a new row, but only add data in the "P_Id",
"LastName" and the "FirstName" columns:
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Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which
record or records that should be updated. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be
updated!
Now we want to update the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.
UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'
WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'
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Be careful when updating records. If we had omitted the WHERE clause in the example
above, like this:
UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'
Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which
record or records that should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be
deleted!
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5 Tjessem Jakob Nissestien 67 Sandnes
Now we want to delete the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.
or
The TOP clause can be very useful on large tables with thousands of records. Returning a
large number of records can impact on performance.
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FROM table_name
Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
LIMIT 5
Oracle Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE ROWNUM <= number
Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
WHERE ROWNUM <=5
Now we want to select only the two first records in the table above.
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P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Now we want to select only 50% of the records in the table above.
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1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "s" from the table above.
The "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the pattern) both before
and after the pattern.
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that ends with an "s" from the "Persons"
table.
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "tav" from the
"Persons" table.
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P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
It is also possible to select the persons living in a city that NOT contains the pattern "tav"
from the "Persons" table, by using the NOT keyword.
SQL Wildcards
SQL wildcards can substitute for one or more characters when searching for data in a
database.
Wildcard Description
% A substitute for zero or more characters
_ A substitute for exactly one character
[charlist] Any single character in charlist
[^charlist] Any single character not in charlist
or
[!charlist]
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P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "nes" from the
"Persons" table.
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Using the _ Wildcard
Now we want to select the persons with a first name that starts with any character,
followed by "la" from the "Persons" table.
Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "S", followed by any
character, followed by "end", followed by any character, followed by "on" from the
"Persons" table.
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3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that do not start with "b" or "s" or "p"
from the "Persons" table.
The IN Operator
The IN operator allows you to specify multiple values in a WHERE clause.
SQL IN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,...)
IN Operator Example
The "Persons" table:
Now we want to select the persons with a last name equal to "Hansen" or "Pettersen" from
the table above.
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The result-set will look like this:
Now we want to select the persons with a last name alphabetically between "Hansen" and
"Pettersen" from the table above.
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The result-set will look like this:
In some databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will not be listed,
because the BETWEEN operator only selects fields that are between and excluding the test
values).
In other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will be listed,
because the BETWEEN operator selects fields that are between and including the test
values).
And in other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" will be listed, but
"Pettersen" will not be listed (like the example above), because the BETWEEN operator
selects fields between the test values, including the first test value and excluding the last
test value.
Example 2
To display the persons outside the range in the previous example, use NOT BETWEEN:
SQL Alias
With SQL, an alias name can be given to a table or to a column.
SQL Alias
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You can give a table or a column another name by using an alias. This can be a good thing to
do if you have very long or complex table names or column names.
Alias Example
Assume we have a table called "Persons" and another table called "Product_Orders". We
will give the table aliases of "p" and "po" respectively.
Now we want to list all the orders that "Ola Hansen" is responsible for.
As you'll see from the two SELECT statements above; aliases can make queries easier to
both write and to read.
SQL joins are used to query data from two or more tables, based on a relationship between
certain columns in these tables.
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SQL JOIN
The JOIN keyword is used in an SQL statement to query data from two or more tables,
based on a relationship between certain columns in these tables.
A primary key is a column (or a combination of columns) with a unique value for each row.
Each primary key value must be unique within the table. The purpose is to bind data
together, across tables, without repeating all of the data in every table.
Note that the "P_Id" column is the primary key in the "Persons" table. This means that no
two rows can have the same P_Id. The P_Id distinguishes two persons even if they have the
same name.
Note that the "O_Id" column is the primary key in the "Orders" table and that the "P_Id"
column refers to the persons in the "Persons" table without using their names.
Notice that the relationship between the two tables above is the "P_Id" column.
JOIN: Return rows when there is at least one match in both tables
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LEFT JOIN: Return all rows from the left table, even if there are no matches in the
right table
RIGHT JOIN: Return all rows from the right table, even if there are no matches in the
left table
FULL JOIN: Return rows when there is a match in one of the tables
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FROM Persons
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName
The INNER JOIN keyword return rows when there is at least one match in both tables. If
there are rows in "Persons" that do not have matches in "Orders", those rows will NOT be
listed.
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The "Orders" table:
Now we want to list all the persons and their orders - if any, from the tables above.
The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons), even if there are
no matches in the right table (Orders).
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SQL RIGHT JOIN Example
The "Persons" table:
Now we want to list all the orders with containing persons - if any, from the tables above.
The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the right table (Orders), even if there
are no matches in the left table (Persons).
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SQL FULL JOIN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
FULL JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name
Now we want to list all the persons and their orders, and all the orders with their persons.
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Hansen Ola 24562
Pettersen Kari 77895
Pettersen Kari 44678
Svendson Tove
34764
The FULL JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons), and all the rows
from the right table (Orders). If there are rows in "Persons" that do not have matches in
"Orders", or if there are rows in "Orders" that do not have matches in "Persons", those rows
will be listed as well.
Notice that each SELECT statement within the UNION must have the same number of
columns. The columns must also have similar data types. Also, the columns in each SELECT
statement must be in the same order.
Note: The UNION operator selects only distinct values by default. To allow duplicate values,
use UNION ALL.
PS: The column names in the result-set of a UNION are always equal to the column names
in the first SELECT statement in the UNION.
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SQL UNION Example
Look at the following tables:
"Employees_Norway":
E_ID E_Name
01 Hansen, Ola
02 Svendson, Tove
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Pettersen, Kari
"Employees_USA":
E_ID E_Name
01 Turner, Sally
02 Kent, Clark
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Scott, Stephen
Now we want to list all the different employees in Norway and USA.
E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Scott, Stephen
Note: This command cannot be used to list all employees in Norway and USA. In the
example above we have two employees with equal names, and only one of them will be
listed. The UNION command selects only distinct values.
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SQL UNION ALL Example
Now we want to list all employees in Norway and USA:
Result
E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Svendson, Stephen
Scott, Stephen
The SELECT INTO statement is most often used to create backup copies of tables.
SELECT *
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_tablename
Or we can select only the columns we want into the new table:
SELECT column_name(s)
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_tablename
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SQL SELECT INTO Example
Make a Backup Copy - Now we want to make an exact copy of the data in our "Persons"
table.
SELECT *
INTO Persons_Backup
FROM Persons
We can also use the IN clause to copy the table into another database:
SELECT *
INTO Persons_Backup IN 'Backup.mdb'
FROM Persons
We can also copy only a few fields into the new table:
SELECT LastName,FirstName
INTO Persons_Backup
FROM Persons
The following SQL statement creates a "Persons_Backup" table with only the persons who
lives in the city "Sandnes":
SELECT LastName,Firstname
INTO Persons_Backup
FROM Persons
WHERE City='Sandnes'
The following example creates a "Persons_Order_Backup" table contains data from the two
tables "Persons" and "Orders":
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SELECT Persons.LastName,Orders.OrderNo
INTO Persons_Order_Backup
FROM Persons
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
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.
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Now we want to create a table called "Persons" that contains five columns: P_Id, LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City.
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 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).
NOT NULL
UNIQUE
PRIMARY KEY
FOREIGN KEY
CHECK
DEFAULT
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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:
The UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints both provide a guarantee for uniqueness for a
column or set of columns.
Note that you can have many UNIQUE constraints per table, but only one PRIMARY KEY
constraint per table.
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The following SQL creates a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column when the "Persons"
table is created:
MySQL:
To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
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To create a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is already created, use
the following SQL:
To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL:
Each table should have a primary key, and each table can have only ONE primary key.
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The following SQL creates a PRIMARY KEY on the "P_Id" column when the "Persons" table
is created:
MySQL:
To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
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To create a PRIMARY KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is already
created, use the following SQL:
To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
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).
MySQL:
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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:
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.
MySQL:
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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)
)
To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
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To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL:
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.
My SQL:
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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)
)
To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
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To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
The default value will be added to all new records, if no other value is specified.
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The following SQL creates a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column when the "Persons"
table is created:
The DEFAULT constraint can also be used to insert system values, by using functions like
GETDATE():
MySQL:
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ALTER City SET DEFAULT 'SANDNES'
MySQL:
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.
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CREATE 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.
If you want to create an index on a combination of columns, you can list the column names
within the parentheses, separated by commas:
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DROP INDEX Syntax for MySQL:
ALTER TABLE table_name DROP INDEX index_name
To delete a column in a table, use the following syntax (notice that some database systems
don't allow deleting a column):
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ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name
To change the data type of a column in a table, use the following syntax:
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.
53
We use the following SQL statement:
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.
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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)
)
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:
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):
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".
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The following SQL statement defines the "P_Id" column to be an auto-increment primary
key field in the "Persons" table:
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):
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".
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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):
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".
You will have to create an auto-increment field with the sequence object (this object
generates a number sequence).
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):
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".
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SQL Views
A view is a virtual table.
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.
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.
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:
Another view in the Northwind sample database selects every product in the "Products"
table with a unit price higher than the average unit price:
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CREATE VIEW [Products Above Average Price] AS
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice
FROM Products
WHERE UnitPrice>(SELECT AVG(UnitPrice) FROM Products)
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":
We can also add a condition to the query. Now we want to see the total sale only for the
category "Beverages":
Now we want to add the "Category" column to the "Current Product List" view. We will
update the view with the following SQL:
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WHERE Discontinued=No
SQL Dates
The most difficult part when working with dates is to be sure that the format of the date
you are trying to insert, matches the format of the date column in the database.
As long as your data contains only the date portion, your queries will work as expected.
However, if a time portion is involved, it gets complicated.
Before talking about the complications of querying for dates, we will look at the most
important built-in functions for working with dates.
Function Description
NOW() Returns the current date and time
CURDATE() Returns the current date
CURTIME() Returns the current time
DATE() Extracts the date part of a date or date/time expression
EXTRACT() Returns a single part of a date/time
DATE_ADD() Adds a specified time interval to a date
DATE_SUB() Subtracts a specified time interval from a date
DATEDIFF() Returns the number of days between two dates
DATE_FORMAT() Displays date/time data in different formats
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The following table lists the most important built-in date functions in SQL Server:
Function Description
GETDATE() Returns the current date and time
DATEPART() Returns a single part of a date/time
DATEADD() Adds or subtracts a specified time interval from a date
DATEDIFF() Returns the time between two dates
CONVERT() Displays date/time data in different formats
SQL Server comes with the following data types for storing a date or a date/time value in
the database:
Note: The date types are chosen for a column when you create a new table in your
database!
For an overview of all data types available, go to our complete Data Types reference.
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SQL Working with Dates
You can compare two dates easily if there is no time component involved!
Now we want to select the records with an OrderDate of "2008-11-11" from the table
above.
Now, assume that the "Orders" table looks like this (notice the time component in the
"OrderDate" column):
we will get no result! This is because the query is looking only for dates with no time
portion.
Tip: If you want to keep your queries simple and easy to maintain, do not allow time
components in your dates!
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NULL values represent missing unknown data.
This chapter will explain the IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators.
Note: It is not possible to compare NULL and 0; they are not equivalent.
Suppose that the "Address" column in the "Persons" table is optional. This means that if we
insert a record with no value for the "Address" column, the "Address" column will be saved
with a NULL value.
It is not possible to test for NULL values with comparison operators, such as =, <, or <>.
We will have to use the IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators instead.
SQL IS NULL
How do we select only the records with NULL values in the "Address" column?
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We will have to use the IS NULL operator:
In the next chapter we will look at the ISNULL(), NVL(), IFNULL() and COALESCE()
functions.
Suppose that the "UnitsOnOrder" column is optional, and may contain NULL values.
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We have the following SELECT statement:
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+UnitsOnOrder)
FROM Products
In the example above, if any of the "UnitsOnOrder" values are NULL, the result is NULL.
Microsoft's ISNULL() function is used to specify how we want to treat NULL values.
The NVL(), IFNULL(), and COALESCE() functions can also be used to achieve the same
result.
Below, if "UnitsOnOrder" is NULL it will not harm the calculation, because ISNULL() returns
a zero if the value is NULL:
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+ISNULL(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products
Oracle
Oracle does not have an ISNULL() function. However, we can use the NVL() function to
achieve the same result:
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+NVL(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products
MySQL
MySQL does have an ISNULL() function. However, it works a little bit different from
Microsoft's ISNULL() function.
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+IFNULL(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+COALESCE(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products
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SQL Data Types
Data types and ranges for Microsoft Access, MySQL and SQL Server.
Text types:
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CHAR(size) Holds a fixed length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special
characters). The fixed size is specified in parenthesis. Can store up to 255
characters
VARCHAR(size) Holds a variable length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special
characters). The maximum size is specified in parenthesis. Can store up
to 255 characters. Note: If you put a greater value than 255 it will be
converted to a TEXT type
TINYTEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of 255 characters
TEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of 65,535 characters
BLOB For BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects). Holds up to 65,535 bytes of data
MEDIUMTEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of 16,777,215 characters
MEDIUMBLOB For BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects). Holds up to 16,777,215 bytes of data
LONGTEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of 4,294,967,295 characters
LONGBLOB For BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects). Holds up to 4,294,967,295 bytes of
data
ENUM(x,y,z,etc.) Let you enter a list of possible values. You can list up to 65535 values in
an ENUM list. If a value is inserted that is not in the list, a blank value will
be inserted.
Note: The values are sorted in the order you enter them.
Number types:
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digits may be specified in the size parameter. The maximum number of
digits to the right of the decimal point is specified in the d parameter
DECIMAL(size,d) A DOUBLE stored as a string , allowing for a fixed decimal point. The
maximum number of digits may be specified in the size parameter. The
maximum number of digits to the right of the decimal point is specified
in the d parameter
*The integer types have an extra option called UNSIGNED. Normally, the integer goes from
an negative to positive value. Adding the UNSIGNED attribute will move that range up so it
starts at zero instead of a negative number.
Date types:
*Even if DATETIME and TIMESTAMP return the same format, they work very differently. In
an INSERT or UPDATE query, the TIMESTAMP automatically set itself to the current date
and time. TIMESTAMP also accepts various formats, like YYYYMMDDHHMMSS,
YYMMDDHHMMSS, YYYYMMDD, or YYMMDD.
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Character strings:
Unicode strings:
Binary types:
Number types:
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decimal point). p must be a value from 1 to 38. Default is 18.
Date types:
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may have only one timestamp variable
SQL Functions
SQL has many built-in functions for performing calculations on data.
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FORMAT() - Formats how a field is to be displayed
Tip: The aggregate functions and the scalar functions will be explained in details in the next
chapters.
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The result-set will look like this:
OrderAverage
950
Now we want to find the customers that have an OrderPrice value higher than the average
OrderPrice value.
Customer
Hansen
Nilsen
Jensen
The COUNT(column_name) function returns the number of values (NULL values will not be
counted) of the specified column:
The COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) function returns the number of distinct values of the
specified column:
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Note: COUNT(DISTINCT) works with ORACLE and Microsoft SQL Server, but not with
Microsoft Access.
The result of the SQL statement above will be 2, because the customer Nilsen has made 2
orders in total:
CustomerNilsen
2
NumberOfOrders
6
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which is the total number of rows in the table.
NumberOfCustomers
3
which is the number of unique customers (Hansen, Nilsen, and Jensen) in the "Orders"
table.
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Now we want to find the first value of the "OrderPrice" column.
FirstOrderPrice
1000
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Tip: Workaround if LAST() function is not supported:
LastOrderPrice
100
LargestOrderPrice
2000
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The MIN() Function
The MIN() function returns the smallest value of the selected column.
SmallestOrderPrice
100
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SQL SUM() Function
OrderTotal
5700
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GROUP BY column_name
Now we want to find the total sum (total order) of each customer.
Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Hansen 2000
Nilsen 1700
Jensen 2000
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Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Hansen 5700
Nilsen 5700
Hansen 5700
Hansen 5700
Jensen 5700
Nilsen 5700
Explanation of why the above SELECT statement cannot be used: The SELECT statement
above has two columns specified (Customer and SUM(OrderPrice). The "SUM(OrderPrice)"
returns a single value (that is the total sum of the "OrderPrice" column), while "Customer"
returns 6 values (one value for each row in the "Orders" table). This will therefore not give
us the correct result. However, you have seen that the GROUP BY statement solves this
problem.
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SQL HAVING Example
We have the following "Orders" table:
Now we want to find if any of the customers have a total order of less than 2000.
Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Nilsen 1700
Now we want to find if the customers "Hansen" or "Jensen" have a total order of more than
1500.
Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Hansen 2000
Jensen 2000
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SQL UCASE() Function
Now we want to select the content of the "LastName" and "FirstName" columns above, and
convert the "LastName" column to uppercase.
LastName FirstName
HANSEN Ola
SVENDSON Tove
PETTERSEN Kari
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The LCASE() function converts the value of a field to lowercase.
Now we want to select the content of the "LastName" and "FirstName" columns above, and
convert the "LastName" column to lowercase.
LastName FirstName
hansen Ola
svendson Tove
pettersen Kari
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SQL MID() Syntax
SELECT MID(column_name,start[,length]) FROM table_name
Parameter Description
column_name Required. The field to extract characters from
start Required. Specifies the starting position (starts at 1)
length Optional. The number of characters to return. If omitted, the MID()
function returns the rest of the text
Now we want to extract the first four characters of the "City" column above.
SmallCity
Sand
Sand
Stav
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SQL LEN() Syntax
SELECT LEN(column_name) FROM table_name
Now we want to select the length of the values in the "Address" column above.
LengthOfAddress
12
9
9
Parameter Description
column_name Required. The field to round.
decimals Required. Specifies the number of decimals to be returned.
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SQL ROUND() Example
We have the following "Products" table:
Now we want to display the product name and the price rounded to the nearest integer.
ProductName UnitPrice
Jarlsberg 10
Mascarpone 33
Gorgonzola 16
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We have the following "Products" table:
Now we want to display the products and prices per today's date.
Parameter Description
column_name Required. The field to be formatted.
format Required. Specifies the format.
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1 Jarlsberg 1000 g 10.45
2 Mascarpone 1000 g 32.56
3 Gorgonzola 1000 g 15.67
Now we want to display the products and prices per today's date (with today's date
displayed in the following format "YYYY-MM-DD").
or
or
SELECT column_name
FROM table_name AS table_alias
BETWEEN SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
BETWEEN value1 AND value2
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CREATE DATABASE CREATE DATABASE database_name
CREATE TABLE CREATE TABLE table_name
(
column_name1 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
...
)
CREATE INDEX CREATE INDEX index_name
ON table_name (column_name)
or
or
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HAVING aggregate_function(column_name) operator value
IN SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
IN (value1,value2,..)
INSERT INTO INSERT INTO table_name
VALUES (value1, value2, value3,....)
or
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or
SELECT column_name(s)
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_table_name
SELECT TOP SELECT TOP number|percent column_name(s)
FROM table_name
TRUNCATE TABLE TRUNCATE TABLE table_name
UNION SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1
UNION
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2
UNION ALL SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1
UNION ALL
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2
UPDATE UPDATE table_name
SET column1=value, column2=value,...
WHERE some_column=some_value
WHERE SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value
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