The CREATE TABLE Statement

The CREATE TABLE statement is used to create a table in a database.

SQL CREATE TABLE Syntax

CREATE TABLE table_name

(
column_name1 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
column_name3 data_type,
....
)

The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a complete reference of all the
data types available in MS Access, MySQL, and SQL Server, go to our complete Data Types
reference.

CREATE TABLE Example

Now we want to create a table called "Persons" that contains five columns: P_Id, LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City.

We use the following CREATE TABLE statement:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int,
LastName varchar(255),
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

The P_Id column is of type int and will hold a number. The LastName, FirstName, Address, and
City columns are of type varchar with a maximum length of 255 characters.

The empty "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

         

The empty table can be filled with data with the INSERT INTO statement.

The INSERT INTO Statement

 The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert a new row in a table.

SQL INSERT INTO Syntax

It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two forms.

The first form doesn't specify the column names where the data will be inserted, only their values:

INSERT INTO table_name

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

The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be inserted:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3,...)

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

SQL INSERT INTO Example

We have the following "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

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

Now we want to insert a new row in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

INSERT INTO Persons

VALUES (4,'Nilsen', 'Johan', 'Bakken 2', 'Stavanger')

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger

Insert Data Only in Specified Columns

It is also possible to only add data in specific columns.
 The following SQL statement will add a new row, but only add data in the "P_Id", "LastName" and
the "FirstName" columns:

INSERT INTO Persons (P_Id, LastName, FirstName)

VALUES (5, 'Tjessem', 'Jakob')

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger
5 Tjessem Jakob    

The UPDATE statement is used to update existing records in a table.

SQL UPDATE Syntax

UPDATE table_name
SET column1=value, column2=value2,...
WHERE some_column=some_value

Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which record
or records that should be updated. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be updated!

SQL UPDATE Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger
5 Tjessem Jakob    

Now we want to update the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'
WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

 P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger
5 Tjessem Jakob Nissestien 67 Sandnes

SQL UPDATE Warning

Be careful when updating records. If we had omitted the WHERE clause in the example above, like
this:

UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'

The "Persons" table would have looked like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Nissestien 67 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Nissestien 67 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Nissestien 67 Sandnes
4 Nilsen Johan Nissestien 67 Sandnes
5 Tjessem Jakob Nissestien 67 Sandnes

The DELETE Statement

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

SQL DELETE Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE some_column=some_value

Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which record or
records that should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be deleted!

SQL DELETE Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
 3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger
5 Tjessem Jakob Nissestien 67 Sandnes

Now we want to delete the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

DELETE FROM Persons

WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger

Delete All Rows

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This means that the table
structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:

DELETE FROM table_name

or

DELETE * FROM table_name

Note: Be very careful when deleting records. You cannot undo this statement!

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

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 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

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

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 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

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Quotes Around Text Fields

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

Although, 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 If you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of the columns

Note: In some versions of SQL the <> operator may be written as !=

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 LastName FirstName Address City

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

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 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 LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 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 LastName FirstName Address City
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes