Fundamentals of Database Lab Manual

Structured query language

What is SQL?
SQL stands for Structured Query Language
SQL lets you access and manipulate databases
What Can SQL do?
SQL can execute queries against a database SQL can create new tables in a database
SQL can retrieve data from a database SQL can create stored procedures in a
SQL can insert records in a database database
SQL can update records in a database SQL can create views in a database
SQL can delete records from a database SQL can set permissions on tables,
SQL can create new databases procedures, and views
SQL is a Standard - BUT....
Although SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard, there are many different
versions of the SQL language.
However, to be compliant with the ANSI standard, they all support at least the major
commands (such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE) in a similar manner.
Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary extensions in addition to the
SQL standard!
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.
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_ I d 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_ I d 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:

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INSERT INTO Persons (P_Id, LastName, FirstName) VALUES (5, 'Tjessem', 'Jakob')
The "Persons" table will now look like this:
P_ I d 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
Below is an example of a table called "Persons":
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 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
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.
SQL DML and DDL
SQL can be divided into two parts:
 The Data Manipulation Language (DML) and
 The Data Definition Language (DDL).
The queries and update commands that form DML include:
SELECT - extracts data from a database
UPDATE - updates data in a database
DELETE - deletes data from a database
INSERT INTO - inserts new data into a database
The DDL part of SQL permits database tables to be created or deleted. It also defines indexes (keys),
specifies links between tables, and imposes constraints between tables.
The most important DDL statements in SQL are:
CREATE DATABASE - creates a new database
ALTER DATABASE - modifies a database
CREATE TABLE - creates a new table
ALTER TABLE - modifies a table
DROP TABLE - deletes a table

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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 database.
The result is stored in a result table, called the result-set.
SQL SELECT Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name
SELECT * FROM tablename
Note: SQL is not case sensitive. SELECT is the same as select.
An SQL SELECT Example
The "Persons" table:
P_ I d 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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 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:

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P_ I d 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 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
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_ I d 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_ I d 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).
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:

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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
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 are 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_ I d 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_ I d 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_ I d 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":

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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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
SQL ORDER BY Keyword
The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set by a specified column.
The ORDER BY keyword sorts 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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
2 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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

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SQL UPDATE Statement

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_values
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_ I d 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_ I d 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
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_ I d 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_values
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:

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P_ I d 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_ I d 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 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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger

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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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
SQL TOP PERCENT Example
The "Persons" table:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
4 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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
SQL LIKE Operator
The LIKE operator is used to search for a specified pattern in a column.
SQL LIKE Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE pattern
LIKE Operator Example
P_ I d 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 persons living in a city that starts with "s" from the table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City LIKE 's%'
The "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the pattern) both before and after the
pattern.
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that ends with an "s" from the "Persons" table.

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We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City LIKE '%s'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "tav" from the "Persons"
table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City LIKE '%tav%'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
It is also possible to select the persons living in a city that does NOT contain the pattern "tav" from the
"Persons" table, by using the NOT keyword.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City NOT LIKE '%tav%'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
SQL Wildcards
SQL wildcards can substitute for one or more characters when searching for data in a database.
SQL wildcards must be used with the SQL LIKE operator.
With SQL, the following wildcards can be used:
Wildcard Description
% A substitute for zero or more characters
_ A substitute for exactly one character
[charlist] Any single character in charlist
[^charlist] or [!charlist] Any single character not in charlist
SQL Wildcard Examples
We have the following "Persons" table:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Using the % Wildcard
Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "sa" from the "Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City LIKE 'sa%'
The result-set will look like this:

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P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "nes" from the "Persons"
table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City LIKE '%nes%'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Using the _ Wildcard
Now we want to select the persons with a first name that starts with any character, followed by "la"
from the "Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE '_la'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "S", followed by any character,
followed by "end", followed by any character, followed by "on" from the "Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName LIKE 'S_end_on'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Using the [charlist] Wildcard
Now we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "b" or "s" or "p" from the "Persons"
table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName LIKE '[bsp]%'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that do not start with "b" or "s" or "p" from the
"Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName LIKE '[!bsp]%'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

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SQL 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_ I d 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 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_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
SQL BETWEEN Operator
The BETWEEN operator is used in a WHERE clause to select a range of data between two values.
The BETWEEN Operator
The BETWEEN operator selects a range of data between two values. The values can be numbers, text, or
dates.
SQL BETWEEN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name WHERE column_name BETWEEN value1 AND value2
BETWEEN Operator Example
The "Persons" table:
P_ I d 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 persons with a last name alphabetically between "Hansen" and "Pettersen"
from the table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Note: The BETWEEN operator is treated differently in different databases!
In some databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will not be listed, because
the BETWEEN operator only selects fields that are between and excluding the test values.
In other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will be listed, because the
BETWEEN operator selects fields that are between and including the test values.

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And in other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" will be listed, but "Pettersen" will not
be listed (like the example above), because the BETWEEN operator 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 operator.
Example 2
To display the persons outside the range in the previous example, use NOT BETWEEN:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName NOT BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'
The result-set will look like this:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 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 both to write and
to read.
SQL JOIN
The JOIN keyword is used in an SQL statement to query data from two or more tables, based on a
relationship between certain columns in these tables.
Tables in a database are often related to each other with keys.
A primary key is a column (or a combination of columns) 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.
Look at the "Persons" table:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Note that the "P_Id" column is the primary key in the "Persons" table. This means that no two rows can
have the same P_Id. The P_Id distinguishes two persons even if they have the same name.

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Next, we have the "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_ I d
1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 1
4 24562 1
5 34764 15
Note that the "O_Id" column is the primary key in the "Orders" table and that the "P_Id" column refers
to the persons in the "Persons" table without using their names.
Notice that the relationship between the two tables above is the "P_Id" column.
Different SQL JOINs
Before we continue with examples, we will list the types of JOIN you can use, and the differences
between them.
JOIN: Return rows when there is at least one match in both tables
LEFT JOIN: Return all rows from the left table, even if there are no matches in the right table
RIGHT JOIN: Return all rows from the right table, even if there are no matches in the left table
FULL JOIN: Return rows when there is a match in one of the tables
SQL INNER JOIN Keyword
The INNER JOIN keyword returns rows when there is at least one match in both tables.
SQL INNER JOIN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1 INNER JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name
PS: INNER JOIN is the same as JOIN.
SQL INNER JOIN Example
The "Persons" table:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The "Orders" table:
O_Id OrderNo P_ I d
1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 1
4 24562 1
5 34764 15
Now we want to list all the persons with any orders.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo FROM Persons INNER JOIN Orders ON
Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id ORDER BY Persons.LastName
The result-set will look like this:

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LastName FirstName OrderNo

Hansen Ola 22456
Hansen Ola 24562
Pettersen Kari 77895
Pettersen Kari 44678
The INNER JOIN keyword returns rows when there is at least one match in both tables. If there are rows
in "Persons" that do not have matches in "Orders", those rows will NOT be listed.
SQL LEFT JOIN Keyword
The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all rows from the left table (table_name1), even if there are no matches
in the right table (table_name2).
SQL LEFT JOIN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1 LEFT JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name
PS: In some databases LEFT JOIN is called LEFT OUTER JOIN.
SQL LEFT JOIN Example
The "Persons" table:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The "Orders" table:
O_Id OrderNo P_ I d
1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 1
4 24562 1
5 34764 15
Now we want to list all the persons and their orders - if any, from the tables above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo FROM Persons LEFT JOIN Orders ON
Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id ORDER BY Persons.LastName
The result-set will look like this:
LastName FirstName OrderNo
Hansen Ola 22456
Hansen Ola 24562
Pettersen Kari 77895
Pettersen Kari 44678
Svendson Tove
The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons), even if there are no matches in
the right table (Orders).
SQL RIGHT JOIN Keyword

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The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the right table (table_name2), even if there are no
matches in the left table (table_name1).
SQL RIGHT JOIN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1 RIGHT JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name
PS: In some databases RIGHT JOIN is called RIGHT OUTER JOIN.
SQL RIGHT JOIN Example
The "Persons" table:
P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The "Orders" table:
O_Id OrderNo P_ I d
1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 1
4 24562 1
5 34764 15
Now we want to list all the orders with containing persons - if any, from the tables above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo FROM Persons RIGHT JOIN Orders ON
Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id ORDER BY Persons.LastName
The result-set will look like this:
LastName FirstName OrderNo
Hansen Ola 22456
Hansen Ola 24562
Pettersen Kari 77895
Pettersen Kari 44678
34764
The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the right table (Orders), even if there are no matches
in the left table (Persons).
SQL FULL JOIN Keyword
The FULL JOIN keyword return rows when there is a match in one of the tables.
SQL FULL JOIN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1 FULL JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name
SQL FULL JOIN Example on the "Persons" table is:

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P_ I d LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The "Orders" table:
O_Id OrderNo P_ I d
1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 1
4 24562 1
5 34764 15
Now we want to list all the persons and their orders, and all the orders with their persons.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo FROM Persons FULL JOIN Orders ON
Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id ORDER BY Persons.LastName
The result-set will look like this:
LastName FirstName OrderNo
Hansen Ola 22456
Hansen Ola 24562
Pettersen Kari 77895
Pettersen Kari 44678
Svendson Tove
34764
The FULL JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons), and all the rows from the right
table (Orders). If there are rows in "Persons" that do not have matches in "Orders", or if there are rows
in "Orders" that do not have matches in "Persons", those rows will be listed as well.
The SQL UNION Operator
The UNION operator is used to combine the result-set of two or more SELECT statements.
Notice that each SELECT statement within the UNION must have the same number of columns. The
columns must also have similar data types. Also, the columns in each SELECT statement must be in the
same order.
SQL UNION Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1 UNION SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2
Note: The UNION operator selects only distinct values by default. To allow duplicate values, use UNION
ALL.
SQL UNION ALL Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1 UNION ALL SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2
PS: The column names in the result-set of a UNION are always equal to the column names in the first
SELECT statement in the UNION.

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