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":
P_Id
1
2
3

LastName
Hansen
Svendson
Pettersen

FirstName
Ola
Tove
Kari

Address
Timoteivn 10
Borgvn 23
Storgt 20

City
Sandnes
Sandnes
Stavanger

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

SQL Statements
Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL statements.
The following SQL statement will select all the records in the "Persons" table:
SELECT * FROM Persons
In this tutorial we will teach you all about the different SQL statements.

Keep in Mind That...

SQL is not case sensitive

Semicolon after SQL Statements?

Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of each SQL statement.
Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that allow
more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.

We are using MS Access and SQL Server 2000 and we do not have to put a semicolon after each
SQL statement, but some database programs force you to use it.
The SQL SELECT Statement

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

The result is stored in a result table, called the result-set.
SQL SELECT Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

and
SELECT * FROM table_name

Note: SQL is not case sensitive. SELECT is the same as select.

An SQL SELECT Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select the content of the columns named "LastName" and "FirstName" from the
table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

LastName

FirstName

Hansen

Ola

Svendson

Tove

Pettersen

Kari

SELECT * Example

Now we want to select all the columns from the "Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons

Tip: The asterisk (*) is a quick way of selecting all columns!

The result-set will look like this:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

The SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

In a table, some of the columns may contain duplicate values. This is not a problem, however,
sometimes you will want to list only the different (distinct) values in a table.
The DISTINCT keyword can be used to return only distinct (different) values.
SQL SELECT DISTINCT Syntax
SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

SELECT DISTINCT Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select only the distinct values from the column named "City" from the table
above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT DISTINCT City FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

City
Sandnes
Stavanger

The WHERE clause is used to filter records.

The WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified criterion.
SQL WHERE Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value

WHERE Clause Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select only the persons living in the city "Sandnes" from the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE City='Sandnes'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Quotes Around Text Fields

SQL uses single quotes around text values (most database systems will also accept double
quotes).
However, numeric values should not be enclosed in quotes.
For text values:
This is correct:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tove'
This is wrong:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName=Tove

For numeric values:

This is correct:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year=1965
This is wrong:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year='1965'

Operators Allowed in the WHERE Clause

With the WHERE clause, the following operators can be used:

Operator

Description

Equal

<>

Not equal

>

Greater than

<

Less than

>=

Greater than or equal

<=

Less than or equal

BETWEEN

Between an inclusive range

LIKE

Search for a pattern

IN

To specify multiple possible values for a column

The AND & OR operators are used to filter records based on more than one condition.

The AND & OR Operators

The AND operator displays a record if both the first condition and the second condition is true.
The OR operator displays a record if either the first condition or the second condition is true.

AND Operator Example

The "Persons" table:
P_Id
1
2
3

LastName
Hansen
Svendson
Pettersen

FirstName
Ola
Tove
Kari

Address
Timoteivn 10
Borgvn 23
Storgt 20

City
Sandnes
Sandnes
Stavanger

Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove" AND the last name
equal to "Svendson":
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName='Tove'
AND LastName='Svendson'
The result-set will look like this:
P_Id
2

LastName
Svendson

FirstName
Tove

Address
Borgvn 23

City
Sandnes

OR Operator Example
Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove" OR the first name
equal to "Ola":
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName='Tove'
OR FirstName='Ola'
The result-set will look like this:
P_Id
1
2

LastName
Hansen
Svendson

FirstName
Ola
Tove

Address
Timoteivn 10
Borgvn 23

City
Sandnes
Sandnes

Combining AND & OR

You can also combine AND and OR (use parenthesis to form complex expressions).
Now we want to select only the persons with the last name equal to "Svendson" AND the first
name equal to "Tove" OR to "Ola":
We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE

LastName='Svendson'
AND (FirstName='Tove' OR FirstName='Ola')
The result-set will look like this:
P_Id
2

LastName
Svendson

FirstName
Tove

Address
Borgvn 23

City
Sandnes

The ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set by a specified column.

The ORDER BY keyword sort the records in ascending order by default.
If you want to sort the records in a descending order, you can use the DESC keyword.
SQL ORDER BY Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name(s) ASC|DESC

ORDER BY Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we want to sort the persons
by their last name.
We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

ORDER BY LastName

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

ORDER BY DESC Example

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we want to sort the persons
descending by their last name.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons
ORDER BY LastName DESC

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

The TOP Clause

The TOP clause is used to specify the number of records to return.

The TOP clause can be very useful on large tables with thousands of records. Returning a large
number of records can impact on performance.
Note: Not all database systems support the TOP clause.

SQL Server Syntax

SELECT TOP number|percent column_name(s)
FROM table_name

SQL SELECT TOP Equivalent in MySQL and Oracle

MySQL Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
LIMIT number
Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
LIMIT 5
Oracle Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE ROWNUM <= number
Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
WHERE ROWNUM <=5

SQL TOP Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Now we want to select only the two first records in the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT TOP 2 * FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

SQL TOP PERCENT Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Now we want to select only 50% of the records in the table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT * FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

The IN Operator

The IN operator allows you to specify multiple values in a WHERE clause.

SQL IN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,...)

IN Operator Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons with a last name equal to "Hansen" or "Pettersen" from the
table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName IN ('Hansen','Pettersen')

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SQL Alias

You can give a table or a column another name by using an alias. This can be a good thing to do
if you have very long or complex table names or column names.
An alias name could be anything, but usually it is short.
SQL Alias Syntax for Tables
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
AS alias_name

SQL Alias Syntax for Columns

SELECT column_name AS alias_name
FROM table_name

Alias Example

Assume we have a table called "Persons" and another table called "Product_Orders". We will
give the table aliases of "p" and "po" respectively.
Now we want to list all the orders that "Ola Hansen" is responsible for.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT po.OrderID, p.LastName, p.FirstName
FROM Persons AS p,
Product_Orders AS po
WHERE p.LastName='Hansen' AND p.FirstName='Ola'

The same SELECT statement without aliases:

SELECT Product_Orders.OrderID, Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName
FROM Persons,
Product_Orders
WHERE Persons.LastName='Hansen' AND Persons.FirstName='Ola'

As you'll see from the two SELECT statements above; aliases can make queries easier to both
write and to read.
The AVG() Function

The AVG() function returns the average value of a numeric column.

SQL AVG() Syntax
SELECT AVG(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL AVG() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to find the average value of the "OrderPrice" fields.

We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT AVG(OrderPrice) AS OrderAverage FROM Orders

The result-set will look like this:

OrderAverage
950

Now we want to find the customers that have an OrderPrice value higher than the average
OrderPrice value.
We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT Customer FROM Orders
WHERE OrderPrice>(SELECT AVG(OrderPrice) FROM Orders)

The result-set will look like this:

Customer
Hansen
Nilsen
Jensen
SQL COUNT(column_name) Syntax

The COUNT(column_name) function returns the number of values (NULL values will not be
counted) of the specified column:

SELECT COUNT(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL COUNT(*) Syntax

The COUNT(*) function returns the number of records in a table:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table_name
SQL COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) Syntax

The COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) function returns the number of distinct values of the
specified column:
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) FROM table_name

Note: COUNT(DISTINCT) works with ORACLE and Microsoft SQL Server, but not with
Microsoft Access.

SQL COUNT(column_name) Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to count the number of orders from "Customer Nilsen".

We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT COUNT(Customer) AS CustomerNilsen FROM Orders
WHERE Customer='Nilsen'

The result of the SQL statement above will be 2, because the customer Nilsen has made 2 orders
in total:
CustomerNilsen

SQL COUNT(*) Example

If we omit the WHERE clause, like this:

SELECT COUNT(*) AS NumberOfOrders FROM Orders

The result-set will look like this:

NumberOfOrders
6

which is the total number of rows in the table.

SQL COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) Example

Now we want to count the number of unique customers in the "Orders" table.
We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Customer) AS NumberOfCustomers FROM Orders

The result-set will look like this:

NumberOfCustomers
3

which is the number of unique customers (Hansen, Nilsen, and Jensen) in the "Orders" table.
The MAX() Function

The MAX() function returns the largest value of the selected column.
SQL MAX() Syntax
SELECT MAX(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL MAX() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to find the largest value of the "OrderPrice" column.

We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT MAX(OrderPrice) AS LargestOrderPrice FROM Orders

The result-set will look like this:

LargestOrderPrice
2000
The MIN() Function

The MIN() function returns the smallest value of the selected column.
SQL MIN() Syntax
SELECT MIN(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL MIN() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to find the smallest value of the "OrderPrice" column.

We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT MIN(OrderPrice) AS SmallestOrderPrice FROM Orders

The result-set will look like this:

SmallestOrderPrice
100
The SUM() Function

The SUM() function returns the total sum of a numeric column.

SQL SUM() Syntax
SELECT SUM(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL SUM() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to find the sum of all "OrderPrice" fields".

We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT SUM(OrderPrice) AS OrderTotal FROM Orders

The result-set will look like this:

OrderTotal
5700

Referencing tables
You can extract information you require from two tables and show them inside a single result.
This is accomplished by the Foreign Key in one table referring to the Primary Key from which it
was originally created.
For Example, Suppose we have two tables FACULTY and COURSES
There is a relationship between these two tables and the FacultyID in the COURSES table is a
foreign key derived from the primary key (FacultyID) of the FACULTY table.
Now suppose you would like to retrieve the courses a faculty is taking the SQL Statement in this
situation would be,
SELECT FacultyName, CourseName
FROM Faculty, Courses
WHERE Faculty.FacultyID = Courses.FacultyID