An

Training Guide

SQL & SQL*Plus

for
Beginners
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SQL & SQL*Plus for Beginners

Course Introduction

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Course Objectives
This course is designed to give each delegate a
basic understanding/awareness of the following...

• Oracle SQL
• Oracle SQL*Plus

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Course Objectives
This course is designed to give each delegate a basic
understanding of the following topics...

• Oracle SQL. You will learn how to use the industry

standard tool for working with a Relational Database.
You will also learn many other things, from
constructing simple queries to creating your own
tables.
• Oracle SQL*Plus. After the course you should have a
good understanding of SQL*Plus, from starting it, to
creating simple reports on it.

During the course there will be several exercises to

complete.

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Note that this guide is meant only as an introduction to

SQL and SQL*Plus and therefore much of the newer,
more advanced features available in Oracle databases
8i, 9i and 10g are not covered.

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Course Contents

1 – Getting Started 11
RDB – A quick refresher 12
What are SQL & SQL*Plus? 19

2 – Introduction to SQL & SQL*Plus 21

Introduction to SQL 22
DML or DDL? 23
Starting SQL*Plus 24

Lab 1 26

Entering SQL Commands 27

Basic Query Block 28
Selecting Specific Columns 29
Arithmetic Operators 30
Column Aliases 31
Concatenation 32
Literals 33
NULL Values 34
Duplicate Rows 37
Ordering Data 38
Row Restriction 40
Using Logical Operators 41
Using SQL Operators 42
Using LIKE 43
Negating a Comparison 44
Multiple Conditions & Operator Precedence 46
Basic SQL*Plus 50
Summary 55
Lab 2 57
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3 – Row & Group Functions 58

Row functions 60
Character functions 62
LOWER, UPPER & INITCAP 63
LPAD & RPAD 64
SUBSTR 65
INSTR 66
LTRIM/RTRIM 67
LENGTH 68
TRANSLATE 69
REPLACE 70
Number functions 71
ROUND 72
TRUNC 73
SIGN 74
CEIL & FLOOR 75
Mathematical functions 76
Oracle Dates & Date Functions 77
MONTHS_BETWEEN 80
ADD_MONTHS 81
NEXT_DAY 82
LAST_DAY 83
ROUND & TRUNC 84
Conversion Functions 85
TO_CHAR & Common Format Masks 86
TO_NUMBER 89
TO_DATE 90
Functions that accept any kind of data 91
NVL 92
GREATEST & LEAST 93
DECODE 94

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Nesting Functions 95
Group Functions 96
Group functions 97
Grouping Data 98
Omitting Groups 100
Summary 101

Lab 3 103

4 - Querying More Than One Table 104

Joins 106
Product 107
Equi join 108
Table Aliases 109
Non-Equi join 110
Outer join 111
Self join 112
Set Operators 113
UNION 115
INTERSECT 116
MINUS 117
Rules 118
Subqueries 119
Single Row 120
Multiple Row 122
ANY/SOME Operator 123
ALL Operator 124
Correlated 126
EXISTS Operator 128
Summary 129

Lab 4 131
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5 - Modifying Data & the Database 132

Inserting new data 134
Updating existing data 137
Deleting data 140
Transaction Processing 142
COMMIT 144
ROLLBACK 145
SAVEPOINT 146
Using DDL 148
Tables 150
Indexes 154
Synonyms 156
Privileges 157
Views 158
Sequences 160
Summary 163

Lab 5 165

6 – More SQL*Plus 166

SQL*Plus variables 168
Ampersand variables 169
Double Ampersand variables 170
Basic SQL*Plus Reporting 171
Adding a page title 172
Setting a BREAK point 173
Saving output to a file 174
Summary 175

Lab 6 177

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Answers to Exercises 178

Demo Tables 185

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Section One
Getting Started

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RDB – A Quick Refresher

RDB Constructs
Four basic constructs make up a Relational
Database: -
• Tables
• Columns
• Rows
• Fields
In addition to the above there is the concept of key
values: -
• Primary Keys
• Foreign Keys

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RDB Constructs
To understand Relational Databases, you need to understand the
four basic constructs of an RDB and the concept of key values: -

Tables A table can be thought of as a storage area, like a filing

cabinet. You use tables to store information about
anything: employees, departments, etc. A database may
only contain one table, or it may contain thousands.
Rows If table has been defined to hold information about (for
example) employees, a row is a horizontal cross section
into the table which contains the information about a
single employee.
Columns A column is the vertical cross section of a table, or in
other words, a column defines each of the attributes
about the data stored on a particular table. For example,
if you have a table which holds employee information,
you could have several columns which determine
employee number, name, job…etc.
Fields A field is where rows and columns intersect. A field points
to a particular column on a particular row within a table.
Primary Keys A primary key is a column that defines the uniqueness of
a row. For example, with employee number, you would
only ever want one employee with a number of 10001.
Foreign Keys A foreign key defines how different tables relate to each
other. For example, if you have defined two tables, one
for employees and one for departments, there will be a
foreign key column on the employee table which relates to
the department code column on the department table.

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RDB Constructs
The EMP Table
A primary key
column containing A normal column,
employee number not a key value

EMP ENAME JOB MGR HIREDATE SAL BONUS DEPTNO

10001 HAMIL PROGRAMMER 10005 10-JAN-1976 2,000.00 500.00 10

10002 FORD ANALYST 10005 20-MAR-1976 3,000.00 10

10003 LUCAS BIG BOSS 18-AUG-1976 10,000.00 20

10004 JONES PROGRAMMER 10005 27-SEP-1976 2,100.00 1,500.00 10

10005 FISHER TEAM LEADER 10003 14-APR-1976 4,000.00 20

A foreign key
A single row A field, found at column which
representing a the intersection of links employee
single employee a row and column to department

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Relational Operators

X =

Product
Restriction Projection

+ =

Join Union Intersect Difference

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Relational Operators

Relational Operators are used to extract and combine data for

selection. They can be thought of as functions that can be
performed on data held within a relational database.

Relation Description
Restriction Restriction is an operation that selects rows from a
relation that meet certain conditions. There can be
none, one or many conditions. This is sometimes
referred to as a ‘horizontal subset’.
Projection This is an operation that only selects specified
columns from a relation and is suitably referred to
as the ‘vertical subset’.
Product The product operation is the result of selecting
rows from two or more relations. The resulting set
of rows returned is often very large.
Join This operation is the result of selecting rows from
two more relations using one or more specified
conditions. Joins are often made via foreign key
columns.
Union This retrieves unique rows that appear in either or
both of two relations. UNION ALL can be used to
retrieve ALL rows from either or both tables.
Intersect This retrieves all rows that appear in both of two
relations.
Difference This retrieves rows that appear in one relation
only.

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RDB Properties
Database Properties: -
• Individual collection of tables
• User does not need to know how data is accessed
• Uses simple language called SQL for all actions
• Uses set operations, not row by row processing
• Can be modified online
Table Properties: -
• No duplicate columns or rows
• Row and column order is insignificant
• Field values are atomic, i.e. They cannot be
broken into component parts

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RDB Properties

A Relational Database has the following properties: -

• It appears as a collection of individual tables to the user, even

though the database may be contained in a single file.
• The user does not specify the access route and does not need
to know how the data is physically stored.
• The user must know which tables can be accessed by table
name
• The user queries and modifies the database using an English
like, non-procedural 4GL, otherwise known as a Structured
Query Language or SQL for short.
• The database provides the user with a set of operators for
partitioning and combining relations via SQL. (see Relational
Operators)
• Its structure can be modified easily

Table Properties

A table on a database has the following properties: -

• Each row on a table should be unique. Each row can be

identified by a Primary Key column *
• There must be no duplicate column names
• Row order is insignificant, default order is the order in which
rows are inserted into a table
• Column order is insignificant when the data is stored. Its order
is defined when data is retrieved.
• All field values are atomic, or in other words they cannot be
broken down into smaller components **

* You may come across table definitions in Oracle that have no primary key
column enforcing uniqueness. This is allowed, but under the hood Oracle
maintains uniqueness using a special column called ROWID

** Traditionally, older database systems held rows as a single column, which

was broken into its component parts by the programmer.

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What are SQL & SQL*Plus?

Okay, what exactly are SQL & SQL*Plus?.

SQL is the standard language used for querying

Relational Databases. It allows you to view and
change data held within an RDB as well as allowing
you to actually modify the structure of the database.

SQL*Plus is Oracle’s front-end interface to SQL.

From SQL*Plus you can create SQL scripts.
SQL*Plus also has its own set of commands which
aid SQL script development, and it also allows you
to produce simple reports.

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What is Next?
We’ve had a quick refresher on the concepts of a
Relational Database and we’ve had a very brief
description what SQL & SQL*Plus are. The next
section jumps straight in and actually starts on basic
SQL commands.

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Section Two
Introduction to SQL

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Introduction to SQL

Very briefly, before we get into actually using SQL,

let’s summarise what can be done with SQL: -
• Query the Database - SQL allows you to easily
query data held on the database. Queries can be
very simple and only take up a couple of lines or
they can be quite complex and take up several
pages of text.
• Change Data held within the Database - Changing
data is just as easy as querying the data. Existing
data can be modified, and you can remove data
or insert new data.
• Change the Structure of the Database - SQL
allows you to actually modify the structure of the
database, meaning you can easily create new
database objects such as tables, indexes, views,
sequences…etc.

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DML or DDL?

Most SQL commands fall into one of three

categories:
• Queries - You will use these the most. They are
for retrieving data from the database, and they
are neither DML nor DDL.
• Commands that allow you to modify the data held
within the database - these commands are
referred to as Data Manipulation Language
commands or DML for short.
• Commands which allow you to modify the
structure of the database - these commands are
known as Data Definition Language
commands or DDL for short
During this course we will learn how to use
commands from all categories.

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Starting SQL*Plus

Before you can use any SQL commands, you must

log into the database using SQL*Plus. SQL*Plus can
usually be found as an icon on your desktop (if you
are running a Windows OS), or it is available whilst
you are logged into a UNIX box.

• If you want to run SQL*Plus from the Windows

desktop, simply double click on the icon. You will
then be asked for a username and password.
• If you are wanting to start SQL*Plus whilst logged
into a UNIX box, then simply type sqlplus from
the command line. You will again be asked for a
username and password.

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Starting SQL*Plus

Before you can use any SQL commands, you must log into the
database using SQL*Plus. SQL*Plus can usually be found as an
Icon on your desktop (if you are running a windows OS), or,
SQL*Plus can be accessed whilst logged into a UNIX box where
the database server can be found.
• If you want to run SQL*Plus from Windows, simply double click
on the SQL*Plus Icon, at this point you will be asked for an
Oracle username and password.
• If you are wanting to start SQL*Plus from in your UNIX
session, simply type sqlplus at the command line, you will
now be asked for a Oracle username and password.

In either case, enter the username and password provided. You

will now see the SQL*Plus command prompt:
SQL>

To quit out of SQL*Plus simply enter the following command:

SQL> quit

UNIX – An example
From the UNIX command line, simply enter:
sqlplus

or, you can provide the username and password from the
command line:
sqlplus user/password

you can also provide the database instance name you wish to log
onto:
sqlplus user/password@DEV

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Lab 1

1 Log into the database using SQL*Plus from the Windows

desktop. Once you see the SQL*Plus prompt, quit out of
SQL*Plus.
2 Log into the database using SQL*Plus from your UNIX
session. Once you see the SQL*Plus prompt, quit out of
SQL*Plus.

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Entering SQL Commands

Once you are logged into the database using

SQL*Plus, you can enter either SQL*Plus commands
or SQL commands. There are a few things you
should note before you start typing:-
• Commands may be on a single line, or many lines
• You should place different clauses on separate
lines for the sake of readability - also make use of
tabs and indents
• SQL Command words cannot be split or
abbreviated
• SQL commands are not case sensitive
• All commands entered at the SQL*Plus prompt
are saved into a command buffer
• You can execute SQL commands in a number of
ways:
• Place a semicolon (;) at the end of the last
clause
• Place a forward slash (/) at the SQL prompt
• Issue the SQL*Plus r[un] command

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Basic Query Block

You now know how to log into the database; we

have also covered how to enter basic commands.
Let’s now try to write our first SQL statement to
query the database.

The basic query block is made up of two clauses:

• SELECT which columns?
• FROM which tables?
For example:
SELECT ename
FROM emp;

The above statement will select the ENAME column

from the EMP table. You can use a * to specify all
columns:
SELECT *
FROM emp;

Table Definition
To view the columns on a table use the desc
SQL*Plus command:
desc emp

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Selecting Specific Columns

You can select any columns in any order that appear

on the table specified in the FROM clause.
• Use a comma (,) as a column separator
• Specify columns in the order you wish to see
them in
• Data is justified by default as follows:-
• Dates/characters to the left
• Numbers to the right
For example,
SELECT empno
, ename
, sal
FROM emp;

would produce output as follows:-

EMPNO ENAME SAL

------- ----------- ------
100001 JONES 100.00
100002 SMITH 45.48
100010 WARD 234.89
100010 FORD 523.56

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Arithmetic Operators

At some point you may want to perform some

arithmetic calculations based on the data returned
by the SELECT statement. This can be achieved
using SQL’s arithmetic operators:
• Multiply *
• Divide /
• Add +
• Subtract -
Normal operator precedence applies - you can also
use brackets to force precedence.

For example, to find the annual salary of all

employees:
SELECT empno
, sal * 12
FROM emp;

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Column Aliases

The heading SQL*Plus will give to columns is by

default based on the column name, but what about
situations as in the previous example?
SELECT empno
, sal * 12
FROM emp;
This SQL statement will give the following output:
EMPNO SAL*12
----- ------
100001 12500
100002 25000
Notice the second column, SAL*12 - not very user
friendly. Using column aliases you can change the
headings, then simply follow the column name with
a space and the column alias:
SELECT empno employee_number
, sal*12 annual_salary
FROM emp
Column aliases must not contain any white space
and the case is ignored. You can get around this by
enclosing the alias in double quotes, as follows:
SELECT empno "Employee Number"
, sal*50 "Annual Salary"
FROM emp;

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Concatenation

You can merge the output of two or more columns

together using the concatenation operator (||). For
example:
SELECT 'Name='||ename name
FROM emp;

This SQL statement will give the following output:

NAME
--------
Name=JONES
Name=SMITH

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Literals

A literal is a character/expression in the SELECT

clause. For example,
SELECT ename
, 'works in department' literal
, deptno
FROM emp;

gives the following output:

ENAME LITERAL DEPTNO
-------- ------- ------
SMITH works in department 10
JONES works in department 20
. . . . . . . . .

Date and character literals must be enclosed in

single quotes.

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NULL Values

If a row contains a column which has no data in it,

then its value is said to be NULL.

NULL is a value that is unavailable, unassigned,

unknown or inapplicable.
• NULL is not the same as ZERO
• If NULL is part of an expression, then the result
will ALWAYS be NULL

In our example emp table, we have the column

comm which is only populated for Salesmen. If you
were to perform the following:
SELECT ename
, sal*12 + comm remuneration
FROM emp;

then the remuneration column would be NULL

wherever comm was NULL.

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NVL Function

You can solve the problem of NULL values causing

expressions to be NULL by using the NVL function.
NVL simply puts a value where a NULL would
otherwise appear.
• NVL can be used with date, character and
number datatypes
• NVL takes two parameters:-
• the column you are checking for NULL
• the value you wish NVL to return if the first
parameter is NULL
So, making use of NVL in the example on the
previous page, we have:
SELECT surname
, sal*12 + NVL(comm,0) remuneration
FROM emp;

The use of NVL in this example always ensures the

value of the comm column is assumed to be 0 if it is
NULL, thus ensuring the remuneration column is
always calculated correctly.

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NVL Examples

Here are a few examples using the NVL function:-

NVL(a_string,'NOT SET')
NVL(a_date,SYSDATE)
NVL(a_number,-1)

Note
Both parameters passed to NVL must have matching
datatypes.

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Duplicate Rows

Whenever you execute a SELECT statement, by

default, all rows are selected. For example,
SELECT deptno
FROM emp;
will give something like:
DEPTNO
----------
10
20
20
30
10
40
50
50
You can prevent duplicate rows from being selected
by using the DISTINCT keyword. Simply follow the
SELECT keyword with DISTINCT; for example,
SELECT DISTINCT deptno
FROM emp;
would give:
DEPTNO
----------
10
20
30
40
50
The DISTINCT keyword affects ALL columns in the
SELECT clause.

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Ordering Data

The order of rows returned by a SELECT statement

is, by default, undefined. You can use the ORDER
BY clause to sort the rows. For example,
SELECT empno
FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

will give something like:

EMPNO
----------
10001
10002
10003
10004
. . .
The ORDER BY clause is simply added to the end of
your SELECT statement.
• Default order is ascending - use DESC after the
column name to change order
• There is no limit on the number of sort columns
• There is no need to SELECT sort column
• You can sort using expressions and aliases
• NULL values are sorted high

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ORDER BY Examples

Here are a few examples of using the ORDER BY

clause:
SELECT empno
FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

SELECT ename
, sal*12 + NVL(comm,0) renum
FROM emp
ORDER BY renum DESC;

SELECT deptno
, hiredate
, ename
FROM emp
ORDER BY deptno
, hiredate DESC
, ename

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Row Restriction

A simple SELECT statement, such as:

SELECT empno
FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

will return all rows from the emp table, but if you
only want a list of employees who work in
department 10, you would use the WHERE clause.
The WHERE clause MUST appear after the FROM
clause. You specify conditions in the WHERE clause
that must be met if the row is to be returned.
Conditions are basically comparisons of
columns/literals using logical operators and SQL
operators. Here is an example:
SELECT empno
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 10
ORDER BY empno;

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Row Restriction using Logical Operators

The following logical operators are available:
Operator Meaning
= equal to
> greater than
>= greater than or equal to
< less than
<= less than or equal to
A WHERE clause is generally made up of three
elements:
• Column name
• Comparison operator (logical operator)
• Column name/literal

Some examples:
SELECT empno
FROM emp
WHERE hiredate <= '01-Jan-98';

SELECT ename
, empno
FROM emp
WHERE job = 'CLERK';

SELECT empno
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 10;

SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE comm > sal;

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Row Restriction using SQL Operators

The following SQL operators are available:
Operator Meaning
BETWEEN between two values (inclusive)
IN match any in a list of values
IS NULL is a NULL value
LIKE match a character pattern

Some examples:
SELECT empno
FROM emp
WHERE deptno BETWEEN 20 AND 50;

SELECT ename
, job
FROM emp
WHERE deptno IN (10,20,30,40,50);

SELECT empno
FROM emp
WHERE comm IS NULL;

The LIKE operator is covered on the next page.

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Row Restriction using LIKE

Sometimes you may not know the exact value to
search for: for example, you may want a list of all
employees whose name begins with the letter S.
You perform this kind of comparison using the LIKE
operator.
The LIKE operator expects a wildcard search
pattern. A wildcard is basically a way to specify
parts of a string which you do not know.
Wildcard Symbols Available
Symbol Represents
% any sequence of zero or more characters
_ (underscore) any single character

Some examples:
To list all employees whose names begin with S:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE ename LIKE 'S%';

To list all employees whose names have exactly 4

characters:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE ename LIKE '_ _ _ _'; (no spaces between _ )

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Negating a Comparison
Rather than writing a WHERE clause which says
"select rows which meet a certain condition", it may
well be easier to say "select rows which DO NOT
meet a certain condition". You do this with a negate
expression.
Negating Logical Operators
Operator Meaning
<> Not equal to
!= Same as <>
NOT column = Same as <>
NOT column > Not greater than

Negating SQL Operators

Operator Meaning
NOT BETWEEN not between two values
NOT IN not in a list of values
NOT LIKE not in a character pattern
IS NOT NULL is not a NULL value

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Examples of Negating a Comparison

To select all rows where the department is not 10,
20 or 30:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE deptno NOT IN(10,20,30);

To select all rows where the name does not begin

with S:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE ename NOT LIKE 'S%';

To select all rows where the comm column is not

null:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE comm IS NOT NULL;

To select all rows where the hiredate is not

during 1998:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE hiredate NOT BETWEEN '01-jan-99'
AND '31-jan-99;

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Multiple Conditions
A WHERE clause is not restricted to a single
condition - it can contain any number of conditions.
Multiple conditions used together are referred to as
a compound logical expression.
You can use the AND and OR keywords to create
WHERE clauses with multiple conditions.
• A condition using the AND keyword is true if
BOTH conditions are true
• A condition using the OR keyword is true if
EITHER condition is true
Some examples:
To select all rows where the department is 10 AND
the salary is greater than 1000:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 10
AND sal >= 1000;

To select all rows where the department is 10 OR

the salary is greater than 1000:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 10
OR sal >= 1000;

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Multiple Condition Examples

To select all employees who were hired before July
1997 whose commission is more than £1,000 but
less than £1,500:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE hiredate < '01-jul-99'
AND NVL(comm,0) BEWTEEN 1001 AND 1499;

To select all employees who are not clerks but do

work in departments 10, 40 or 50:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE job <> 'CLERK'
AND deptno IN (10,40,50);

To select employees who work in department 10

who earn more than £10,000 per annum, or
employees who work in department 30 who earn
more than £15,000 per annum:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE (deptno = 10 AND sal*12 > 10000)
OR (deptno = 30 AND sal*12 > 15000);

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Operator Precedence
When constructing a WHERE clause you need to be
aware of operator precedence. This determines
how a condition is evaluated, and it can greatly
affect the results. Operators are evaluated in a strict
order, as follows:
1. All Logical and SQL operators
2. NOT
3. AND
4. OR
Default Operator Precedence can be overruled by
using parentheses.

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Operator Precedence Examples

To select all managers in any department AND all
clerks in department 10:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 10
AND job='CLERK' OR JOB ='MANAGER' ;

The following would produce different results:

SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 10
AND (job='CLERK' OR JOB ='MANAGER');

The second statement says "select all rows where

deptno is 10 and job is either CLERK or MANAGER” -
this would only give rows where department is 10
AND job is MANAGER OR CLERK.
Tip
If you are unsure as to exactly how a condition will
be evaluated, feel free to use parentheses.

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Basic SQL*Plus
As we saw earlier, the SQL language is actually
accessed from within a tool called SQL*Plus. Before
we finish this section of the course with the
exercises, we need to take a look at some of the
basic SQL*Plus commands you will need to use
when working with SQL. We will quickly cover the
following:
• Editing and executing SQL in the buffer
• Saving, loading and executing SQL files

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SQL*Plus Buffer
When you enter a SQL command at the SQL*Plus
prompt, it is stored in the SQL buffer and it will
remain there until you enter a new command. If you
press [RETURN] before completing a line,
SQL*Plus will prompt you for a line number where
you can continue to enter the command. You
terminate the buffer by pressing [RETURN] again.
A semicolon, forward slash or entering RUN will
terminate and execute a SQL statement.
For example:
SQL> select *
2 from emp;
or:
SQL> select *
2 from emp
3 /
or:
SQL> select *
2 from emp
3 [RETURN]
SQL> run

All of the above examples do the same thing.

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Editing SQL
Once you have entered some SQL, you may want to
execute the same code but with a few changes.
You could simply re-type the code with the changes,
or you could use some basic SQL*Plus commands to
edit what is stored in the SQL Buffer.
Editing Commands
Command Abbreviation
Purpose
APPEND text A text
Adds text to end of
current line
CHANGE c/old/new/
Changes old top new on
current line
CHANGE c/text/
Deletes text from current
line
CLEAR BUFFER cl buff
Deletes all lines from
buffer
DEL Deletes current line
INPUT i
Inserts an indefinite
number of lines
INPUT i text
Inserts a line consisting
of text
LIST l Lists all lines in buffer
l n (or just Lists one line specified
LIST n
n) by n
LIST m n l m n Lists from line m to n
ED
Invokes editor with
contents of SQL Buffer
RUN r
Displays and runs what
is in buffer
/ Runs what is in buffer

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Editing SQL Examples

Assume you have the following statement in the
SQL buffer:
SQL> SELECT ename
2 , job
3 FROM emp;
If you wanted to change this SQL to also select the
hiredate column after the job column, you would
enter the following:
SQL> 2
2* , empno
SQL> input , hiredate

You would now have:

SQL> SELECT ename
2 , job
3 , hiredate
4 FROM emp;

To remove line 2:
SQL> 2
2* , job
SQL> del

To change hiredate to job:

SQL> 2
2* , hiredate
SQL> c/hiredate/job/

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Saving, Loading and Executing SQL

As well as using the SQL buffer to store SQL
commands, you can also store your SQL in files.
These files can be edited with your own editor; you
can then re-call and run these files as if you had just
typed the SQL commands directly into the SQL
buffer. Use the following commands from the
SQL*Plus prompt:

Command Description
Saves the current contents of the
SAVE filename
SQL buffer to a file
Loads the contents of a file into the
GET filename
SQL buffer
START filename Runs a file (can also use @file)
ED filename Invokes an editor to edit the file
EXIT Quits SQL*Plus

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Summary
To summarise, we have seen the basic syntax for
the SELECT statement:
SELECT [DISTINCT]{*,COLUMN [ALIAS]….}
FROM TABLE
WHERE CONDITION(S)
ORDER BY {COLUMN|EXPRESSION}[ASC|DESC]};

• Use TABS for clarity

• Always place different clauses on different lines

We have covered the following:

• Basic SELECT clause
• The DISTINCT keyword
• Column Aliases
• The ORDER BY clause
• The WHERE clause
• Single/Multiple conditions
• Logical/SQL Operators
• Negating conditions
• Multiple conditions
• Operator Precedence
• Basic SQL*Plus commands

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What is Next?
Having covered the most commonly used type of
SQL statement, the SELECT statement and also
briefly looked at SQL*Plus commands, we are now
ready to take a look at some of the more complex
features of SQL.

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Lab 2

1 Select all rows from the salgrade table.

2 Select all rows from the emp table.
3 Select all employees who have a salary between 1600 and
3000.
4 List department number and department name in name
order from the dept table.
5 Display all the different job types, in reverse order.
6 List the names and hiredate of all clerks in department 20.
7 List all employees whose name begins with S.
8 Display the name, job, mgr and sal for all employee who
have a manager. Sort the list by sal descending.
9 List the name and total remuneration of all employees.
10 Display the name, salary, annual salary and commission of
all salespeople whose monthly salary is less then their
commission. The output should be sorted by salary, highest
first.

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Section Three
Row & Group Functions

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Row & Group Functions

So far, we have seen how to use the most
commonly used command in SQL, the SELECT
statement. Now that we have this basic knowledge
we can begin to cover more complex features of
SQL. In this section we will cover the following:
• Row Functions
• Group Functions & Grouping Data

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Row Functions

Row functions are basically pre-defined or custom

built commands which can be used to modify the
data in a SQL statement. Row functions have the
following properties:
• They require arguments - these can be constants,
variables, column names or expressions
• Functions return a single value
• Functions act on each row returned by the query
• They can be used in SELECT, WHERE and ORDER
BY clauses
• They can be nested

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Row Functions

There are many different kinds of row functions

available. They are:
• Character Functions
• Number Functions
• Oracle Dates, Date Arithmetic & Date functions
• Conversion functions & format Masks
• Functions that accept any kind of datatype
• Nesting Functions
We will take a brief look at some of the more
commonly used functions.

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Character Functions

We will look at the following character functions:

• LOWER
• UPPER
• INITCAP
• LPAD & RPAD
• SUBSTR
• INSTR
• LTRIM & RTRIM
• LENGTH
• TRANSLATE
• REPLACE

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LOWER
Converts all characters to lower case
Syntax
LOWER(argument)
Example
SELECT LOWER('ORACLE') … = oracle

UPPER
Converts all characters to upper case
Syntax
UPPER(argument)
Example
SELECT UPPER('oracle') … = ORACLE

INITCAP
Forces the first letter of each word to be in upper
case
Syntax
INITCAP(argument)
Example
SELECT INITCAP('oracle') … = Oracle

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LPAD & RPAD

Pads string to the left or right with a specified
character until a specified length is reached
Syntax
LPAD(string,len,pstring)
RPAD(string,len,pstring)
Arguments
string the string to be padded
len the length of the final string
pstring the string to use for padding
Example
SELECT LPAD('ORACLE',10,'-') … = ----ORACLE

Notes
If string is longer than len then string is
truncated to len characters.

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SUBSTR
The SUBSTR function is used to extract a portion of
a string.
Syntax
SUBSTR(string,pos,len)
Arguments
string the string to be extracted from
len starting position to extract
pstring length of extraction
Example
SELECT SUBSTR('ORACLE',2,3) … = RAC

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INSTR
Returns the starting position of string within another
string.
Syntax
INSTR(string,search)
INSTR(string,search,pos,n)
Arguments
string The string to be searched
search The search string
pos Start position of search
n Finds the nth occurrence
Example
SELECT INSTR('Oracle','cle') … = 4

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LTRIM & RTRIM

The ltrim and rtrim functions remove portions of a
string from the left or right
Syntax
LTRIM(string,rem)
RTRIM(string,rem)
Arguments
string The string you wish to modify
rem The string to be removed. All occurrences
are removed
Example
SELECT LTRIM('OOracle,'O') … = racle

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LENGTH
The length function returns the number of
characters in a string.
Syntax
LENGTH(string)

Arguments
string The string you want the length of
Example
SELECT LENGTH('Oracle) … = 6

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TRANSLATE
The TRANSLATE function searches through a string
for a character, and replaces it with another.
Syntax
TRANSLATE(string,from,to)
Arguments
string The string you wish to modify
from Searches for this character
to Replaces with this character
Example
SELECT TRANSLATE('hekko','k','l') … = hello

SELECT TRANSLATE('gekko','gk','hl') … = hello

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REPLACE
The REPLACE function searches through a string for
another string and replaces all occurrences of it with
another string
Syntax
REPLACE(string,search,replace)
REPLACE(string,search)
Arguments
string The string you wish to modify
search Searches for this string
replace Replaces with this string. If replace is
omitted then search is removed from
string
Example
SELECT REPLACE('orafred','fred','cle') … = oracle

SELECT REPLACE('oracleab','ab') … = oracle

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Number functions
We will look at the following number functions:
• ROUND
• TRUNC
• SIGN
• CEIL & FLOOR
• Mathematical functions

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ROUND
The ROUND function rounds a number to a specified
number of decimal places.
Syntax
ROUND(number,n)
Arguments
number The number you want to round
n The number of decimal places: if n is
negative then the number to the left of
the decimal point is rounded
Example
SELECT ROUND(10.25,1) … = 10.3

SELECT ROUND(10.25,-1) … = 10

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TRUNC
The TRUNC function truncates a number to a
specified number of decimal places.
Syntax
TRUNC(number,n)
Arguments
number The number you want to truncate
n The number of decimal places
Example
SELECT TRUNC(10.25,1) … = 10.2

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SIGN
The SIGN function returns -1 if a number is
negative, 0 if a number is zero and +1 if a number
is positive.
Syntax
SIGN(number)

Example
SELECT SIGN(10),SIGN(-100) … = 1 and -1

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CEIL & FLOOR

The CEIL and FLOOR functions return the largest or
smallest integers which are greater or smaller than
a specified number.
Syntax
CEIL(number)
FLOOR(number)
Example
SELECT CEIL(10.25) … = 11

SELECT FLOOR(10.25) … = 10

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Mathematical Functions
There are more number functions available. Here is
a list of some of them:
Function Arguments Returns
power mn Raises m to the power n
mod mn Returns remainder of m
divided by n
abs m Returns absolute value of m
sqrt m Square root on m
log mn Logarithm, base m of n
sin n Sine of n
sinh n Hyperbolic sine of n
tan n Tangent of n
tanh n Hyperbolic tangent on n
cos n Cosine of n
cosh n Hyperbolic cosine of n
exp n e raised to the nth power
where e=2.71828183
ln n Natural logarithm on n,
where n is greater than zero

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Oracle Dates
Dates in Oracle are stored as a number which
represents the following:
• Century
• Year
• Month
• Day
• Hours
• Minutes
• Seconds
The default display format is DD-MON-RR (or DD-
MON-YY) which represents a 2 digit day, followed by
a 3 character month, and ending in a 2 digit year:
for example, 10-JUL-99.

Current Date & Time

There is a special pseudo column available in Oracle
called SYSDATE. This returns current date and
time, for example:
SELECT SYSDATE …

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Date Arithmetic
Arithmetic operators can be performed on dates.
The following table describes how this works:
Operation Result Type Description
date + number date Adds number of
days to date
date - number date Subtracts number
of days from date
date - date number of days Subtracts one
date from another
date + number/24 date Adds number of
hours to date

Date Arithmetic Examples

To find the date 10 days ago:
SELECT SYSDATE-10
FROM dual;

The above example SELECTs from a dummy table

called “dual” - this is simply a table containing a
single column and a single row. It is useful to
SELECT from when you want a single row to be
returned to allow you to use a function or pseudo
column.

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Date functions
We will look at the following Date functions:
• MONTHS_BETWEEN
• ADD_MONTHS
• NEXT_DAY
• LAST_DAY
• ROUND
• TRUNC

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MONTHS_BETWEEN
This function returns the number of months
between two dates. The non-integer part of the
result represents a portion of a month.
Syntax
MONTHS_BETWEEN(date1,date2)
Example
SELECT MONTHS_BETWEEN(sysdate,sysdate-30) … = 1

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ADD_MONTHS
This function adds a specified number of months to
a date.
Syntax
ADD_MONTHS(date,mon)
Arguments
date The date you are adding too
mon The number of months to add. mon can
be negative
Example
SELECT ADD_MONTHS(sysdate,2) …

would add 2 months to the current date

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NEXT_DAY
The NEXT_DAY function is used to find the next
date of the specified day after a specified date.
Syntax
NEXT_DAY(date,day)
Arguments
date The starting date
day A string representing the day you are
looking for, i.e. Monday, Tuesday, etc.
Can also be given as a number where 1 is
Sunday and 7 is Saturday.
Example
SELECT NEXT_DAY(SYSDATE,'Monday') …

would return the first Monday after today's date.

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LAST_DAY
The LAST_DAY function is used to find the last day
of the month which contains a specified date.
Syntax
LAST_DAY(date)

Example
SELECT LAST_DAY(sysdate) …

would find the last day of the current month

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ROUND (date version)

The ROUND function is used to round dates to the
nearest month or year.
Syntax
ROUND(date,what)

Arguments
date The date to be rounded
what Can either be MONTH or YEAR - if omitted
then time element is set to 12:00:00am
(useful for comparing dates with different
times).
Example
SELECT ROUND(sysdate,'YEAR') …

will return the first day of the current year

TRUNC
Very similar to the ROUND function, but TRUNC
effectively always rounds down.

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Conversion Functions
When you are selecting columns from a table,
specifying literals or using the results of functions,
you are working with specific datatypes. There will
be times when you need to mix and match
datatypes, and you do this using conversion
functions. We will cover the following conversion
functions:
• TO_CHAR
• TO_NUMBER
• TO_DATE

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TO_CHAR
The TO_CHAR function is used convert a value into
a char, with or without a specified format.
Syntax
TO_CHAR(number)
TO_CHAR(number,format)
TO_CHAR(date)
TO_CHAR(date,format)

Arguments
number The number you want to convert to a char
date A date you want to convert to a char
format The format mask you wish to apply to the
resulting char. Many format masks are
available.

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Common Format Masks

Date Format Masks
Format Mask Meaning
YYYY,YYY,YY,Y Displays year in 4, 3, 2 or 1 digits
RR Returns a year according to the
last two digits of the current year
and the 2 digit year passed to the
to_char function
MON,MONTHS,MM 3 digit spelled month, full month
spelling or 2 digit month number
Q Quarter of year
DY,DAY,DDD,DD,D 3 letter spelled day, fully spelled
day, day of year, day of month or
day of week
WW,W Week of month or year

Time Format Mask

Format Mask Meaning
HH,HH12,HH24 Hour of day, Hours 1-12 or Hours
1-24
MI Minute
SS Second
SSSSS Seconds since midnight

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Common Format Masks

Number Format Masks

Format Mask Meaning
9 Numeric position, number of 9's
determine width
0 Same as 9 except leading 0's are
displayed
$ Floating dollar sign
. Decimal point position specified

Examples of TO_CHAR
Convert a number to a char:
TO_CHAR(10)

Convert a date to a char, and display as

DD-MON-YYYY:
TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DD-MON-YYYY')

Convert a number to a char and display as a 5 digit

char:
TO_CHAR(number,'99999')

Convert a date to a char and display only the time:

TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'HH:MI:SS')

List employee salaries as a char with some leading

text:
SELECT 'Salary='||TO_CHAR(sal,'9990.00') …

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TO_NUMBER
The TO_NUMBER function is used convert a char into
a number.
Syntax
TO_NUMBER(string)

Example
SELECT TO_NUMBER('10') …

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TO_DATE
The TO_DATE function is used convert a char into a
date.
Syntax
TO_DATE(string)
TO_DATE(string,format)

Arguments
string The string to be converted
format The format mask you wish to apply to the
input string: this ensures that the string is
in a correct date format. If format is
omitted then the default date format
(usually DD-MON-RR) is used.
Example
SELECT TO_DATE('10-JUL-1999','DD-MON-YYYY') …

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Functions That Accept Any Kind of

Datatype
We will look at the following functions:
• NVL
• GREATEST & LEAST
• DECODE

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NVL
The NVL function returns a specified value if
another is NULL.
Syntax
NVL(value,new value)

Arguments
value The value you wish to check for null
new value Returns this if value is null
Examples
SELECT NVL(mgr,'No manager') …

SELECT NVL(comm,0) …

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GREATEST & LEAST

These two functions return either the greatest or
least from a list of values.
Syntax
GREATEST(value1,value2, …)
LEAST(value1,value2, …)

Arguments
valuen Makes up list of values
Examples
SELECT GREATEST(10,20,50,40) …

will return 50, whereas

SELECT LEAST(10,20,50,40) …

will return 10

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DECODE
The DECODE function is very powerful. It works like
an IF statement, but can be embedded within a SQL
statement.
Syntax
DECODE( value,
, search1, result1
[, search2, result2 . . .]
, default)

Arguments
value The value to be evaluated
search The value to search for
result Returns value if a match is found
default Returns this if no match is found
Examples
To display a percentage based on salary grade:
SELECT DECODE( salgrade
, 1,'15%'
, 2,'10%'
, 3,'8'
, '5%' ) bonus …

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Nesting Functions
There will be times when you need to perform two
or more functions on a single value. The second
function may depend on the result of the first, and
so on: you can do this kind of thing by nesting
functions.
As a simple example, let's say that you want to list
all employees, and that you want the manager
column to contain some readable text if it is null.
You might at first try:
SELECT NVL(mgr,'NO MANAGER') ..

This would produce an error because the datatypes

do not match (mgr is a number, 'NO MANAGER' is a
char). The solution would be to convert mgr to a
char first:
SELECT NVL(TO_CHAR(mgr),'NO MANAGER')) …

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Group Functions
Single row functions act upon each row returned
from a query. Group functions, on the other hand,
act on sets of rows returned from a query. This set
can be the whole table or the table split into smaller
groups.
A table is split into smaller groups with the GROUP
BY clause. This appears after the WHERE clause in a
SELECT statement.

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Group Functions

There are many group functions available:

Function Value Returned
AVG(n) Returns average on n, ignoring nulls
COUNT(n|*) Returns number on non-null rows
using column n. If * is used then all
rows are counted
MAX(expr) Maximum value of expr
MIN(expr) Minimum value of expr
STDDEV(n) Standard deviation of n, ignoring nulls
SUM(n) Sum of n, ignoring nulls
VARIANCE(n) Variance of n, ignoring nulls
Notes
n can be prefixed with the keyword DISTINCT - this
will make the group function only work on unique
values of the column specified by n.
Examples of using group functions
To find total paid in salaries for all employees:
SELECT SUM(sal) …
To find highest, lowest and average salary:
SELECT MAX(sal), MIN(sal), AVG(sal) …
To find total paid in salaries for all employees in
department 20:
SELECT SUM(sal)
FROM emp
WHERE department = 20;

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Grouping Data
You can split the data in a table into smaller groups,
you can then use Group Functions to return
summary information about each group. You split a
table using the GROUP BY clause.
The GROUP BY clause instructs the query to return
rows split into groups determined by the specified
columns. GROUP BY generally takes the following
form:
SELECT job
, AVG(sal)
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 20
GROUP BY job;

The above statement will return the average salary

for each job for employees who work in department
20. The data has been grouped by the job column,
the AVG group function has then returned summary
data based on all rows in the table that are in the
current group.

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Grouping Data

When grouping data, you should be aware of the

following:
• You are not restricted to a single column. You
can group by as many columns as you like, as
long as the columns you are grouping by are in
the SELECT clause
• Rows can be omitted from the grouped data by
using the WHERE clause
• Groups can be omitted from the results by using
the HAVING clause
• When grouping data and using group functions,
you must ensure all columns in the SELECT
clause that do not use group functions are
included in the GROUP BY clause, otherwise an
error will occur

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Grouping Data - Omitting Groups

You can omit groups returned from a query which
use a GROUP BY clause by using the HAVING
clause. HAVING generally takes the form:
SELECT job
, AVG(sal)
FROM emp
WHERE department = 20
GROUP BY job
HAVING AVG(sal) > 1000;

The above statement will return the average salary

for each job for employees who work in department
20 where the average salary is greater than 1000.
The HAVING clause can include anything that
appears in the SELECT clause. You generally
include group functions in the HAVING clause rather
than just column names, because if you had a
HAVING clause as follows:
HAVING job <> 'CLERK'
this would correctly omit all CLERKS; but this is a
very inefficient way to do it, and by the time the
HAVING clause is evaluated, the rows with CLERKS
have already been retrieved. It would be much
better to omit CLERKS using the WHERE clause.

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Summary
In this section we have covered:
• Row Functions
• Row functions act on each row returned
• Character functions
• Number functions
• Oracle dates & date functions
• Conversion functions & format masks
• Functions that accept any datatype
• Nesting functions
• Group Functions & Grouping Data
• Group functions act on a group of rows
• Many different group functions
• Grouping Data
• Omitting groups

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What is Next?
In the next section we take a look how to select
data from more than one table at a time. We cover
joins, set operators and subqueries.

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Lab 3

1 List all employees, give each a 15% pay increase and display
new salary always rounded down to the nearest whole
number. Display name, old salary and new salary.
2 List all employee names in upper and lower case, also
display the name with the first character in upper and the
rest in lower.
3 Create a list that displays the first 2 digits of the employee
name, followed by the empno, followed by the rest of the
name, display as a single column.
4 Generate the following output:
EMPLOYEES
-----------------------
Smith is 5 digits long
Allen is 5 digits long
Ward is 4 digits long
Jones is 5 digits long
Martin is 6 digits long
Blake is 5 digits long
. . . . .

5 Display the name, hiredate and number of whole months

each employee has been employed. Show the highest first.
6 List each employee name along with the salary if it is more
than 1500, if it is 1500 print 'On Target', if it is less than
1500 print 'Below 1500'.
7 Write a query that will display the day of the week for the
current date.
8 List the maximum, minimum and average salaries for all
employees.
9 List the total salary bill for each job type.
10 Display a count of how many CLERKS there are.
11 Find all departments that have more than 3 employees.

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Section Four
Querying More Than One
Table

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Querying More Than One Table

There will be times when you need to select data
from more than one table at a time. This section
covers all the basics of doing this, and we will cover:
• Joins
• Set Operators
• Subqueries

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Joins
So far, any queries we've seen have been from a
single table at a time - but SQL allows you to query
many tables at the same time through the use of
joins. We will now cover some of the basics of
joining tables within a SELECT statement. We will
look at the following types of join:
• Product
• Equi join
• Non-equi join
• Outer join
• Self join

The WHERE clause is used to construct a join.

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Joins - Product
If you construct a SELECT statement which contains
information from two or more tables without
specifically linking any of the columns from one
table to the next, the resulting query would be what
is known as a product (sometimes referred to as a
Cartesian join). This basically means that ALL rows
from ALL tables are returned in EVERY combination.
So for example, lets say we have two tables - “emp”
with 14 rows and “dept” with 4 rows - and we
entered the following statement:
SELECT dname,ename
FROM emp,dept;
The above query would return all rows from both
tables in all combinations, resulting in a total of 56
rows being returned (14 * 4 ).
You will very rarely need to perform this kind of
query, but it is mentioned so that you are aware of
the result of a product join. If you unintentionally
create one then the results could be very different
to what you might expect: imagine 2 tables, with
over 1,000,000 rows each!!

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Joins - Equi
An equi join is a join which directly links columns
from one table to another, or in other words, an
equi join joins tables where a column on one table is
equal to a column from another table. As an
example, let's say you have the following statement:
SELECT ename,deptno
FROM emp;

This is okay, but what if instead of displaying the

department number (deptno), you wanted to
display the department name. You would have to
create an equi join from the emp table to the dept
table:
SELECT emp.ename,dept.dname
FROM emp,dept
WHERE dept.deptno = emp.deptno;

The above statement joins the emp and dept tables

using the deptno column, and in English the
statement reads: select the ename column from
the emp table and get the dname column from the
dept table, only select dept rows where the
deptno on dept is the same as the deptno on the
emp table.

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Table Aliases
As a rule, when selecting data from more than one
table, you should qualify the column names you use
with the table name. This removes any ambiguity if
there are duplicate column names across different
tables: you do this by prefixing a column name with
the table name followed by a dot (.):
SELECT TABLE.COLUMN …
A better method of this is to use a table alias. A
table alias is very similar a column alias, in that it is
a method of renaming a table only for the purposes
of the query - you can then use this alias within
your query as if the table were actually called by the
alias. This can save a lot of typing, make SQL easier
to read and allowing for self joins (covered later).
The syntax for a table join is simple: just follow the
table name with the alias:
SELECT e.ename,d.dname
FROM emp e,dept d
WHERE e.deptno = d.deptno;
Qualifying column names can also improve
performance of your code because you are telling
the system exactly where to find the column.

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Joins - Non Equi

A non-equi join is used where a value (column) is
within a range of values rather than equal to a
specific value. As an example, the relationship
between the emp and salgrade table is an equi
join, in that no column on the emp table
corresponds directly to a column on the salgrade
table. The link between the two tables is that the
sal column on emp must be BETWEEN two values
found on salgrade.
SELECT e.ename,e.sal.s.grade
FROM emp e,salgrade s
WHERE e.sal BETWEEN s.losal AND s.hisal;
The statement reads: select the ename and sal
columns from the emp table and get the grade
column from the salgrade table, only select
salgrade rows where the sal column on emp is
between the losal and hisal columns on
salgrade. As a general rule, when joining tables,
you need 'number of tables minus 1' join conditions,
so to join three tables you would require at least
two join conditions.

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Joins - Outer
An outer join allows you to join tables together and
still return rows even if one side of a condition is not
satisfied. For example, the dept table has 4
departments (10, 20, 30 and 40), and the emp table
has employees in all departments except 40, so if
you were to write some SQL to join the two tables
together using a standard equi-join, the row from
dept which does not appear in emp would not be in
the returned rows. You can use an outer join to get
around this problem.
SELECT e.ename,d.dname
FROM emp e,dept d
WHERE d.deptno = e.deptno(+);

The (+) in the above statement creates an outer

join. It basically says: still return a row from dept
even if the join condition fails. When creating outer
joins, you must put the (+) on the side of the
condition where no data will be found - in this case,
when SQL has retrieved department 40 from dept,
it will not find any rows on emp for department 40,
but the dept row is still returned.

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Joins - Self
By using a self join with table aliases you can join a
table to itself. A self join basically allows you to
select from the same table more than once within
the same SQL statement - this is very useful if a
table has rows on it which relate to other rows on
the same table. For example, the emp table holds
employees, and each employee has a manager
(except the big boss). This manager is stored on
the same table: so, you would need a self join if
you wanted to create a statement that listed all
employee names along with their manager name.
SELECT e.ename employee_name
, m.ename manager_name
FROM emp e,emp m
WHERE m.empno = e.mgr;

The above statement says: select the employee

name from emp, and call it employee_name, then
select the employee name again and call it
manager_name from emp where the employee
number (empno) is the same as the manager (mgr)
stored on the first record.

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Set Operators
We covered the concepts of Set Operators in the
introduction to Relational Databases at the start of
this course. So far we have covered:
• restriction with the WHERE clause
• projection with the SELECT clause,
• joins
• product
We will now cover:
• UNION
• INTERSECT
• MINUS

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Set Operators
UNION, INTERSECT and MINUS set operators are
used when you need to construct two or more
queries and you want to see the results as if it were
a single query.
The queries you use could be totally different, i.e.
different tables, or they could be using the same
table but be using different WHERE or GROUP BY
clauses.

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Set Operators - UNION

The UNION set operator combines the results of two
or more queries and returns all distinct rows from all
queries. It takes the form:
SELECT job
FROM emp
WHERE deptno=10
UNION
SELECT job
FROM emp
WHERE deptno=30;

The above statement would, first of all, select all

jobs from emp where the department is 10, then
select all jobs from emp where the department is
30. The results of both these queries are combined
and only distinct rows are returned.

UNION ALL
Instead of using UNION, you could use UNION ALL
which would return ALL rows from both queries.

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Set Operators - INTERSECT

The INTERSECT set operator combines the results
of two or more queries and returns only rows which
appear in BOTH queries. It takes the form:
SELECT deptno
FROM dept
INTERSECT
SELECT deptno
FROM emp;

The above statement would first of all select all

rows from dept, then all rows from emp, and only
where the data is found in BOTH queries would the
data be returned. This is effectively saying: select
all department numbers where employees can be
found

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Set Operators - MINUS

The MINUS set operator combines the results of two
or more queries and returns only rows that appear
in the first query and not the second. It takes the
form:
SELECT deptno
FROM dept
MINUS
SELECT deptno
FROM emp;

The above statement would first of all select all

rows from dept, then all rows from emp - data
would be returned if it was found in the first query
and not the second. This is effectively saying:
select all department numbers which have no
employees.

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Set Operators - Rules

There are a number of rules you should follow when
using Set Operators:
• You must SELECT the same number of columns
in each query
• All corresponding columns MUST be of the same
datatype
• Duplicate rows are ALWAYS eliminated (except
when using UNION ALL)
• Column names are derived from the first query
• Queries are executed from top to bottom
• Can use multiple set operators at the same time
• Can include an ORDER BY at end of last query. A
useful way to specify columns in an ORDER BY is
by using the column position rather than the
name, for example, to sort the output from a Set
Operation by the first column:
SELECT deptno FROM dept
UNION
SELECT deptno FROM emp
ORDER BY 1;

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Subqueries
A sub query is basically a SELECT statement within
another SELECT statement; they allow you to select
data based on unknown conditional values. A
subquery generally takes the form:
SELECT column(s)
FROM table(s)
WHERE column(s) = (SELECT column(s)
FROM table(s)
WHERE condition(s) );

The subquery is the part in bold and in brackets:

this part of the query is executed first, just once,
and its result is used in the main (outer) query.

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Single Row Subqueries

A single row subquery is the simplest form of sub
query. It returns a single row to the outer query
that in turn uses the result to complete itself.
For example, to find all employees who earn the
lowest salary in the company we could use a
subquery. If we think about what is needed first:
• we need to determine what the lowest salary is
• we need to select all employees who earn this
amount
The finished query would be as follows:
SELECT ename,sal
FROM emp
WHERE sal = (SELECT MIN(sal)
FROM emp);
The above statement executes the subquery first to
find the lowest salary and then it uses the single
row result of that query to find all employees who
earn that amount.

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Single Row Subqueries

As another example, let's say we wanted to find all
employees who have the same job as BLAKE:
SELECT ename,job
FROM emp
WHERE job = (SELECT job
FROM emp
WHERE ename = 'BLAKE');

The above statement executes the subquery first to

find what job BLAKE has, and then it uses the single
row result of that query to find all employees who
have the same job.

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Multiple Row Subqueries

A subquery can return more than one row, but you
must use a multi-row comparison operator (such as
IN) in the outer query or an error will occur:
SELECT ename,sal,deptno
FROM emp
WHERE (deptno,sal)
IN (SELECT deptno,MIN(sal)
FROM emp
GROUP BY deptno);

The above statement executes the subquery first to

find the lowest salary in each department (by using
a GROUP BY), then it uses each row returned from
that query to find all employees who earn that
amount in each department.

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Multiple Row Subqueries

ANY/SOME Operator
The ANY (SOME) operator compares a value to
EACH row returned from the subquery.
SELECT ename,sal,job,deptno
FROM emp
WHERE sal > ANY
(SELECT DISTINCT SAL
FROM emp
WHERE depton = 30);

The above statement executes the subquery first to

find all distinct salaries in department 30, and the >
ANY part of the outer query says where the sal
column in greater than ANY of the rows returned by
the subquery. This effectively says: list all
employees whose salary is greater than the lowest
salary found in department 30.

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Multiple Row Subqueries

ALL Operator
The ALL operator compares a value to ALL rows
returned from the subquery.
SELECT ename,sal,job,deptno
FROM emp
WHERE sal > ALL
(SELECT DISTINCT SAL
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = 30);

The above statement executes the subquery first to

find all distinct salaries in department 30, the > ALL
part of the outer query says where the sal column is
greater than ALL of the rows returned by the
subquery. This effectively says: list all employees
who earn more than everyone in department 30.

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Subqueries
When constructing subqueries you should be aware
of the following:
• ORDER BY can appear in the outer query only
• You can nest subqueries to a level of 255 (you
never would!)
• Subqueries can be used with the HAVING clause,
for example, to list the departments which have
an average salary bill greater than the average
salary bill for department 30:
SELECT deptno,AVG(sal)
FROM emp
GROUP BY deptno
HAVING AVG(sal) >
(SELECT AVG(sal)
FROM emp
WHERE deptno=30);

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Correlated Subqueries
A correlated subquery is a way of executing a
subquery once for each row found in the outer
query. A correlated subquery works as follows:
1. Get a candidate row from outer query
2. Execute subquery using candidate row data
3. Use values from subquery to either include or
exclude candidate row
4. Continue until no more candidate rows are found
in the outer query.
A correlated subquery is identified by the use of an
outer query column within the subquery. They are
useful when you need the subquery to return
different results based on the outer query.

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Correlated Subqueries
As an example, let’s say we wanted to list all
employees who earn a salary greater than the
average for their department. A standard subquery
would not work because the rows returned from the
subquery will not be related (correlated) to the rows
in the outer query. Using a correlated subquery you
would have something like:
SELECT empno,ename,sal,deptno
FROM emp e
WHERE sal > (SELECT avg(sal)
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = e.deptno);
The above query says: select all employees as
candidate rows, then find the average salary for the
current department, using this average, either
include or exclude the candidate row.
The key to this working is the table alias used in the
outer query - we need to ensure the emp table is
called something different in both queries, otherwise
we would not be able to link the columns together.

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Correlated Subqueries
The EXISTS Operator
You can use the EXISTS operator with a correlated
subquery: this is used to determine if any rows are
returned from the subquery. If any are returned
then the condition is true and the row in the outer
query is returned. For example, to select all
employees who manage someone,…
SELECT empno,ename,job,deptno
FROM emp e
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 'FOUND A ROW'
FROM emp
WHERE emp.mgr = e.empno);

The above query says: select all employees as

candidate rows, then find an employee whose
manager is the employee in the outer query, and if
an employee was found in the subquery then return
the row in the outer query.
NOT EXISTS
You can use NOT EXISTS operator to check if NO
rows are returned from the subquery. If you used a
NOT EXISTS in the above example, you would get
all employees who do not manage anyone.

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Summary
In this section we have covered a lot of ground: we
have looked at some of the more complex types of
queries. We briefly covered ways in which you can
select data from more than one table at a time.
• Joins - Product, Equi, Non-equi, Outer and Self
• Set Operators - UNION, INTERSECT and MINUS
• Subqueries - Single Row, Multi Row and
Correlated

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What is Next?
In the next section we take a quick look at using
DML and DDL to modify data within the database,
and how to change the structure of the database.

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Lab 4

1. List all employee names along with the name of the

department they work in.
2 List all employee names along with the department name,
department number and the location.
3 Produce a list of employees with their salary and salary
grade.
4 Display departments with no employees.
5 List all employees, along with their managers name.
6 The query produced for question 5 will probably not have
listed employees who have no manager, so change the
query to show these. Display 'NO MANAGER' if no manager
is found.
7 Find all employees who earn the highest for each job type.
8 List all employees with a * against the mostly recently hired
one (use the UNION operator).

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Section Five
Modifying Data & the
Database

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Modifying Data & the Database

So far, all of the SQL we have looked at has been to
do with querying data, using the SELECT
statement. Now we are ready to take a look at other
types of SQL commands, DML and DDL. DML is
SQL's Data Manipulation Language: it is used to
modify data held within the database. DDL or Data
Definition Language is used to modify the structure
of the database. In this section we cover the
following:
• Using DML
• Inserting new data
• Updating existing data
• Deleting data
• Transaction Processing
• Using DDL
• Tables
• Indexes
• Synonyms
• Privileges
• Views & Sequences

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Using DML
Inserting New Data
If you need to create new data within the database,
you use the INSERT statement. This allows you to
create new rows on any table (as long as you have
the correct privileges).
INSERT
SQL statement used to insert rows into the database
Syntax
INSERT INTO table [ (column,column,……) ]
VALUES (value,value,…..);
Example
INSERT INTO dept (deptno,dname,loc)
VALUES (50,'MARKETING','DAVENTRY');

The above statement says: insert a new row into

the dept table, set the deptno column to 50,
dname to MARKETING and loc to DAVENTRY.

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Inserting New Data

The INSERT statement can be used in a number of
different ways:
• Specify only required columns - If you want to
insert a row but do not want to insert values into
certain columns, then simply omit the column
name from the INSERT statement (unless there
is a NOT NULL constraint on the column).
• Specify no columns at all - If you want to always
insert a value into all columns, then you do not
need to give the column names - just ensure the
VALUES clause matches the table exactly (not
recommended).
• You can insert rows into a table based on rows
from another table.
• Almost anything that can appear in a SELECT
clause of a SELECT statement can also appear in
the VALUES clause of the INSERT statement.

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Inserting New Data - Examples

To insert a row into the dept table only specifying 2
columns:
INSERT INTO dept (deptno,loc)
VALUES (60,'DAVENTRY');

To insert a row using rows from another table:

INSERT INTO dept(deptno,dname)
(SELECT deptno,dname
FROM old_dept);

To insert a row using rows from another table and

utilising a row function:
INSERT INTO dept (deptno,dname)
(SELECT deptno,INITCAP(dname)
FROM old_dept);

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Using DML
Updating Existing Data
If you need to change some data within the
database, you use the UPDATE statement. This
allows you to change a single row or many rows at
the same time (as long as you have the correct
privileges).
UPDATE
SQL statement used to update rows in the database
Syntax
UPDATE table [alias]
SET column [,column…] =
{expression,subquery}
[WHERE condition];
Example
UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.1
WHERE job = 'CLERK';

The above statement says: find all employees

whose job is CLERK and set their salary to itself
multiplied by 1.1 - or in other words, give all clerks
a 10% pay increase.

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Updating Existing Data

When using the UPDATE statement, you should be
aware of the following:
• If the WHERE clause is omitted then ALL rows on
the table will be updated.
• The WHERE clause can contain anything that
would normally appear in the WHERE clause for
the SELECT statement.
• It is possible to use subqueries and correlated
subqueries in the SET clause.

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Updating Existing Data - Examples

To give the employee SCOTT a new job, change of
department and a pay increase:
UPDATE emp
SET job = 'SALESMAN'
, sal = sal * 1.25
, deptno = 40
WHERE ename = 'SCOTT';

To set the NUMBER_OF_EMPLOYEES on the dept

table (using a correlated subquery):
UPDATE dept d
SET number_of_employees =
( SELECT count(*)
FROM emp e
WMERE e.deptno = d.deptno)

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Using DML
Deleting Data
If you need to delete data within the database, you
use the DELETE statement. This allows you to
delete a single or many rows at once (as long as
you have the correct privileges).
DELETE
SQL statement used to delete rows from the
database
Syntax
DELETE [FROM] table
[WHERE condition];
Example
DELETE emp
WHERE job = 'MANAGER';

The above statement says: delete all rows from the

emp table where the job column is MANAGER - or in
other words, give all manager the boot.

It is also possible to use subqueries with the

DELETE statement.

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Using DML
Deleting Data
Another way to remove all the data from a table is
using the TRUNCATE TABLE command.
TRUNCATE TABLE
SQL statement used to remove ALL rows from a
table
Syntax
TRUNCATE TABLE table
Example
TRUNCATE TABLE emp;

The TRUNCATE TABLE command effectively flags

the table internally as empty without actually
deleting any rows. It is VERY fast and is useful for
clearing out tables with many hundreds of
thousands or million of rows.

Truncates are DDL, not DML. A truncate moves the High Water Mark of the table
back to zero. No row-level locks are taken, no redo or rollback is generated. All
extents except those defined in the MINEXTENTS parameter are de-allocated from
the table.

By resetting the High Water Mark, the truncate prevents reading of any table's data,
so they it has the same effect as a delete, but without the overhead. There is,
however, one aspect of a Truncate that must be kept in mind. Because a Truncate
is DDL it issues a COMMIT before it acts and another COMMIT afterward so no
rollback of the transaction is possible.

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Transaction Processing
Oracle ensures the consistency of data through the
use of transactions. Transactions give you more
control when changing data and will ensure data
consistency in the event of a system failure.
A transaction can be thought of as a single
consistent change to the database which may
directly relate to some kind of business
functionality: this change to the database may
consist of a single or multiple DML statements. For
example, in a banking system, a transfer funds
transaction would involve the transfer of funds out
of one account and then further transfer into
another account - this would require two DML
statements but is considered a single transaction.
Transaction processing allows you to perform all the
DML you need before committing the changes to the
database. This ensures that both of DML statements
are always complete and in the event of a failure,
none of the DML statements would complete.

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Transaction Processing
There are two types of transaction:
• DML - holds a number of DML statements
• DDL - holds a single DDL statement

A transaction begins when:

• A DDL command is issued
• First DML statement issued after a COMMIT

A transaction ends when:

• A COMMIT or ROLLBACK command is issued
• DDL command is issued
• You exit SQL*Plus
• System Failure (auto-rollback)

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Transaction Processing
The COMMIT command
Whenever you issue a DML statement which
changes the data held within the database, you are
not actually changing the database. You are
effectively putting your changes into a buffer, and
to ensure this buffer is flushed and all your changes
are actually in the database for others to see, you
must first commit the transaction. You can do this
with the COMMIT statement.
Syntax
COMMIT [WORK];
Example
UPDATE dept
SET dname = initcap(dname);
COMMIT;
The above code will update all dept rows then
commit the changes to the database.
After the COMMIT command has run, the following
is true:
• Your changes are in the database and permanent
• The current transaction has ended
• Any locks are released

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Transaction Processing
The ROLLBACK command
If you have started a transaction by issuing a
number of DML statements, but you then decide
you want to abort the changes and start again, you
need to use the ROLLBACK statement.
Syntax
ROLLBACK [WORK];
ROLLBACK [WORK] TO SAVEPOINT_NAME;

Example
UPDATE dept
SET dname = initcap(dname);

ROLLBACK;

The above code will update all dept rows then

rollback the changes: this will effectively be as if you
had never issued the UPDATE statement.
After the ROLLBACK command has run, the
following is true:
• All of your changes will be lost
• The current transaction has ended
• Any locks are released
We cover the SAVEPOINT part next.

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Transaction Processing
The SAVEPOINT command
You can split a transaction up into smaller portions
using the SAVEPOINT command. SAVEPOINT
allows you to specify markers within a transaction,
and these markers can be easily rolled back to if
needed.
Syntax
SAVEPOINT savepoint_name;

Example
UPDATE dept
SET dname = initcap(dname);
SAVEPOINT done_dept;
UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.1;
ROLLBACK TO done_dept;
COMMIT;

The above code will update all dept rows, create a

savepoint and then update all emp rows. Then a
ROLLBACK is issued, only back to the last
SAVEPOINT - this will effectively discard your
changes to the emp table, leaving only the changes
to the dept table; the final command will COMMIT
any changes left to do - in this case, just the dept
changes.

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Transaction Processing
Keep in mind the following about transaction
processing:
• Other database users will not see your changes
until you COMMIT them.
• An uncommitted transaction is one which holds
locks on the data, for example, if you update a
single emp row without committing, other people
will still see the unchanged emp row but will not
be able to change it themselves until you either
issue a COMMIT or ROLLBACK.

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Using DDL
DDL is a subset of SQL commands that allows you
to make changes to the structure of the database.
We will briefly cover the following kinds of database
objects:
• Tables
• Indexes
• Synonyms
• Privileges
• Views
• Sequences

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Using DDL
When working with any kind of object within the
database, there are usually three basic commands
that apply to all objects. These are:
• CREATE - used to create an object
• ALTER - used to alter/change an object
• DROP - used to remove an object

Column Types/Datatypes
All columns on a table must be given a datatype, as
this determines what kind of data the column can
hold. A few of the more common data types are:
Datatype Purpose
NUMBER Holds number data of any precision
NUMBER(w) Holds number data of w precision
NUMBER(w,s) Holds number data of w precision and
s scale, i.e. 10,2 is a number upto 10
digit in length, with 2 digits after the
decimal point.
VARCHAR2(w) Holds variable length alphanumeric
data upto w width.
CHAR(w) Holds fixed length alphanumeric upto
w with.
DATE Holds data/time data

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Using DDL - Tables

The CREATE TABLE Command
To create a new table within the database, you use
the CREATE TABLE command. In its most basic
form, the CREATE TABLE command has the
following form:
CREATE TABLE
Command used to create tables
Syntax
CREATE TABLE table-name
( column_name type(size)
, column_name type(size) . . . );
Example
CREATE TABLE dept
( deptno NUMBER
, dname VARCHAR2(12)
, loc VARCHAR2(12));

The above statement will create a table called

dept, with 3 columns: a number column called
deptno, a 12 digit VARCHAR2 column called dname
and another 12 digit VARCHAR2 column called loc.

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Using DDL - Tables

The CREATE TABLE Command
When creating a table, you can ensure that no NULL
values are stored in a column by using the NOT
NULL constraint - for example, to create the dept
table and to ensure no NULL values are ever
inserted into the deptno column:
CREATE TABLE dept
( deptno NUMBER NOT NULL
, dname VARCHAR2(12)
, loc VARCHAR2(12));

DESCRIBE - SQL*Plus command

You can list columns on a table from SQL*Plus using
the describe command (or desc) - for example:
SQL> desc dept
Name Null? Type
--------------------- -------- ----
DEPTNO NOT NULL NUMBER(2)
DNAME VARCHAR2(14)
LOC VARCHAR2(13)

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Using DDL - Tables

The DROP TABLE Command
A table can be removed from the database using the
DROP TABLE command.
DROP TABLE dept;

Be aware that once a table has been dropped, it

cannot be recovered. Also, ALL data on the table is
removed.

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Using DDL - Tables

The ALTER TABLE Command
A table can be altered using the ALTER TABLE
command. This command allows you to do many
things - we will only look at how you can add extra
columns to a table. Let's say you want to add the
column 'comments' to the emp table:
ALTER TABLE emp
ADD (COMMENTS VARCHAR2(80));

This will add the column COMMENTS to the emp

table.

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Using DDL - Indexes

An index is a data structure within the database that
allows you to provide quick access to data on a
table via a particular column or columns. It can also
serve as a method of ensuring no duplicate records
can be stored on a table. For example, a common
column to use when querying the emp table is
empno: this column should also be unique since no
two employees should have the same number.

When you query the emp table (for example) using

the empno column, if no index was present on this
column then the database would have to
sequentially go through all records on the table until
the required one was found. An index would
provide a faster method of querying this table.

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Using DDL - Indexes

The CREATE INDEX Command
You create indexes with the CREATE INDEX
command. In it most basic form, it is as follows:
CREATE [UNIQUE] INDEX index_name
ON table_name
(column [,column . . .]);

Examples
To create a unique index called emp_idx01 on the
emp table using the empno column:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX emp_idx01
ON emp
(empno);

To create a non-unique index on the emp table

using the ename column:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX emp_idx01
ON emp
(empno);
To create a non-unique index on the emp table
using the ename and hiredate columns:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX emp_idx01
ON emp
(empno,diredate);

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Using DDL - Synonyms

The CREATE SYNONYM Command

Within an Oracle Database, there is an object called

user. This is effectively a space within the database
for a particular user. The user of that database user
would create tables belonging to this user. If
another user wanted to access these tables, they
would normally have to qualify the table name with
the user name first - for example, if user Bob
creates a table called emp, and user Dave wanted
to list all rows on Bob’s emp table, he would have
to enter:
SELECT *
FROM bob.emp;

A much better method of accessing the table would

be to only have to specify the table name. You can
do this if a synonym under the Dave user exists.
CREATE SYNONYM emp
FOR bob.emp;
Now dave can see bob’s emp table by just
entering:
SELECT *
FROM emp;

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Using DDL - Privileges

The GRANT/REVOKE Commands
As with synonyms, if Bob has a table called emp and
Dave wants to query it - or even insert, update or
delete it - Dave must first be given the correct
privileges to allow him to do this. Many privileges
exist, and the most common ones are SELECT,
INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE - so to give Dave
SELECT and INSERT privileges on Bobs' emp
table, Bob would have to enter:
GRANT SELECT,INSERT ON emp TO dave;

A privilege can be removed with the REVOKE

command, to remove Dave's INSERT privilege on
Bobs' emp table:
REVOKE INSERT ON emp FROM dave;

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Using DDL - Views

The CREATE VIEW Command
Let’s say you have constructed a very useful and
complex query and another user says, "I could do
with the same kind of query". You could just give
them the code and let them run it themselves, but a
better method is to create a database view based
on your query. A view is basically a virtual table
which is made up of the rows that your query
returns. For example, if you have a query that lists
employee names along with department names, you
could create a view as follows:
CREATE VIEW emp_dept
AS
SELECT e.ename employee_name
, d.dname department_name
FROM emp e
, dept d
WHERE d.deptno = e.deptno;

The above statement would create a view called

emp_dept which would contain two columns,
employee_name and department_name. You
could now access this view as if it were a table:
SELECT *
FROM emp_dept;

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Using DDL - Views

The DROP VIEW Command
A view can be removed with the DROP VIEW
command. For example:
DROP VIEW emp_dept;

The above statement would remove a view called

emp_dept.

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Using DDL - Sequences

The CREATE SEQUENCE Command
Assume that you have a new table; it contains a
column called sequence_number, and you always
want to populate this column the a sequential
number. A good way to do this is to create a
sequence, then reference the sequence in your
INSERT statement. A sequence is simply an object
within the database that returns a number, usually
the next in sequence. To create a sequence, use the
CREATE SEQUENCE command. In its most basic
form, it has the following syntax:
CREATE SEQUENCE sequence_name
INCREMENT BY n
START WITH m;

So, to create a sequence called my_seq01 which

starts at 100 and increases by 10 each time:
CREATE SEQUENCE my_seq01
INCREMENT BY 10
START WITH 100;

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Using DDL - Sequences

Referencing a Sequence
You have created a sequence called my_seq01: you
can reference it in two ways, the first being by using
the NEXTVAL pseudo column to get the next
number:
SELECT my_seq01.NEXTVAL
FROM dual;

This would return 100; if you ran this SQL again it

would return 110, and so on.
You can also retrieve a sequence's current value
without increasing its value with the CURRVAL
pseudo column:
SELECT my_seq01.CURRVAL
FROM dual;

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Using DDL - Sequences

The DROP SEQUENCE Command
A sequence can be removed with the DROP
SEQUENCE command. For example:
DROP SEQUENCE mu_seq01;

The above statement would remove a sequence

called my_seq01.

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Summary
In this section we have covered both how to use
DML and DDL, and specifically we have seen:
• Insert, Update and Delete data
• Transaction Processing
• Creating, deleting and altering Tables
• Indexes
• Synonyms
• Privileges
• Views
• Sequences

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What is Next?
As far as SQL is concerned, we have pretty much
finished: all that is left to do now is take a quick
look at some features of SQL*Plus.

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Lab 5

1 Write a SQL statement to give all employees a 25% pay

increase, commit your changes and view the table.
2 Give all employees who work in NEW YORK an additional 5%
pay increase, rollback your changes and view the table.
3 Create a new department called I.T located in ENGLAND.
4 Remove the department you created in question 3.
5 Create a sequence called EMPINFO_SEQ, start it at 10 and
increment it by 1.
6 Create a new table called EMPLOYEE_INFO, using the
following table as a guide:

Column Name Datatype & Size

INFO_ID NUMBER
EMPNO NUMBER
INFO_DATE DATE
INFO VARCHAR2 80

7 Insert a row into the new table, set INFO_ID to be the next
value from the sequence you created, set EMPNO to a valid
employee number, INFO_DATE to today's date and enter
some text into INFO.
8 Create a synonym called einfo for your new table.
9 Select all rows from your new table using the synonym;
10 Remove the new synonym and table.

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Section Six
More SQL*Plus

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More SQL*Plus
We have already seen a little of SQL*Plus: we will
now cover a little more on how to use SQL*Plus and
what it can do. We will briefly cover:
• SQL*Plus Variables
• Basic SQL*Plus Reporting
• Saving Output to a file

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SQL*Plus Variables
A SQL*Plus variable is basically a way of storing a
value in a temporary space. This value can then be
referenced from within a SQL statement. We will
take a very quick look at:
• Ampersand substitution variables
• Double ampersand substitution variables

There are other types of SQL*Plus variables

available which are not covered on this course.

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SQL*Plus Variables
Ampersand Variables
A single ampersand substitution variable is a
method of asking the user for input before some
SQL executes, then substituting the value entered
for the reference to the variable within your SQL.
Simply prefix a variable name with a single
ampersand and SQL*Plus will prompt you to enter a
value at runtime. For example:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE deptno = &department_number;

If you run this SQL, before anything is done, you

will be asked the following:
Enter value for department_number:

You now enter a valid value, and SQL*Plus will

substitute &department_number for whatever you
entered.
The value entered into a single ampersand variable
is not remembered - this means if you execute the
same SQL again, you will be asked for a value
again.

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SQL*Plus Variables
Double Ampersand Variables
A double ampersand substitution variable is almost
the same as a single ampersand variable. The only
difference is that the value is remembered, so you
only need enter a value once.

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Basic SQL*Plus Reporting

The results of a query are displayed in a very simple
and plain manner. SQL*Plus allows you to add
basic formatting to this output to create simple, but
effective reports. SQL*Plus reporting is quite a
complex topic and beyond the scope of this course,
therefore we will only cover the most basic areas;
this should be enough to give you a feel for what
can be achieved with SQL*Plus. We will cover:
• Adding a title to the page
• Setting break points

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Basic SQL*Plus Reporting

Adding a Page Title
You can use the SQL*Plus TTITLE command to add
a title to a page. Simply enter
SQL> TTITLE 'my title'

before you enter your SQL, and the report will be

headed with whatever you set the title to.

You can also add a footer to a page with the

BTITLE command. For example:
SQL> BTITLE 'my footer'

Example
SQL> TTITLE 'Employee List'
SQL> SELECT * FROM emp;
Sun Jul 18 page 1
Employee List
EMPNO ENAME
--------- ----------
7369 SMITH
7499 ALLEN
7521 WARD
7566 JONES

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Basic SQL*Plus Reporting

Setting A BREAK point
If you have a query that selects some repeating
data, or you want to section out different rows, you
can set up a break point to do this. For example, if
you have a query which simply selects the deptno
and ename columns from emp, you may want to
section out rows for each department, and also only
print the department each time it changes.
Example Before
DEPTNO ENAME
--------- --------
10 CLARK
10 KING
10 MILLER
20 SMITH
20 ADAMS
If you first entered:
SQL> BREAK ON deptno SKIP 1
You would have:
DEPTNO ENAME
--------- --------
10 CLARK
KING
MILLER

20 SMITH
ADAMS
The BREAK command says: set up a BREAK point
on deptno and skip a line each time it changes.

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Basic SQL*Plus Reporting

Saving Output to a File
You can save the output from SQL*Plus using the
spool command: you simply enter
SQL> spool <file>

before you execute your SQL statement - <file> can

be any valid filename, and if you omit the file
extension then it will default to .lst. Once you
have entered the spool command, ALL SQL*Plus
output is saved to the file - to switch off spooling
without leaving SQL*Plus, just enter:
SQL> spool off

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Summary
SQL*Plus is a very powerful tool, and it can do
much more than described on this course: but, you
should now have an idea as to what can be
achieved using SQL*Plus. We briefly covered:
• SQL*Plus variables
• Basic SQL*Plus Reporting
• Saving Output to a File

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What is Next?
This is the end of the course; we have covered an
awful lot of topics in such as short space of time.
Don't be concerned if you haven't quite taken it all
in, as this course was really designed to give you a
taster of SQL and SQL*Plus. You should be
equipped with enough knowledge to make it easy to
further progress your knowledge in these areas.

I suggest you get to work with SQL and SQL*Plus as

soon as you can, read any documentation you can
on the subject, and you will be a fully fledged SQL
and SQL*Plus scripter/programmer in no time.

This course has also given you good grounding for

one of the follow-up courses:
PL/SQL, Packages, Procedures and Triggers
This course covers Oracle's procedural extension to
SQL in the form of PL/SQL, a fully functional
programming language.
Good Luck!!

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Lab 6

1 Create a query that lists all employees. Prompt for a job type
and only list employees in that job.
2 Ask for a column list, (columns separated by commas) then
list all employees, showing only those columns you entered
when asked.
3 Create a simple SQL*Plus report, it should have a title of
'Employees By Job' and list each job type with all employees
for that job, skip 1 line between jobs. Show job type,
employee number, employee name and hiredate.

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Answers To Exercises

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Answers To Exercises
Lab Exercise Answer
1 1 Double Click the SQL*Plus icon on the desktop. Login to the
database using the username and password supplied
2 From the UNIX prompt enter, sqlplus
<username>/<password>

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Answers To Exercises
Lab Exercise Answer
2 1 SELECT *
FROM salgrade;
2 SELECT *
FROM emp;
3 SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE sal BETWEEN 1600 AND 3000;
4 SELECT deptno
, dname
FROM dept
ORDER BY dname;
5 SELECT DISTINCT job
FROM emp
ORDER BY job DESC;
6 SELECT ename
, hiredate
FROM emp
WHERE job = 'CLERK'
AND deptno = 20;
7 SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE ename LIKE 'S%';
8 SELECT ename
, job
, mgr
, sal
FROM emp
WHERE mgr IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY sal DESC;
9 SELECT ename
, sal + NVL(comm,0) "Remuneration"
FROM emp;
10 SELECT ename
, sal
, sal*12 "Annual Salary"
, comm
FROM emp
WHERE sal < NVL(comm,0)
ORDER BY sal DESC

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Answers To Exercises
Lab Exercise Answer
3 1 SELECT ename
, sal
, ROUND(sal*1.15) new_sal
FROM emp;
2 SELECT ename
, LOWER(ename)
, INITCAP(ename)
FROM emp;
3 SELECT SUBSTR(ename,1,2)
|| TO_CHAR(empno)
|| substr(ename,3,LENGTH(ename)-2)
FROM emp;
4 SELECT RPAD(INITCAP(ename),7,' ')
|| ' is '||TO_CHAR(LENGTH(ename))
|| ' digits long'
FROM emp
5 SELECT
ename,hiredate,FLOOR(MONTHS_BETWEEN(SYSDATE,hiredate
)) months
FROM emp
ORDER BY months DESC;
6 SELECT ename
, DECODE(SIGN(1500-sal)
, 1,'BELOW 1500'
, 0,'On Target'
, sal ) salary
FROM emp;
7 SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'DAY') Day
FROM dual;
8 SELECT MAX(sal) max
, MIN(sal) min
, AVG(sal) avg
FROM emp;
9 SELECT job
, SUM(sal) total
FROM emp
GROUP by job;
10 SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM emp
WHERE job = 'CLERK';
11 SELECT deptno,COUNT(*) employees
FROM emp
GROUP BY deptno
HAVING COUNT(*) > 3;

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Answers To Exercises
Lab Exercise Answer
4 1 SELECT e.ename
, d.dname
FROM emp e
, dept d
WHERE d.deptno = e.deptno;
2 SELECT e.ename
, e.deptno
, d.dname
, d.loc
FROM emp e
, dept d
WHERE d.deptno = e.deptno;
3 SELECT e.ename
, e.sal
, g.grade
FROM emp e
, salgrade g
WHERE e.sal BETWEEN g.losal AND g.hisal;
4 SELECT d.deptno
FROM dept d
WHERE NOT EXISTS
(SELECT deptno
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = d.deptno);
5 SELECT e.ename
, m.ename
FROM emp e
, emp m
WHERE m.empno = e.mgr;
6 SELECT e.ename
, NVL(m.ename,'NO MANAGER') manager
FROM emp e
, emp m
WHERE m.empno(+) = e.mgr;
7 SELECT job,sal
FROM emp
WHERE (job,sal) IN
(SELECT e.job,MAX(e.sal)
FROM emp e
GROUP BY job)
8 SELECT '*'||ename name
, hiredate
FROM emp
WHERE hiredate = (SELECT MAX(hiredate)
FROM emp)
UNION
SELECT ename name
, hiredate
FROM emp
WHERE hiredate <> (SELECT MAX(hiredate)
FROM emp);

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Answers To Exercises
Lab Exercise Answer
5 1 UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.25;
COMMIT;
SELECT ename
, sal
FROM emp;
2 UPDATE emp
SET sal = sal * 1.05
WHERE deptno IN (SELECT deptno
FROM dept
WHERE loc = 'NEW YORK');
ROLLBACK;
SELECT ename
, sal
FROM emp;
3 INSERT INTO dept VALUES (50,'IT','ENGLAND');
4 ROLLBACK
or if you committed your work,..
DELETE dept
WHERE deptno = 50;
5 CREATE SEQUENCE empinfo_seq
START WITH 10
INCREMENT BY 1;
6 CREATE TABLE employee_info
( info_id NUMBER
, empno NUMBER
, info_date DATE
, info VARCHAR2(80));
7 INSERT INTO employee_info VALUES
(empinfo_seq.NEXTVAL,7900,SYSDATE,'Some Info');
8 CREATE SYNONYM einfo
FOR employee_info;
9 SELECT *
FROM einfo;
10 DROP TABLE employee_info;

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Answers To Exercises
Lab Exercise Answer
6 1 SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE job = '&1';
2 SELECT &1
FROM emp;
3 TTITLE 'Employees By Job'
BREAK ON job SKIP 1
SELECT job
, empno
, ename
, hiredate
FROM emp;

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Demo Tables

DEPT
DEPTNO DNAME LOC
--------- -------------- -------------
10 ACCOUNTING New York
20 RESEARCH Dallas
30 SALES Chicago
40 OPERATIONS Boston

EMP
EMPNO ENAME JOB MGR HIREDATE SAL COMM DEPTNO
--------- ---------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
7369 SMITH CLERK 7902 17-DEC-80 800 20
7499 ALLEN SALESMAN 7698 20-FEB-81 1600 300 30
7521 WARD SALESMAN 7698 22-FEB-81 1250 500 30
7566 JONES MANAGER 7839 02-APR-81 2975 20
7654 MARTIN SALESMAN 7698 28-SEP-81 1250 1400 30
7698 BLAKE MANAGER 7839 01-MAY-81 2850 30
7782 CLARK MANAGER 7839 09-JUN-81 2572.5 10
7788 SCOTT ANALYST 7566 19-APR-87 3000 20
7839 KING PRESIDENT 17-NOV-81 5250 10
7844 TURNER SALESMAN 7698 08-SEP-81 1500 0 30
7876 ADAMS CLERK 7788 23-MAY-87 1100 20
7900 JAMES CLERK 7698 03-DEC-81 950 30
7902 FORD ANALYST 7566 03-DEC-81 3000 20
7934 MILLER CLERK 7782 23-JAN-82 1365 10

SALGRADE
GRADE LOSAL HISAL
--------- --------- ---------
1 700 1200
2 1201 1400
3 1401 2000
4 2001 3000
5 3001 9999

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NOTES

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NOTES

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