SQL

(Structured Query Language)

What is SQL............................................................................................................................ ........3
SQL Database Tables............................................................................................... ......................3
SQL Queries............................................................................................................ .......................3
SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML).................................................................. .....................4
SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)............................................................................... ..............4
The SQL SELECT Statement........................................................................................................ ..4
*/Select All Columns.................................................................................................... ................5
The SELECT DISTINCT Statement.......................................................................................... ...5
SQL WHERE Clause............................................................................................ ..........................6
The LIKE Condition............................................................................................... ......................7
SQL INSERT INTO Statement...................................................................................... ..................8
SQL UPDATE Statement......................................................................................... .......................8
SQL DELETE Statement............................................................................................................. ....9
SQL ORDER BY........................................................................................................ ...................10
SQL AND & OR............................................................................................................... ..............11
SQL IN..................................................................................................................... .....................12
SQL (NOT) BETWEEN … AND............................................................................ ........................13
SQL Alias................................................................................................................ ......................14
SQL JOIN................................................................................................................................. .....14
Joins and Keys........................................................................................................... ...............15
Referring to Two Tables.................................................................................................. ...........15
Using JOIN.................................................................................................................. ..............16
INNER JOIN … ON............................................................................................................... .16
LEFT JOIN … ON.................................................................................................... ..............17
RIGHT JOIN … ON............................................................................................................. ...17
SQL UNION and UNION ALL.................................................................................................. ......18
UNION................................................................................................................................ .......18
UNION ALL............................................................................................................................. ...19
SQL CREATE DATABASE, TABLE, and INDEX..................................................... ......................19
Create a Database.............................................................................................. ......................20
Create a Table.......................................................................................................... .................20
Create Index..................................................................................................................... .........21
Unique Index...................................................................................................................... ....21
SQL DROP INDEX, TABLE and DATABASE........................................................... .....................21
DROP INDEX........................................................................................................... .................22
DROP TABLE............................................................................................................. ...............22
DROP DATABASE........................................................................................ ............................22
TRUNCATE TABLE.................................................................................................. .................22
SQL ALTER TABLE.............................................................................................................. .........23
SQL Functions...................................................................................................... ........................24
Aggregate functions................................................................................................................... 24
Scalar functions............................................................................................................... ..........25
SQL GROUP BY and HAVING............................................................................................... .......25
GROUP BY.................................................................................................... ...........................25
HAVING............................................................................................................................ .........26
SQL SELECT INTO statement........................................................................................... ...........27
SQL CREATE VIEW/AS Statement................................................................... ...........................27
SQL Servers – RDBMS............................................................................................................ .....29
DBMS – Database Management System..................................................................... .............29
RDBMS – Relational Database Management System............................................................... 29
SQL QUICK REFERENCE............................................................................................................ 30
SQL Syntax....................................................................................................... ........................30
What is SQL
• Stands for Structured Query Language
• Allows you to access databases
• Is an ANSI standard computer language
• Can execute queries against a database
• Can retrieve data from a database
• Can insert new records in a database
• Can delete records from a database
• Can update records in a database

SQL is a standard language that works with database programs like MS Access, DB2, Informix,
MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Sybase, and other database systems.

SQL Database Tables

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g.,
“Customers” or “Orders”). Tables contain records (rows) with data

Below is an example of a table called “Persons”:

LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The table above contains three records (one for each person) and four columns (LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City).

SQL Queries
With SQL, we can query a database and have a result set returned.

A query like this

SELECT LastName FROM Persons

Gives a result set like this:

LastName
Hansen
Svendson
Pettersen

Note: Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of the SQL statement.
SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML)
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a syntax for executing queries. But the SQL language also
includes a syntax to update, insert, and delete records.

These query and update commands together form the Data Manipulation Language (DML) part of
SQL:

• SELECT – extracts data from a database table

• UPDATE – updates data in a database table
• DELETE – deletes data from a database table
• INSERT INTO – inserts new data into a database table

SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)

The Data Definition Language (DDL) part of SQL permits database tables to be created or
deleted. We can also define indexes (Keys), specify links between tables, and impose
constraints between database tables.

The most important DDL statements in SQL are:

• CREATE TABLE – creates a new database table

• ALTER TABLE – alters (changes) a database table
• DROP TABLE – deletes a database table
• CREATE INDEX – creates an index (search key)
• DROP INDEX – deletes an index

The SQL SELECT Statement

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a table. The tabular result is stored in a result
table (called a result-set).

SYNTAX

SELECT column_name(s, separated by “,”) FROM table_name

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive.

EXAMPLE:

To select the content of columns named “LastName” and “FirstName”, from the database table
called “Persons”, use a SELECT statement like this:

SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM Persons

The database table “Person” has the following contents:
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The results from the SELECT statement are:

LastName FirstName
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari

*/Select All Columns

To select all columns from the “Persons” table, use a “*”symbol instead of column names, like
this:

SELECT * from Persons

The result will list all for the columns in the “Person” table like:

LastName FirstName Address City

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

Note: Semicolon after SQL Statement

Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that allow
more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.

MS Access and SQL Server 2000 does not require semicolons but others require it.

The SELECT DISTINCT Statement

The DISTINCT keyword is used to return only distinct (different) values.

The SELECT statement returns information from table columns. But what if we only want to
select distinct elements?

With SQL, all we need to do is to add a DISTINCT keyword to the SELECT statement:

Syntax:

SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s) FROM table_name

Example:

Given “Orders” table:

Company OrderNumber
Sega 3412
W3Schools 2312
Trio 4678
W3Schools 6798

Initiating statement:

SELECT Company FROM Orders

Will list:

Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio
W3Schools

SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM Orders

Will list:

Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio

• “W3Schools” is listed only once.

SQL WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is used to specify a selection criterion.

To conditionally select data from a table, a WHERE clause can be added to the SELECT
statement.

Syntax:

SELECT column FROM table WHERE column operator value

The following operators can be used with the WHERE clause:

Operator Description
= Equal
<> or != Not equal (may differ based on DB type)
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
BETWEEN Between an inclusive range
LIKE Search for a pattern
IN If you know the exact value you want to return for
at least one of the columns

To select only the persons living in the city “Sandnes” from the “Persons” table, we add a WHERE
clause to the SELECT statement:

“Persons” Table:
LastName FirstName Address City Year
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes 1951
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes 1978
Svendson Stale Kaivn 18 Sandnes 1980
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger 1960

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City = ‘Sandnes’

Result:
LastName FirstName Address City Year
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes 1951
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes 1978
Svendson Stale Kaivn 18 Sandnes 1980

Note: SQL uses single quotes around text values (most database systems will also accept
double quotes).

The LIKE Condition

The LIKE condition is used to specify a search for a pattern in a column.

A “%” sign can be used to define wildcards both before and after the pattern.

Syntax:

SELECT column FROM table WHERE column LIKE pattern

Example:

The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that start with an ‘O’:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE ‘O%’

The following SQL statement will return persons with the first names that end with an ‘a’:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName Like ‘%a’

SQL INSERT INTO Statement
The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new rows into a table.

Syntax:

INSERT INTO table_name VALUES (value1, value2, …)

You can also specify the columns for which you want to insert data:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, …) VALUES (value1, value2, …)

Example:

Given the “Persons” table:

LastName FirstName Address City

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The following statement will result in the new “Persons” table below:

INSERT INTO Persons VALUES (‘Hetland’, ‘Camilla’, ‘Hagabakka 24’, ‘Sandnes’)

LastName FirstName Address City

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes

To insert data in specified columns:

INSERT INTO Persons (LastName, Address) VALUES (‘Rasmussen’, ‘Storgt 67’)

To give the result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes
Rasmussen Storgt 67

SQL UPDATE Statement

The UPDATE statement is used to modify the data in a table.

Syntax:

UPDATE table_name SET column_name = new value WHERE column_name = criteria value
Examples:

Given the Persons table:

LastName FirstName Address City
Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Storgt 67

To update one column in a row:

UPDATE Person SET FirstName = ‘Nina’ WHERE LastName = ‘Rasmussen’

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Storgt 67

To update several columns in a row:

We want to change the address and add the name of the city:

UPDATE Person SET Address = ‘Stien 12’, City = ‘Stavanger’ WHERE LastName =
‘Rasmussen’

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Stien 12 Stavanger

SQL DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement is used to delete rows in a table.

Syntax:

DELETE FROM table_name WHERE column_name = criteria value

Example:

Person Table:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Stien 12 Stavanger

To delete a specific row:

Deleting the row for “Nina Rasmussen”, command is:

DELETE FROM Person WHERE LastName=’Rasmussen’

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
To delete ALL rows. This means that the table structure, attributes and indexes will be intact.

DELETE FROM table_name

Or

DELETE * from table_name

SQL ORDER BY
The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the results.

Example:

Orders table:
Company OrderNumber
Sega 3412
ABC Shop 5678
W3Schools 6798
W3Schools 2312

To display the company names in alphabetical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company

Result:
Company OrderNumber
ABC Shop 5678
Sega 3412
W3Schools 6798
W3Schools 2312

To display the company names in alphabetical order AND then the OrderNumber in
numerical order:

SELECT CompanyName, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company, OrderNumber

Result:

Company OrderNumber
ABC Shop 5678
Sega 3412
W3Schools 2312
W3Schools 6798

To display the company names in reverse (descending) alphabetical order:

SELECT CompanyName, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY CompanyName DESC

Result:
Company OrderNumber
W3Schools 6798
W3Schools 2312
Sega 3412
ABC Shop 5678

To display the company names in reverse (descending) alphabetical order AND order
number in numerical order:

SELECT CompanyName, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY CompanyName DESC,

OrderNumber ASC

Result:
Company OrderNumber
W3Schools 2312
W3Schools 6798
Sega 3412
ABC Shop 5678

SQL AND & OR

AND and OR join two or more conditions in a WHERE clause.

The AND operator displays a row if ALL conditions listed are true. The OR operator displays a
row if ANY of the conditions listed are true.

Example:

Persons table:
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18 Sandnes

Use AND to display each person with the first name equal to ‘Tove’ and last name equal to
‘Svendson’

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName = ‘Tove’ AND LastName = ‘Svendson’

Result:
FirstName Address City
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Use OR to display each person with the first name equal to ‘Tove’ or last name equal to
‘Svendson’

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName = ‘Tove’ OR LastName = ‘Svendson’

Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18 Sandnes
You can combine AND and OR (use parenthesis to form complex expressions):

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE (FirstName = ‘Tove’ OR FirstName=’Stephen’) AND

LastName=’Svendson’

Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18 Sandnes

SQL IN
The IN operator may be used if you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of
the columns.

Syntax:

SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name IN (value1, value2, …)

Example:

Original Persons Table:

LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Nordmann Anna Neset 18 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

To display the persons with LastName equal to “Hansen” or “Pettersen”, use the following
SQL:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName IN (‘Hansen’, ‘Petersen’)

Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

SQL (NOT) BETWEEN … AND

The BETWEEN … AND operator selects a range of data between two values. These values can
be numbers, text, or dates.

Syntax:

SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name BETWEEN value1 and

value2

Example:

Original Persons table:

LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Nordmann Anna Neset 18 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

To display the persons alphabetically between (and including) “Hansen” and exclusive
“Pettersen”, use the following SQL:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE column_name BETWEEN ‘Hansen’ AND ‘Pettersen’

Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Nordmann Anna Neset 18 Sandnes

IMPORTANT NOTE: The BETWEEN … AND operator is treated differently in different

databases. With some databases, a person with Lastname of “Hansen” or “Pettersen” will not be
listed (BETWEEN … AND only selects fields that are between and excluding the test values).
With some databases, a person with the last name of “Hansen” or “Pettersen” will be listed
(BETWEEN … AND selects fields that are between and including the test values). With other
databases, a person with the last name of “Hansen” will be listed, but “Pettersen” will not be listed
(BETWEEN … AND selects fields between the test values, including the first test value and
excluding the last test value). Therefore: Check how your database treats the BETWEEN …
AND operator.

To display the persons outside the range used in the previous example, use the NOT
operator:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName NOT BETWEEN ‘Hansen’ AND ‘Pettersen’

Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
SQL Alias
With SQL, aliases can be used for column names and table names

Syntax:
For Column name alias:

SELECT column _name AS column_alias FROM table_name

For Table Name alias:

SELECT column_name FROM table_name AS table_alias

Example:
Original Persons table:
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Using the column name alias will replace the column headings in the result. With SQL:

SELECT LastName AS Family, FirstName AS Name FROM Persons

Result:
Family Name
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari

Using the table name alias will replace only the table indicator and will not affect how
information (e.g., column headings) is displayed.

SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM Persons AS Employees

Result:

Table Employees:
LastName FirstName
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari

SQL JOIN
Joins and Keys
Sometimes, we have to select data from two or more tables to make our result complete. We
have to perform a join.

Tables in a database can be related to each other with keys. A primary key is a column with a
unique value for each row. Each primary key value must be unique within the table. The
purpose is to bind data together, across tables, without repeating all of the data in every table.

In the “Employees” table below, the “Employee_ID” column is the primary key, meaning that no
two rows can have the same Employee_ID. The Employee_ID distinguishes two persons even if
they have the same name.

When you look at the example below, notice that:

• The “Employee_ID” column is the primary key of the “Employee” table.
• The “Prod_ID” column is the primary key of the “Orders” table.
• The “Employee_ID” column in the “Orders” table is used to refer to the persons in the
“Employees” table without using their names.

Employees:
Employee_ID Name
01 Hansen, Ola
02 Svendson, Tove
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Pettersen, Kari

Orders:
Prod_ID Product Employee_ID
234 Printer 01
657 Table 03
865 Chair 03

Referring to Two Tables

We can select data from two tables by referring to two tables, like this:

Example:

Who has ordered a product, and what did they order?

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees, Orders WHERE

Employees.Employee_ID = Orders.Employee_ID

Result:
Name Product
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen Chair
Who ordered a printer?

SELECT Employees.Name FROM Employees, Orders WHERE

Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID AND Orders.Product = ‘Printer’

Result:
Name
Hansen, Ola

Using JOIN
We can select data from two tables with the JOIN keyword, like this:

INNER JOIN … ON

Will display data which that occur on BOTH tables only.

Syntax:

SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table INNER JOIN second_table ON

first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield

Note: A foreign key is a column that refers to the primary key of the first table. Primary keys
are unique and foreign keys may not be unique.

Example:
Who has ordered a product, and what did they order?

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON

Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID

Result:
Name Product
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen Chair

Example:

Who ordered printers?

SELECT Employees.Name FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON

Employees_Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID AND Orders.Product = ‘Printer’

Result:
Name
Hansen, Ola
LEFT JOIN … ON

The LEFT JOIN returns all the rows from the first table (Employees), even if there are no
matches on the second table (Orders). If there are rows in Employees that do not have matches
in Orders, those rows also will be listed.

Syntax:

SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table LEFT JOIN second_table ON first_table.keyfield
= second_table.foreign_keyfield

Note: A foreign key is a column that refers to the primary key of the first table. Primary keys
are unique and foreign keys may not be unique.

Example:
List all employees, and their orders – display even if there are no orders.

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees LEFT JOIN Orders ON

Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID

Result:
Name Product
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen Chair
Pettersen, Kari

RIGHT JOIN … ON

The RIGHT JOIN returns all the rows from the second table (Orders), even if there are no
matches in the first table (Employees). If there had been any rows in Orders that did not have
matches in Employees, those rows also would have been listed.

Syntax:

SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table RIGHT JOIN second_table ON

first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield

Example;
List all orders, and who has ordered. Display also orders that do not have matching
Employee records (in this case, none).

SELECT Employee.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees RIGHT JOIN Orders ON

Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID
Result:
Name Product
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen Chair

SQL UNION and UNION ALL

UNION
The UNION command is used to select related information from two tables, much like the JOIN
command. However, when using the UNION command, all selected columns need to be of the
same data type.

NOTE: With UNION, only distinct values are selected/displayed.

Syntax:

SQL Statement 1
UNION
SQL Statement 2

Example:

Employees_Norway table:
E_ID E_Name
01 Hansen, Ola
02 Svendson, Tove
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Pettersen, Kari

Employees_USA table:
E_ID E_Name
01 Turner, Sally
02 Kent, Clark
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Scott, Stephen

List all different employee names in Norway and USA (no duplicates):

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway

UNION
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result:
E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Scott, Stephen

Note: There are two “Svenson, Stephen” that occur in both tables. ONLY ONE IS DISPLAYED
from the UNION command.

UNION ALL
The UNION ALL command is the same as the UNION command, except that UNION ALL lists
duplicates.

Syntax:

SQL Statement 1
UNION ALL
SQL Statement 2

Example:

List all employees in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway

UNION ALL
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result:
E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Svendson, Stephen
Scott, Stephen

Note: “Svendson, Stephen” is listed twice.

SQL CREATE DATABASE, TABLE, and INDEX

Create a Database
Syntax:

CREATE DATABASE database_name

Create a Table
Syntax:

CREATE TABLE table_name

(
column_name1 data_type1,
column_name2 datatype2,
…
)

Example:

This example demonstrates how you can create a table named “Person”, with four
columns. The column names will be “LastName”, “FirstName”, “Address”, and “Age”:

CREATE TABLE Person

(
LastName varchar,
FirstName varchar,
Address varchar,
Age Int
)

This example demonstrates how you can specify a maximum length for some columns:

CREATE TABLE Person

(
LastName varchar(30),
FirstName varchar,
Address varchar,
Age int(3)
)

The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. The table below contains the
most common data types in SQL:

Data Type Description

integer(size) Hold integers only. The maximum number of digits are specified in
int(size) parenthesis.
smallint(size)
tinyint(size)
decimal(size,d) Hold numbers with fractions. The maximum number of digits are
numeric(size,d) specified in "size". The maximum number of digits to the right of the
decimal is specified in "d".
char(size) Holds a fixed length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special
characters). The fixed size is specified in parenthesis.
varchar(size) Holds a variable length string (can contain letters, numbers, and
special characters). The maximum size is specified in parenthesis.
date(yyyymmdd) Holds a date

Create Index
Indices are created in an existing table to locate rows more quickly and efficiently. It is possible to
create an index on one or more columns of a table, and each index is given a name. The users
cannot see the indexes, they are just used to speed up queries.

Note: Updating a table containing indexes takes more time than updating a table without, this is
because the indexes also need an update. So, it is a good idea to create indexes only on
columns that are often used for a search.

Unique Index

A unique index means that two rows cannot have the same index value.

Syntax:

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name ON table_name (column_name)

Note: column_name specifies the column you want indexed.

Example:

This example creates a simple index named “PersonIndex”, on the LastName field of the
Person table:

CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName)

If you want to index the values in a column in descending order, you can add the reserved
word DESC after the column name:

CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName DESC)

If you want to index more than one column, you can list the column names within the
parenthesis, separated by commas:

CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName, FirstName)

SQL DROP INDEX, TABLE and DATABASE

DROP INDEX
You can delete an existing index in a table with the DROP INDEX statement. This is used
differently for different forms of databases.

Syntax for Microsoft SQLJet (and Microsoft Access):

DROP INDEX Index_name ON table_name

Syntax for MS SQL Server:

DROP INDEX table_name.index_name

Syntax for IBM DB2 and Oracle:

DROP INDEX index_name

Syntax for MySQL:

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP INDEX index_name

DROP TABLE
To delete a table (the table structure, attributes, and indexes will also be deleted):

Syntax:

DROP TABLE table_name

DROP DATABASE
Syntax:

DROP DATABASE database_name

TRUNCATE TABLE
Truncate deletes only the data inside the table,

Syntax:

TRUNCATE TABLE table_name

SQL ALTER TABLE
The ALTER TABLE statement is used to add or drop columns in an existing table.

Syntax (to ADD):

ALTER TABLE table_name

ADD column_name datatype

Example:

Original Person Table:

LastName FirstName Address
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20

To add a column named “City” (variable character field with a maximum of 30 in length) in
the “Person” table:

ALTER TABLE Person ADD City varchar(30)

Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20

Syntax (to DELETE):

ALTER TABLE table_name

DROP COLUMN column_name

Example:

To drop the “Address” column from the above “Person” table:

ALTER TABLE Person DROP COLUMN Address

Result:
LastName FirstName City
Pettersen Kari

Note: Some database systems don’t allow the dropping of a column in a database table (DROP
COLUMN column_name).
SQL Functions
SQL has a lot of built-in functions for counting and calculations.

Function Syntax

The syntax for built-in SQL functions is:

SELECT function(column) FROM table

TYPES OF FUNCTIONS:

There are several basic types and categories of functions in SQL. The basic types of functions
are:

• Aggregate Functions
• Scalar Functions

Aggregate functions
Aggregate functions operate against a collection of values, but return a single value.

Note: If used among many other expressions in the item list of a SELECT statement, the
SELECT must have a GROUP BY clause.

Aggregate functions in MS Access

Function Description
AVG(column) Returns the average value of a column
COUNT(column) Returns the number of rows (without a NULL value) of a column
COUNT(*) Returns the number of selected rows
FIRST(column) Returns the value of the first record in a specified field
LAST(column) Returns the value of the last record in a specified field
MAX(column) Returns the highest value of a column
MIN(column) Returns the lowest value of a column
STDEV(column)
STDEVP(column)
SUM(column) Returns the total sum of a column
VAR(column)
VARP(column)

Aggregate functions in SQL Server

Function Description
AVG(column) Returns the average value of a column
BINARY_CHECKSUM
CHECKSUM
CHECKSUM_AGG
COUNT(column) Returns the number of rows (without a NULL value) of a column
COUNT(*) Returns the number of selected rows
COUNT(DISTINCT column) Returns the number of distinct results
FIRST(column) Returns the value of the first record in a specified field (not
 supported in SQLServer2K)
LAST(column) Returns the value of the last record in a specified field (not
supported in SQLServer2K)
MAX(column) Returns the highest value of a column
MIN(column) Returns the lowest value of a column
STDEV(column)
STDEVP(column)
SUM(column) Returns the total sum of a column
VAR(column)
VARP(column)

Scalar functions
Scalar functions operate against a single value, and return a single value based on the input
value.

Useful Scalar Functions in MS Access

Function Description
UCASE(c) Converts a field to upper case
LCASE(c) Converts a field to lower case
MID(c,start[,end]) Extract characters from a text field
LEN(c) Returns the length of a text field
INSTR(c,char) Returns the numeric position of a named character within a text
field
LEFT(c,number_of_char) Return the left part of a text field requested
RIGHT(c,number_of_char) Return the right part of a text field requested
ROUND(c,decimals) Rounds a numeric field to the number of decimals specified
MOD(x,y) Returns the remainder of a division operation
NOW() Returns the current system date
FORMAT(c,format) Changes the way a field is displayed
DATEDIFF(d,date1,date2) Used to perform date calculations

SQL GROUP BY and HAVING

Aggregate functions (like SUM) often need an added GROUP BY functionality.

GROUP BY
GROUP BY was added to SQL because aggregate functions (like SUM) return the aggregate of
all column values every time they are called, and without the GROUP BY function, it was
impossible to find the sum of each individual group of column values.

Syntax:
 SELECT column, SUM(column) FROM table GROUP BY column

Example:

Sales Table:
Company Amount
W3Schools 5500
IBM 4500
W3Schools 7100

To get the sum of the amount of each company:

SELECT Company, SUM(Amount) FROM Sales GROUP BY Company

Result:
Company SUM(Amount)
W3Schools 12600
IBM 4500

HAVING
HAVING was added to SQL because the WHERE keyword could not be used against aggregate
function (like SUM), and without HAVING, it would be impossible to test for result condition.

Syntax:

SELECT column, SUM(column) FROM table

GROUP BY column
HAVING SUM(column) condition value

Example:

Sales Table
Company Amount
W3Schools 5500
IBM 4500
W3Schools 7100

Sum the amounts from the Sales table grouped by Company and list only amounts over
10,000:

SELECT Company, SUM(Amount) FROM Sales

GROUP BY Company
HAVING SUM(Amount)>10000

Result:
Company SUM(Amount)
W3Schools 12600
SQL SELECT INTO statement
The SELECT INTO statement is most often used to create backup copies of tables or for
archiving records.

Syntax:

SELECT column_name(s) INTO newtable [IN externaldatabase] FROM source

Example:

To create a backup copy (all fields) of “Persons” table into “Persons_backup” in the same
database:

SELECT * INTO Persons_backup FROM Persons

To make an exact copy of “Persons” table into a “Persons” table in another database,
“Backup.mdb”:

SELECT Persons.* INTO Persons IN “Backup.mdb” FROM Persons

To make of copy of the “Persons” table for only a few fields in a “Persons_backup” file in
the same database:

SELECT LastName, FirstName INTO Persons_backup FROM Persons

You can also add a WHERE condition in copying records to the “Persons_backup” table:

SELECT LastName, FirstName INTO Persons_backup FROM Persons WHERE City =

‘Sandnes’

Selecting data from more than one table is also possible. The following example creates a
new table”Empl_Ord_backup” that contains data from the two tables “Employees” and
“Orders”:

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product INTO Empl_Ord_backup

FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders
ON Employees.Employee_ID = Orders.Employee_ID

SQL CREATE VIEW/AS Statement

A view is a virtual table based on the result-set of a SELECT statement.

What is a View?
In SQL, a VIEW is a virtual table based on the result-set of a SELECT statement.

