SQL – AN INTRODUCTION

SQL is an ANSI standard computer language for accessing and manipulating databases. The databases
covered are: Oracle, DB2, Sybase, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, and other database
systems. Like QBE, SQL provides users with a way of querying relational databases.

SQL was developed under the name SEQUEL at the IBM San Jose research center in the mid 1970s. SQL
was the data manipulation language for IBM’s prototype relational model DBMS, System R. In 1980, it was
renamed SQL (still pronounced as “Sequel”) to avoid confusion with an unrelated hardware product also called
SEQUEL. Most relational DBMSs use a version of SQL as a data manipulation language.

WHAT IS SQL?

• SQL stands for Structured Query Language

• SQL allows you to access a database
• SQL is an ANSI standard computer language
• SQL can execute queries against a database
• SQL can retrieve data from a database
• SQL can insert new records in a database
• SQL can delete records from a database
• SQL can update records in a database
• SQL is easy to learn

SQL IS A STANDARD

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard computer language for accessing and
manipulating database systems. SQL contains commands or statements that are used to create tables, to
update tables and to retrieve data from tables in a database. The commands that are used to retrieve data are
usually referred to as Queries. SQL works with database programs like MS Access, DB2, Informix, MS SQL
Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc.

Unfortunately, there are many different versions of the SQL language, but to be in compliance with the ANSI
standard, they must support the same major keywords in a similar manner (such as SELECT, UPDATE,
DELETE, INSERT, WHERE, and others).

Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary extensions in addition to the SQL
standard!

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

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat

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

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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
Harish
Sanyal
Prakash

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 SELECT STATEMENT

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

Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

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Select Some Columns

To select the columns named "LastName" and "FirstName", use a SELECT statement like this:

SELECT LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

"Persons" table

LastName FirstName Address City

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat

Result

LastName FirstName
Harish Om
Sanyal Tanesh
Prakash Suraj

Select All Columns

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

SELECT * FROM Persons

Result

LastName FirstName Address City

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat

Semicolon after SQL Statements?

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.Some SQL tutorials ends each SQL statement
with a semicolon. Is this necessary? 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 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:

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Syntax

SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s)

FROM table_name

Using the DISTINCT keyword

To select ALL values from the column named "Company" we use a SELECT statement like this:

SELECT Company FROM Orders

"Orders" table

Company OrderNumber
Sega 3412
W3Schools 2312
Trio 4678
W3Schools 6798

Result

Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio
W3Schools

Note that "W3Schools" is listed twice in the result-set.

To select only DIFFERENT values from the column named "Company" we use a SELECT DISTINCT
statement like this:

SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM Orders

Result:

Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio
Now "W3Schools" is listed only once in the result-set.

The 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.

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Syntax

SELECT column FROM table

WHERE column operator value

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

Using the WHERE Clause

To select only the persons living in the city "Delhi", we add a WHERE clause to the SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City='Delhi'

"Persons" table

LastName FirstName Address City Year

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi 1951
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi 1978
Sanyal Ravi 18 Kashmere Gate Delhi 1980
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat 1960

Result

LastName FirstName Address City Year

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi 1951
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi 1978
Sanyal Ravi 18 Kashmere Gate Delhi 1980

Using Quotes

Note that we have used single quotes around the conditional values in the examples.

SQL uses single quotes around text values (most database systems will also accept double quotes).
Numeric values should not be enclosed in quotes.

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For text values:

This is correct:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tanesh'
This is wrong:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName=Tanesh

For numeric values:

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

The LIKE Condition

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

Syntax

SELECT column FROM table

WHERE column LIKE pattern

A "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the pattern) both before and after the pattern.

Using LIKE

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 first names that end with an 'a':

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName LIKE '%a'

The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that contain the pattern 'la':

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName LIKE '%la%'

THE INSERT INTO STATEMENT

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

Syntax
INSERT INTO table_name
VALUES (value1, value2,....)

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

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

VALUES (value1, value2,....)

Insert a New Row

This "Persons" table:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat

And this SQL statement:

INSERT INTO Persons

VALUES ('Hasija', 'Neha', '24 NDSE-II', 'Delhi')

Will give this result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Hasija Neha 24 NDSE-II Delhi

Insert Data in Specified Columns

This "Persons" table:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Hasija Neha 24 NDSE-II Delhi

And This SQL statement:

INSERT INTO Persons (LastName, Address)

VALUES ('Saxena', '3 Lodi Colony, Delhi')

Will give this result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Hasija Neha 24 NDSE-II Delhi
Saxena 3 Lodi Colony, Delhi

THE UPDATE STATEMENT

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

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Syntax

UPDATE table_name
SET column_name = new_value
WHERE column_name = some_value

Person:
LastName FirstName Address City
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Saxena 3 Lodi Colony, Delhi

Update one Column in a Row

We want to add a first name to the person with a last name of "Saxena":

UPDATE Person SET FirstName = 'Nina'

WHERE LastName = 'Saxena'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Saxena Nina 3 Lodi Colony, Delhi

Update several Columns in a Row

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

UPDATE Person
SET Address = '5, C.Place', City = 'N Delhi'
WHERE LastName = 'Saxena'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Saxena Nina 5 C.Place N Delhi
THE DELETE STATEMENT

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

Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE column_name = some_value

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Person:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Saxena Nina 5 C.Place N Delhi

Delete a Row

"Nina Saxena" is going to be deleted:

DELETE FROM Person WHERE LastName = 'Saxena'

Result

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat

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

The ORDER BY keywords are used to sort-order the result.

Sort the Rows

The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the rows.

Orders:

Company OrderNumber
Sega 3412
ABC Shop 5678
W3Schools 2312
W3Schools 6798

Example

To display the companies in alphabetical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders

ORDER BY Company

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

To display the companies in alphabetical order AND the ordernumbers in numerical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders

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

Example

To display the companies in reverse alphabetical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders

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

Example

To display the companies in reverse alphabetical order AND the ordernumbers in numerical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders

ORDER BY Company DESC, OrderNumber ASC

Result:

Company OrderNumber
W3Schools 2312
W3Schools 6798
Sega 3412
ABC Shop 5678

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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.

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName FirstName Address City

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Sanyal Ravi 18 Kashmere Gate Delhi

Example

Use AND to display each person with the first name equal to "Tanesh", and the last name equal to "Sanyal":

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName='Tanesh'
AND LastName='Sanyal'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi

Example

Use OR to display each person with the first name equal to "Tanesh", or the last name equal to "Sanyal":

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE firstname='Tanesh'
OR lastname='Sanyal'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Sanyal Ravi 18 Kashmere Gate Delhi

Example

You can also combine AND and OR (use parentheses to form complex expressions):

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE

(FirstName='Tanesh' OR FirstName='Ravi')
AND LastName='Sanyal'
Result:

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LastName FirstName Address City
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Sanyal Ravi 18 Kashmere Gate Delhi

BETWEEN ... AND

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

SELECT column_name FROM table_name

WHERE column_name
BETWEEN value1 AND value2

Original Table
LastName FirstName Address City
Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Kapoor Annu 18 Lajpat Nagar Delhi
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi

Example 1

To display the persons alphabetically between (and including) "Harish" and exclusive "Prakash", use the
following SQL:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName

BETWEEN 'Harish' AND 'Prakash'
Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Kapoor Annu 18 Lajpat Nagar Delhi

Note: The BETWEEN...AND operator is treated differently in different databases.

Example 2

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

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName

NOT BETWEEN 'Harish' AND 'Prakash'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi

With SQL, aliases can be used for column names and table names.

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Column Name Alias

The syntax is:

SELECT column AS column_alias FROM table

Table Name Alias

The syntax is:

SELECT column FROM table AS table_alias

Example: Using a Column Alias

This table (Persons):

LastName FirstName Address City

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat

And this SQL:

SELECT LastName AS Family, FirstName AS Name

FROM Persons

Returns this result:

Family Name
Harish Om
Sanyal Tanesh
Prakash Suraj

Example: Using a Table Alias

This table (Persons):

LastName FirstName Address City

Harish Om 77 Golf Links Delhi
Sanyal Tanesh 23 Model Town Delhi
Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road Surat

And this SQL:

SELECT LastName, FirstName

FROM Persons AS Employees

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Returns this result:

Table Employees:

LastName FirstName
Harish Om
Sanyal Tanesh
Prakash Suraj

JOINS AND KEYS

Sometimes we have to select data from two 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. 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.
In the example tables below, notice that:

• The "Employee_ID" column is the primary key of the "Employees" 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 Harish, Om
02 Sanyal, Tanesh
03 Sanyal, Ravi
04 Prakash, Suraj
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

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Result

Name Product
Harish, Om Printer
Sanyal, Ravi Table
Sanyal, Ravi Chair

Example

Who ordered a printer?

SELECT Employees.Name
FROM Employees, Orders
WHERE Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID
AND Orders.Product='Printer'

Result

Name
Harish, Om

Using Joins

OR we can select data from two tables with the JOIN keyword, like this:

Example INNER JOIN

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

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

The INNER JOIN returns all rows from both tables where there is a match. If there are rows in Employees
that do not have matches in Orders, those rows will not be listed.

Result
Name Product
Harish, Om Printer
Sanyal, Ravi Table
Sanyal, Ravi Chair

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Example LEFT JOIN

Syntax

SELECT field1, field2, field3

FROM first_table
LEFT JOIN second_table
ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield

List all employees, and their orders - if any.

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product

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

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

Result
Name Product
Harish, Om Printer
Sanyal, Tanesh
Sanyal, Ravi Table
Sanyal, Ravi Chair
Prakash, Suraj

Example RIGHT JOIN

Syntax

SELECT field1, field2, field3

FROM first_table
RIGHT JOIN second_table
ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield

List all orders, and who has ordered - if any.

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product

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

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.

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Result

Name Product
Harish, Om Printer
Sanyal, Ravi Table
Sanyal, Ravi Chair

Example

Who ordered a printer?

SELECT Employees.Name
FROM Employees
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID
WHERE Orders.Product = 'Printer'
Result
Name
Harish, Om

CREATE A DATABASE

To create a database:

CREATE DATABASE database_name

Create a Table

To create a table in a database:

CREATE TABLE table_name

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

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
)

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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 specified
numeric(size,d) 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.

A Unique Index

Creates a unique index on a table. A unique index means that two rows cannot have the same index value.

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name

ON table_name (column_name)
The "column_name" specifies the column you want indexed.

A Simple Index

Creates a simple index on a table. When the UNIQUE keyword is omitted, duplicate values are allowed.

CREATE INDEX index_name

ON table_name (column_name)

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The "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 parentheses, separated
by commas:

CREATE INDEX PersonIndex

ON Person (LastName, FirstName)

Drop Index

You can delete an existing index in a table with the DROP statement.

DROP INDEX table_name.index_name

DELETE A DATABASE OR TABLE

To delete a database:

DROP DATABASE database_name

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

DROP TABLE table_name

ALTER TABLE

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

ALTER TABLE table_name

ADD column_name datatype
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name

Note: Some database systems don't allow the dropping of a column in a database table (DROP COLUMN
column_name).

19
Person:

LastName FirstName Address

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road

Example

To add a column named "City" in the "Person" table:

ALTER TABLE Person ADD City varchar(30)

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Prakash Suraj 10 Mall Road

Example

To drop the "Address" column in the "Person" table:

ALTER TABLE Person DROP COLUMN Address

Result:

LastName FirstName City

Prakash Suraj

SQL FUNCTIONS

SQL has a lot of built-in functions for counting and calculations.

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!!

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"Persons" table (used in most examples)

Name Age
Harish, Om 34
Sanyal, Tanesh 45
Prakash, Suraj 19

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 the specified field
LAST(column) Returns the value of the last record in the 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 the specified field
LAST(column) Returns the value of the last record in the 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)

Scalar functions

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

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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) 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

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 for
each individual group of column values.

The syntax for the GROUP BY function is:

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

GROUP BY Example

This "Sales" Table:

Company Amount
W3Schools 5500
IBM 4500
W3Schools 7100

And This SQL:

SELECT Company, SUM(Amount) FROM Sales

Returns this result:

Company SUM(Amount)
W3Schools 17100
IBM 17100
W3Schools 17100

The above code is invalid because the column returned is not part of an aggregate. A GROUP BY clause will
solve this problem:

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

Returns this result:

Company SUM(Amount)
W3Schools 12600
IBM 4500

HAVING...

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

The syntax for the HAVING function is:

SELECT column,SUM(column) FROM table

GROUP BY column
HAVING SUM(column) condition value

This "Sales" Table:

Company Amount
W3Schools 5500
IBM 4500
W3Schools 7100

This SQL:

SELECT Company,SUM(Amount) FROM Sales

GROUP BY Company
HAVING SUM(Amount)>10000

Returns this result

Company SUM(Amount)
W3Schools 12600

The 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

Make a Backup Copy

The following example makes a backup copy of the "Persons" table:

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SELECT * INTO Persons_backup
FROM Persons

The IN clause can be used to copy tables into another database:

SELECT Persons.* INTO Persons IN 'Backup.mdb'

FROM Persons

If you only want to copy a few fields, you can do so by listing them after the SELECT statement:

SELECT LastName,FirstName INTO Persons_backup

FROM Persons

You can also add a where clause. The following example creates a "Persons_backup" table with two columns
(FirstName and LastName) by extracting the persons who lives in "Delhi" from the "Persons" table:

SELECT LastName,Firstname INTO Persons_Delhi

FROM Persons
WHERE City='Delhi'

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

24