A view contains rows and columns, just like a real table. The fields in a view are fields from one
or more real tables in the database. You can add SQL functions, WHERE, and JOIN statements
to a view and present the data as if the data were coming from a single table.

Note: The database design and structure will NOT be affected by the functions, where, or join
statements in a view.

Syntax:

Create view VIEW_NAME AS

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition

Note: The database does not store the view data. The database engine recreates the data,
using the view’s SELECT statement, every time a user queries a view.

Example:

A view could be used from inside a query, a stored procedure, or from inside another view. By
adding functions, joins, etc., to a view, it allows you to present exactly the data you want to the
user.
The view “Current Product List” lists all active products (products that are not
discontinued, or where Discontinued = No) from the Products table. This is created with
the following commands:

CREATE VIEW [Current Product List] AS

SELECT ProductID, ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE Discontinued=No

The “Current Product List” view can be viewed with the command:

SELECT * FROM [Current Product List]

To create a view “Products Above Average Price” which selects every product in the
Products table that has a unit price that is higher than the average unit price:

CREATE VIEW [Products Above Average Price] AS

SELECT ProductName, UnitPrice
FROM Products
WHERE UnitPrice > (SELECT AVG(UnitPrice) FROM Products)

The “Products Above Average Price” view can be viewed with the command:

SELECT * FROM [Products Above Average Price]

Listing the total sales for each category in 1997 is created by the following commands.
Note that this view selects its data from another view called, “Product Sales for 1997”
which enumerates ProductSales for each “CategoryName”.

CREATE VIEW [Category Sales for 1997] AS

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

The “Category Sales for 1997” view can be viewed with this command:

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales for 1997’]

To further add a condition of only viewing “Beverages” in this view:

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales for 1997]

WHERE CategoryName=’Beverages’

SQL Servers – RDBMS

Modern SQL Servers are built on RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems).

DBMS – Database Management System

A Database Management System (DBMS) is a computer program that can access data in a
database.

The DBMS program enables you to extract, modify, or store information in a database.

Different DBMS programs provides different functions for querying data, reporting data and
modifying data.

RDBMS – Relational Database Management System

A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a Database Management System
(DBMS) where the database is organized and accessed according to the relationships between
data.

RDBMS was invented by IBM in the early 1970’s.

RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like Oracle, SQL Server, IBM
DB2, Sybase, MySQL and Microsoft Access.
SQL QUICK REFERENCE

SQL Syntax

Statement Syntax
AND / OR SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
AND|OR condition
ALTER TABLE (add column) ALTER TABLE table_name
ADD column_name datatype
ALTER TABLE (drop column) ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name
AS (alias for column) SELECT column_name AS column_alias
FROM table_name
AS (alias for table) SELECT column_name
FROM table_name AS table_alias
BETWEEN SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
BETWEEN value1 AND value2
CREATE DATABASE CREATE DATABASE database_name
CREATE INDEX CREATE INDEX index_name
ON table_name (column_name)
CREATE TABLE CREATE TABLE table_name
(
column_name1 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
.......
)
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name
ON table_name (column_name)
CREATE VIEW CREATE VIEW view_name AS
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
DELETE FROM DELETE FROM table_name
(Note: Deletes the entire table!!)

or

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE condition
DROP DATABASE DROP DATABASE database_name
DROP INDEX DROP INDEX table_name.index_name
DROP TABLE DROP TABLE table_name
GROUP BY SELECT column_name1,SUM(column_name2)
FROM table_name
GROUP BY column_name1
HAVING SELECT column_name1,SUM(column_name2)
FROM table_name
GROUP BY column_name1
HAVING SUM(column_name2) condition value
IN SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
IN (value1,value2,..)
INSERT INTO INSERT INTO table_name
VALUES (value1, value2,....)

or

INSERT INTO table_name

(column_name1, column_name2,...)
VALUES (value1, value2,....)
LIKE SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
LIKE pattern
ORDER BY SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name [ASC|DESC]
SELECT SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
SELECT * SELECT *
FROM table_name
SELECT DISTINCT SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
SELECT INTO SELECT *
(used to create backup copies of INTO new_table_name
tables) FROM original_table_name

or

SELECT column_name(s)
INTO new_table_name
FROM original_table_name
TRUNCATE TABLE TRUNCATE TABLE table_name
(deletes only the data inside the
table)
UPDATE UPDATE table_name
SET column_name=new_value
[, column_name=new_value]
WHERE column_name=some_value
WHERE SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition