TOP-70 MOST IMPORTANT SQL QUERIES IN 2022

SQL is incredibly powerful, and like every well-made development tool, it has a few commands which it’s vital for a good
developer to know. Here is a list of SQL queries that are really important for coding & optimization. Each of the queries in
the SQL tutorial is consequential to almost every system that interacts with an SQL database.

1. Retrieving Tables 36. Conditional Subquery Results

2. Selecting Columns from a Table 37. Copying Selections
3. Outputting Data – Constraint 38. Catching NULL Results
4. Outputting Data – ‘Order By’ 39. HAVING can be Relieving!
5. Outputting Data – ‘Group By’ 40. Tie things up with Strings!
6. Data Manipulation – COUNT 41. Use COALESCE
7. Data Manipulation Using SUM 42. Use Convert
8. Data Manipulation Using AVG 43. DENSE_RANK()Analytical
9. SQL Query for Listing all Views 44. Query_partition_clause
10. Creating a View 45. Last five records from the table
11. Retrieving a View 46. LAG
12. Updating a View 47. LEAD
13. Dropping a View 48. PERCENT_RANK
14. Display User Tables 49. MIN
15. Display Primary Keys 50. MAX
16. Displaying Unique Keys 51. Top- N queries
17. Displaying Foreign Keys 52. CORR Analytic Query
18. Displaying Triggers 53. NTILE Analytic Query
19. Displaying Internal Tables 54. VARIANCE, VAR_POP, and VAR_SAMP Query
20. Displaying a List of Procedures 55. STDDEV, STDDEV_POP and STDDEV_SAMP Queries
21. Swapping the Values 56. Pattern Matching
22. Returning a Column of Values 57. FIRST_VALUE
23. SELECT TOP Clause 58. LAST_VALUE
24. Searching for SQL Tables 59. Prediction
25. Between Monday and Tuesday 60. CLUSTER_SET
26. Find Intersection of 2 Tables 61. WITH (Common Table Expressions)
27. UNION 62. NANVL
28. Friendly Column Labels 63. WIDTH_BUCKET
29. Always and Everywhere! 64. COSH
30. Developer-Friendly SQL 65. SOUNDEX
31. Database Management 66. TZ_OFFSET
32. Adding Tables to Our New DB 67. CARDINALITY
33. Modifying and Deleting Tables 68. DUMP
34. Successful Indexing 69. PATH
35. Improving Performance 70. UNISTR

1.   SQL Query for Retrieving Tables

This query can be run to retrieve the list of tables present in a database where the database is “My_Schema”.
With the SELECT command, users can define the columns that they want to get in the query output. This command is also
useful to get which column users want to see as the output table. The SELECT statement is applied to pick data from a
table. The data retrieved is put in a result table, named the result-set. The output data is saved in a result table. This
output table is also termed the result-set.

1 SELECT * FROM My_Schema.Tables;

2.   Query for Selecting Columns from a Table

These are perhaps the most useful SQL queries examples. In the example below, we are extracting the “Student_ID”
column or attribute from the table “STUDENT”. The select statement is used to select data from the database.

1 SELECT Student_ID FROM STUDENT;

If you want to display all the attributes from a particular table, this is the right query to use:

1 SELECT * FROM STUDENT;

3.   Query for Outputting Data Using a Constraint

This SQL query retrieves the specified attributes from the table on the constraint Employee ID =0000

1 SELECT EMP_ID, NAME FROM EMPLOYEE_TBL WHERE EMP_ID = '0000';

4. Query for Outputting Sorted Data Using ‘Order By’

This query orders the results with respect to the attribute which is referenced to using “Order By” – so for example, if that
attribute is an integer data type, then the result would either be sorted in ascending or descending order; likewise if the
data type is a String then the result would be ordered in alphabetical order. The order by clause is used to sort the data
from the table. The order by clause should always be used in the last of the SQL query.

1 SELECT EMP_ID, LAST_NAME FROM EMPLOYEE

2 WHERE CITY = 'Seattle' ORDER BY EMP_ID;

The ordering of the result can also be set manually, using “asc ” for ascending and “desc” for descending.
Ascending (ASC) is the default condition for the ORDER BY clause. In other words, if users don’t specify ASC or DESC after
the column name, then the result will be ordered in ascending order only.

1 SELECT EMP_ID, LAST_NAME FROM EMPLOYEE_TBL

2 WHERE CITY = 'INDIANAPOLIS' ORDER BY EMP_ID asc;

5.   SQL Query for Outputting Sorted Data Using ‘Group By’
The ‘Group By’ property groups the resulting data according to the specified attribute.
The SQL query below will select Name, Age columns from the Patients table, then will filter them by Age value to include
records where Age is more than 40 and then will group records with similar Age value and then finally will output them
sorted by Name. The basic rule is that the group by clause should always follow a where clause in a Select statement and
must precede the Order by clause.

1 SELECT Name, Age FROM Patients WHERE Age > 40

2 GROUP BY Name, Age ORDER BY Name;

Another sample of use of Group By: this expression will select records with a price lesser than 70 from the Orders table,
will group records with a similar price, will sort the output by price, and will also add the column COUNT(price) that will
display how many records with similar price were found:

1 SELECT COUNT(price), price FROM orders

2 WHERE price < 70 GROUP BY price ORDER BY price
Note: you should use the very same set of columns for both SELECT and GROUP BY commands, otherwise you will get an
error. Many thanks to Sachidannad for pointing it out!

SQL Queries for Data Manipulation Using Math Functions

There are a lot of built-in math functions like COUNT and AVG which provide basic functionalities of counting the number
of results and averaging them respectively.

6. Data Manipulation Using COUNT

This query displays the total number of customers by counting each customer ID. In addition, it groups the results
according to the country of each customer. In count, if users define DISTINCT, then they cal also define the
query_partition_clause. This clause is a part of the analytic clause, and the other clauses such as order_by_clause and
windowing_clause are not permitted.
Syntax: SELECT COUNT(colname) FROM table name;

1 SELECT COUNT(CustomerID), Country FROM Customers GROUP BY Country;

7. Data Manipulation Using SUM

SUM calculates the total of the attribute that is given to it as an argument. SUM is an aggregate function and it calculates
the sum of all the distinct values. and the sum of all the duplicate values.

1 SELECT SUM(Salary)FROM Employee WHERE Emp_Age < 30;

8. Data Manipulation Using AVG

Simple – an average of a given attribute. Average is also an aggregate function in SQL. The AVG() function computes the
average of non-NULL values in a column. It ignores the null values.

1 SELECT AVG(Price)FROM Products;

9.   SQL Query for Listing all Views

This SQL query lists all the views available in the schema.

1 SELECT * FROM My_Schema.views;

10. Query for Creating a View

A view is a tailored table that is formed as a result of a query. It has tables and rows just like any other table. It’s usually a
good idea to run queries in SQL as independent views because this allows them to be retrieved later to view the query
results, rather than computing the same command every time for a particular set of results.

1 CREATE VIEW Failing_Students AS

2 SELECT S_NAME, Student_ID
3 FROM STUDENT
4 WHERE GPA > 40;

11. Query for Retrieving a View

The standard syntax of selecting attributes from a table is applicable to views as well.

1 SELECT * FROM Failing_Students;

12. Query for Updating a View

This query updates the view named ‘Product List’ – and if this view doesn’t exist, then the Product List view gets created as
specified in this query. The view is also called a virtual table. In other words, a view is just a mirrored copy of a table whose
data is the result of a stored query.
A view is a legitimate copy of a different table or sequence of tables. A view obtains its information or data from the tables
from previously created tables known as base tables. Base tables are real tables. All procedures implemented on a view
really modify the base table. Users can use views just like the real or base tables. In view, users can apply various DDL,
DML commands such as update, insert into, and delete.

1 CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW [ Product List] AS

2 SELECT ProductID, ProductName, Category
3 FROM Products
4 WHERE Discontinued = No;

13. Query for Dropping a View

This query will drop or delete a view named ‘V1’. The important thing to remember here is that the DROP VIEW is
disallowed if there are any views dependent on the view you are about to drop.

1 DROP VIEW V1;

14. Query to Display User Tables

A user-defined table is a representation of defined information in a table, and they can be used as arguments for
procedures or user-defined functions. Because they’re so useful, it’s useful to keep track of them using the following
query. User tables explain the relational tables of the current user.

1 SELECT * FROM Sys.objects WHERE Type='u'

15. Query to Display Primary Keys

A primary key uniquely identifies all values within a table. A primary key imposes a NOT NULL restriction and a unique
constraint in one declaration. In other words, it prevents various rows from having similar values or sequences of
columns. It doesn’t allow null values. The primary key can be defined on a single column or the combination of two
columns in a table. It is responsible for all the relationships between the tables.
The following SQL query lists all the fields in a table’s primary key.

1 SELECT * from Sys.Objects WHERE Type='PK'

16. Query for Displaying Unique Keys

A Unique Key allows a column to ensure that all of its values are different. Unique key also recognizes a different tuple
uniquely in relation to or table. A table can have more than one unique key. Unique key constraints can take only one
NULL value for the column.

1 SELECT * FROM Sys.Objects WHERE Type='uq'

17. Displaying Foreign Keys

Foreign keys link one table to another – they are attributes in one table which refer to the primary key of another table.

1 SELECT * FROM Sys.Objects WHERE Type='f'

Primary, Unique, and Foreign are part of the constraints in SQL. Constraints are essential to the scalability, compliance,
and sincerity of the data. Constraints implement particular rules, assuring the data adheres to the conditions outlined. For
example, these are the laws imposed on the columns of the database tables. These are applied to restrict the kind of data
in the table. This assures the efficiency and authenticity of the database.

18. Displaying Triggers
A Trigger is sort of an ‘event listener’ – i.e, it’s a pre-specified set of instructions that execute when a certain event occurs.
The list of defined triggers can be viewed using the following query.

1 SELECT * FROM Sys.Objects WHERE Type='tr'

19. Displaying Internal Tables

Internal tables are formed as a by-product of a user action and are usually not accessible. The data in internal tables
cannot be manipulated; however, the metadata of the internal tables can be viewed using the following query.

1 SELECT * FROM Sys.Objects WHERE Type='it'

20. Displaying a List of Procedures

A stored procedure is a group of advanced SQL queries that logically form a single unit and perform a particular task.
Thus, using the following query you can keep track of them:

1 SELECT * FROM Sys.Objects WHERE Type='p'

21. Swapping the Values of Two Columns in a table

In this and subsequent examples, we will use a common company database including several tables that are easily
visualized. Our practice DB will include a Customer table and an Order table. The Customers table will contain some
obvious columns including ID, Name, Address, zip, and email, for example, where we assume for now that the primary key
field for indexing is the Customer_ID field.
With this in mind, we can easily imagine an Orders table that likewise contains the indexed customer ID field, along with
details of each order placed by the customer. This table will include the order Number, Quantity, Date, Item, and Price. In
our first one of SQL examples, imagine a situation where the zip and phone fields were transposed and all the phone
numbers were erroneously entered into the zip code field. We can easily fix this problem with the following SQL
statement:

1 UPDATE Customers SET Zip=Phone, Phone=Zip

22. Returning a Column of Unique Values

Now, suppose that our data entry operator added the same Customers to the Customers table more than once by
mistake. As you know, proper indexing requires that the key field contains only unique values. To fix the problem, we will
use SELECT DISTINCT to create an indexable list of unique customers:

1 SELECT DISTINCT ID FROM Customers

23. Making a Top 25 with the SELECT TOP Clause

Next, imagine that our Customers table has grown to include thousands of records, but we just want to show a sample of
25 of these records to demonstrate the column headings and The SELECT TOP clause allows us to specify the number of
records to return, like a Top-25 list. In this example we will return the top 25 from our Customers table:

1 SELECT TOP 25 FROM Customers WHERE Customer_ID<>NULL;

24. Searching for SQL Tables with Wildcards

Wildcard characters or operators like “%” make it easy to find particular strings in a large table of thousands of records.
Suppose we want to find all of our customers who have names beginning with “Herb” including Herberts, and Herbertson.
The % wildcard symbol can be used to achieve such a result. The following SQL query will return all rows from the
Customer table where the Customer_name field begins with “Herb”:
 1 SELECT * From Customers WHERE Name LIKE 'Herb%'

25. Between Monday and Tuesday

Today is Wednesday, and we arrive at work and discover that our new data entry clerk in training has entered all new
orders incorrectly on Monday and Tuesday. We wish to teach our new trainee to find and correct all erroneous records.
What’s the easiest way to get all the records from the Orders table entered on Monday and Tuesday? The Between clause
makes the task a breeze:

1 SELECT ID FROM Orders WHERE

2 Date BETWEEN ‘01/12/2018’ AND ‘01/13/2018’

26. Finding the Intersection of Two Tables

Undoubtedly the whole reason that a relational database exists in the first place is to find matching records in two tables!
The JOIN statement accomplishes this core objective of SQL and makes the task easy. Here we are going to fetch a list of
all records which have matches in the Customers and Orders tables:

1 SELECT ID FROM Customers INNER

2 JOIN Orders ON Customers.ID = Orders.ID

The point of INNER JOIN, in this case, is to select records in the Customers table which have matching customer ID values
in the Orders table and return only those records. Of course, there are many types of JOIN, such as FULL, SELF, and LEFT,
but for now, let’s keep things interesting and move on to more diverse types of advanced SQL commands.

27. Doubling the Power with UNION

We can combine the results of two SQL query examples into one naturally with the UNION keyword. Suppose we want to
create a new table by combining the Customer_name and phone from Customers with a list of that customer’s recent
orders so that we can look for patterns and perhaps suggest future purchases. Here is a quick way to accomplish the task:

1 SELECT phone FROM Customers

2 UNION SELECT item FROM Orders

The UNION keyword makes it possible to combine JOINS and other criteria to achieve a very powerful new table
generation potential.

28. Making Column Labels More Friendly

Aliasing column labels give us the convenience of renaming a column label to something more readable. There is a
tradeoff when naming columns to make them succinct results in reduced readability in subsequent daily use. In our
Orders table, the item column contains the description of purchased products. Let’s see how to alias the item column to
temporarily rename it for greater user-friendliness:

1 SELECT Item AS item_description FROM Orders

29. Always and Everywhere!

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a set of conditions you could depend on every time? The complex SQL queries
using ANY and ALL can make this ideal a reality! Let’s look at how the ALL keyword is used to include records only when a
set of conditions is true for ALL records. In the following example, we will return records from the Orders table where the
idea is to get a list of high volume orders for a given item, in this case for customers who ordered more than 50 of the
product:

1 SELECT Item FROM Orders

2 WHERE id = ALL
3 (SELECT ID FROM Orders
4 WHERE quantity > 50)

30. Writing Developer Friendly SQL

An often overlooked but very important element of SQL scripting is adding comments to a script of queries to explain
what it’s doing for the benefit of future developers who may need to revise and update your SQL queries.
A SQL script is a collection of SQL elements and commands accumulated as a file in SQL Scripts. This script file can
include many SQL commands or PL/SQL codes. One can utilize SQL Scripts to build, edit, design, execute, and delete
files.
The — single line and the /* .. */ multi-line delimiters empower us to add useful comments to scripts, but this is also used
in another valuable way. Sometimes a section of code may not be in use, but we don’t want to delete it, because we
anticipate using it again. Here we can simply add the comment delimiter to deactivate it momentarily:

1 /* This query below is commented so it won't execute*/

2 /*
3 SELECT item FROM Orders
4 WHERE date ALL = (SELECT Order_ID FROM Orders
5 WHERE quantity > 50)
6 */
7  
8 /* the SQL query below the will be executed
9 ignoring the text after "--"
10 */
11  
12 SELECT item -- single comment 
13 FROM Orders -- another single comment
14 WHERE id
15 ALL = (SELECT ID FROM Orders
16 WHERE quantity > 25)

31.  SQL queries for Database Management

So far we have explored SQL query examples for querying tables and combining records from multiple queries. Now it’s
time to take a step upward and look at the database on a structural level. Let’s start with the easiest SQL statement of all
which creates a new database. Here, we are going to create the DB as a container for our Customers and Orders tables
used in the previous ten examples above:

1 CREATE DATABASE AllSales

32. Adding Tables to Our New DB

Next, we will actually add the Customers table which we’ve been using in previous examples, and then add some of the
column labels which we are already familiar with:

1 CREATE TABLE Customers (

2 ID varchar(80),
3 Name varchar(80),
4 Phone varchar(20),
5 ....
6 );

Although most databases are created using a UI such as Access or OpenOffice, it is important to know how to create and
delete databases and tables programmatically via code with SQL statements. This is especially so when installing a new
web app and the UI asks new users to enter names for DBs to be added during installation.

33. Modifying and Deleting Tables with SQL

The ALTER statement is used to modify or change the meaning of a table. In the case of the relational tables with columns,
ALTER statement is used to update the table to the new or modified rules or definition. Alter belongs to the DDL category
of Commands. Data definition language can be described as a pattern for commands through which data structures are
represented.
Imagine that you decide to send a birthday card to your customers to show your appreciation for their business, and so
you want to add a birthday field to the Customers table. In these SQL examples, you see how easy it is to modify existing
tables with the ALTER statement:

1 ALTER TABLE Customers ADD Birthday varchar(80)

If a table becomes corrupted with bad data you can quickly delete it like this:

1 DROP TABLE table_name

34. The Key to Successful Indexing

An index is a schema element that includes a record for each content that arrives in the indexed column of the database
table or cluster and gives a high-speed path to rows. There are many types of indexes such as Bitmap indexes, Partitioned
indexes, Function-based indexes, and Domain indexes.
Accurate indexing requires that the Primary Key column contains only unique values for this purpose. This guarantees that
JOIN statements will maintain integrity and produce valid matches. Let’s create our Customers table again and establish
the ID column as the Primary Key:

1 CREATE TABLE Customers (

2 ID int NOT NULL,
3 Name varchar(80) NOT NULL,
4 PRIMARY KEY (ID)
5 );

We can extend the functionality of the Primary Key so that it automatically increments from a base. Change the ID entry
above to add the AUTO_INCREMENT keyword as in the following statement:

1 ID int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT

35. Advanced Concepts For Improving Performance

Whenever practical, is always better to write the column name list into a SELECT statement rather than using
the * delimiter as a wildcard to select all columns. SQL Server has to do a search and replace operation to find all the
columns in your table and write them into the statement for you (every time the SELECT is executed). For example:

1 SELECT * FROM Customers

Would actually execute much faster on our database as:

1 SELECT Name, Birthday, Phone,

2 Address, Zip FROM Customers

Performance pitfalls can be avoided in many ways. For example, avoid the time sinkhole of forcing SQL Server to check
the system/master database every time by using only a stored procedure name, and never prefix it with SP_. Also setting
NOCOUNT ON reduces the time required for SQL Server to count rows affected by INSERT, DELETE, and other commands.
Using INNER JOIN with a condition is much faster than using WHERE clauses with conditions. We advise developers to
learn SQL server queries to an advanced level for this purpose. For production purposes, these tips may be crucial to
adequate performance. Notice that our tutorial examples tend to favor the INNER JOIN.

36. Conditional Subquery Results

The SQL operator EXISTS tests for the existence of records in a subquery and returns a value TRUE if a subquery returns
one or more records. Have a look at this query with a subquery condition:

1 SELECT Name FROM Customers WHERE EXISTS

2 (SELECT Item FROM Orders
3 WHERE Customers.ID = Orders.ID AND Price < 50)

In this example above, the SELECT returns a value of TRUE when a customer has orders valued at less than $50.

37. Copying Selections from Table to Table

There are a hundred and one uses for this SQL tool. Suppose you want to archive your yearly Orders table into a larger
archive table. This next example shows how to do it.
 1 INSERT INTO Yearly_Orders
2 SELECT * FROM Orders
3 WHERE Date<=1/1/2018

This example will add any records from the year 2018 to the archive.

38. Catching NULL Results

The NULL is the terminology applied to describe an absent value. Null does not mean zero. A NULL value in a column of a
table is a condition in a domain that seems to be empty. A column with a NULL value is a domain with an absent value. It
is essential to recognize that a NULL value is distinct from a zero.
In cases where NULL values are allowed in a field, calculations on those values will produce NULL results as well. This can
be avoided by the use of the IFNULL operator. In this next example, a value of zero is returned rather than a value of NULL
when the calculation encounters a field with a NULL value:

1 SELECT Item, Price *

2 (QtyInStock + IFNULL(QtyOnOrder, 0))
3 FROM Orders

39. HAVING can be Relieving!

The problem was that the SQL WHERE clause could not operate on aggregate functions. The problem was solved by using
the HAVING clause. As an example, this next query fetches a list of customers by the region where there is at least one
customer per region:

1 SELECT COUNT(ID), Region

2 FROM Customers
3 GROUP BY Region
4 HAVING COUNT(ID) > 0;

40. Tie things up with Strings!

Let’s have a look at processing the contents of field data using functions. Substring is probably the most valuable of all
built-in functions. It gives you some of the power of Regex, but it’s not so complicated as Regex. Suppose you want to find
the substring left of the dots in a web address. Here’s how to do it with an SQL Select query:

1 SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX("www.bytescout.com", ".", 2);

This line will return everything to the left of the second occurrence of “. ” and so, in this case, it will return

1 <a href="https://bytescout.com">www.bytescout.com</a>

Check this video to learn about every SQL query:

 

.. and 20 more useful SQL Queries examples!!

41. Use COALESCE to return the first non-null expression

The SQL Coalesce is used to manage the NULL values of the database. In this method, the NULL values are substituted
with the user-defined value. The SQL Coalesce function assesses the parameters in series and always delivers the first
non-null value from the specified argument record.

Syntax

1 SELECT COALESCE(NULL,NULL,'ByteScout',NULL,'Byte')

Output
ByteScout

42. Use Convert to transform any value into a particular datatype

This is used to convert a value into a defined datatype. For example, if you want to convert a particular value into int
datatype then a convert function can be used to achieve this. For example,

Syntax

1 SELECT CONVERT(int, 27.64)

Output
27

43. DENSE_RANK()Analytical query

It is an analytic query that computes the rank of a row in an arranged collection of rows. An output rank is a number
starting from 1. DENSE_RANK is one of the most important SQL queries. It returns rank preferences as sequential
numbers. It does not jump rank in event of relations. For example, the following query will give the sequential ranks to the
employee.

1 SELECT eno,
2 dno,
3 salary,
4 DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY dno ORDER BY salary) AS ranking
5 FROM employee;
6  
7 ENO  DNO SALARY RANKING
8 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
9 7933  10 1500   1
10 7788  10 2650   2
11 7831  10 6000   3
12 7362  20 900    1
13 7870  20 1200   2
14 7564  20 2575   3
15 7784  20 4000   4
16 7903  20 4000   4
17 7901  30 550    1
18 7655  30 1450   2
19 7522  30 1450   2
20 7844  30 1700   3
21 7493  30 1500   4
22 7698  30 2850   5

44. Query_partition_clause
The query_partition_clause breaks the output set into distributions, or collections, of data. The development of the
analytic query is limited to the confines forced by these partitions, related to the process a GROUP BY clause modifies the
performance of an aggregate function. If the query_partition_clause is eliminated, the entire output collection is
interpreted as a separate partition.
The following query applies an OVER clause, so the average displayed is based on all the records of the output set.
 1 SELECT eno, dno, salary,
2 AVG(salary) OVER () AS avg_sal
3 FROM employee;
4  
5 EO  DNO SALARY AVG_SAL
6 ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
7 7364 20 900 2173.21428
8 7494 30 1700 2173.21428
9 7522 30 1350 2173.21428
10 7567 20 3075 2173.21428
11 7652 30 1350 2173.21428
12 7699 30 2950 2173.21428
13 7783 10 2550 2173.21428
14 7789 20 3100 2173.21428
15 7838 10 5100 2173.21428
16 7845 30 1600 2173.21428
17 7877 20 1200 2173.21428
18 7901 30 1050 2173.21428
19 7903 20 3100 2173.21428
20 7935 10 1400 2173.21428

45. Finding the last five records from the table

Now, if you want to fetch the last eight records from the table then it is always difficult to get such data if your table
contains huge information. For example, you want to get the last 8 records from the employee table then you can use
rownum and a union clause. The rownum is temporary in SQL.

For example,

1 Select * from Employee A where rownum <=8

2 union
3 select * from (Select * from Employee A order by rowid desc) where rownum <=8;

The above SQL query will give you the last eight records from the employee table where rownum is a pseudo column.
It indexes the data in an output set.

46. LAG
The LAG is applied to get data from a prior row. This is an analytical function. For example, the following query gives the
salary from the prior row to compute the difference between the salary of the current row and that of the prior row. In
this query, the ORDER BY of the LAG function is applied. The default is 1 if you do not define offset. The arbitrary
default condition is given if the offset moves past the range of the window. The default is null if you do not define default.

Syntax

1 SELECT dtno,
2        eno,
3        emname,
4        job,
5        salary,
6        LAG(sal, 1, 0) OVER (PARTITION BY dtno ORDER BY salary) AS salary_prev
7 FROM   employee;

Output
 1 DTNO ENO ENAME JOB SAL SAL_PREV
2 ---------- ---------- ---------- --------- ---------- ----------
3 10 7931 STEVE CLERK 1300 0
4 10 7783 JOHN MANAGER 2450 1300
5 10 7834 KING PRESIDENT 5000 2450
6 20 7364 ROBIN CLERK 800 0
7 20 7876 BRIAN CLERK 1100 800
8 20 7567 SHANE MANAGER 2975 1100
9 20 7784 SCOTT ANALYST 3000 2975
10 20 7908 KANE ANALYST 3000 3000
11 30 7900 JAMES CLERK 950 0
12 30 7651 CONNER SALESMAN 1250 950
13 30 7522 MATTHEW SALESMAN 1250 1250
14 30 7843 VIVIAN SALESMAN 1500 1250
15 30 7494 ALLEN SALESMAN 1600 1500
16 30 7695 GLEN MANAGER 2850 1600

47. LEAD
The LEAD is also an analytical query that is applied to get data from rows extra down the output set. The following query
gives the salary from the next row to compute the deviation between the salary of the prevailing row and the subsequent
row. The default is 1 if you do not define offset. The arbitrary default condition is given if the offset moves past the range
of the window. The default is null if you do not define default.

1 SELECT eno,
2        empname,
3        job,
4        salary,
5        LEAD(salary, 1, 0) OVER (ORDER BY salary) AS salary_next,
6        LEAD(salary, 1, 0) OVER (ORDER BY salary) - salary AS salary_diff
7 FROM   employee;
8  
9 ENO EMPNAME JOB SALARY SALARY_NEXT SALARY_DIFF
10 ---------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----------
11 7369 STEVE CLERK 800 950 150
12 7900 JEFF CLERK 950 1100 150
13 7876 ADAMS CLERK 1100 1250 150
14 7521 JOHN SALESMAN 1250 1250 0
15 7654 MARK SALESMAN 1250 1300 50
16 7934 TANTO CLERK 1300 1500 200
17 7844 MATT SALESMAN 1500 1600 100
18 7499 ALEX SALESMAN 1600 2450 850
19 7782 BOON MANAGER 2450 2850 400
20 7698 BLAKE MANAGER 2850 2975 125
21 7566 JONES MANAGER 2975 3000 25
22 7788 SCOTT ANALYST 3000 3000 0
23 7902 FORD ANALYST 3000 5000 2000
24 7839 KING PRESIDENT 5000 0 -5000

48. PERCENT_RANK
The PERCENT_RANK analytic query. The ORDER BY clause is necessary for this query. Excluding a partitioning clause from
the OVER clause determines the entire output set is interpreted as a separate partition. The first row of the standardized
set is indicated 0 and the last row of the set is indicated 1. For example, the SQL query example gives the following
output.

Syntax

1 SELECT
2      prdid, SUM(amount),
3      PERCENT_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY SUM(amount) DESC) AS percent_rank
4      FROM sales
5      GROUP BY prdid
6      ORDER BY prdid;

Output
 1 PRDID        SUM(AMOUNT)  PERCENT_RANK
2 ----------- ----------- ------------
3           1    22623.5            0
4           2   223927.08           1

49. MIN
Utilizing a blank OVER clause converts the MIN into an analytic function. This is also an analytical query. In this, the entire
result set is interpreted as a single partition. It gives you the minimum salary for all employees and their original data. For
example, the following query is displaying the use of MIN in the Select query.

1 SELECT eno,
2        empname,
3        dtno,
4        salary,
5        MIN(salary) OVER (PARTITION BY dtno) AS min_result
6 FROM   employee;
7  
8      ENO   EMPNAME          DTNO     SALARY MIN_RESULT
9 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------------
10       7782 CLARK              10       2450            1300
11       7839 KING               10       5000            1300
12       7934 MILLER             10       1300            1300
13       7566 JONES              20       2975             800
14       7902 FORD               20       3000             800
15       7876 ADAMS              20       1100             800
16       7369 SMITH              20        800             800
17       7788 SCOTT              20       3000             800
18       7521 WARD               30       1250             950
19       7844 TURNER             30       1500             950
20       7499 ALLEN              30       1600             950
21       7900 JAMES              30        950             950
22       7698 BLAKE              30       2850             950
23       7654 MARTIN             30       1250             950

50. MAX
Using a blank row OVER clause converts the MAX into an analytic function. The lack of a partitioning clause indicates the
entire output set is interpreted as a separate partition. This gives the maximum salary for all employees and their
original data. For example, the following query displays the use of MAX in the select query.

1 SELECT eno,
2        empname,
3        dtno,
4        salary,
5        MAX(salary) OVER () AS max_result
6 FROM   employee;
7  
8      ENO   EMPNAME          DTNO       SALARY    MAX_RESULT
9 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
10       7369 SMITH              20        800       3000
11       7499 ALLEN              30       1600       3000
12       7521 WARD               30       1250       3000
13       7566 JONES              20       2975       3000
14       7654 MARTIN             30       1250       3000
15       7698 BLAKE              30       2850       3000
16       7782 CLARK              10       2450       3000
17       7788 SCOTT              20       3000       3000
18       7839 KING               10       5000       3000
19       7844 TURNER             30       1500       3000
20       7876 ADAMS              20       1100       3000
21       7900 JAMES              30        950       3000
22       7902 FORD               20       3000       3000
23       7934 MILLER             10       1300       3000

51. Top- N queries

Top-N queries give a process for restricting the number of rows delivered from organized assemblages of data. They are
remarkably beneficial when users want to give the top or bottom number of rows from a table.
For example, the following query gives the 20 rows with 10 different values:

1 SELECT price
2 FROM   sales_order
3 ORDER BY price;
4  
5 PRICE
6 ----------
7 100
8 100
9 200
10 200
11 300
12 300
13 400
14 400
15 500
16 500
17 600
18  
19 PRICE
20 ----------
21 600
22 700
23 700
24 800
25 800
26 900
27 900
28 1000
29 1000
30  
31 20 rows selected.

52. CORR Analytic Query

The CORR analytic function is utilized to determine the coefficient of correlation. This query is also used to calculate the
Pearson correlation coefficient. The function calculates the following on rows in the table with no null values. This query
always returns the values between +1 and -1, which describe the following:
Syntax: CORR(exp1, exp2) [ OVER (analytic_clause) ]

Example

1 SELECT empid,
2        name,
3        dno,
4        salary,
5        job,
6        CORR(SYSDATE - joiningdate, salary) OVER () AS my_corr_val
7 FROM   employee;

53. NTILE Analytic Query

The NTILE enables users to split a sequence set into a detailed number of relatively similar groups, or containers, rows
sanctioning. If the number of rows in the collection is less than the number of containers defined, the number of
containers will be decreased. The basic syntax is as displayed below:
NTILE(exp) OVER ([ partition_clause ] order_by)

Example
 1 SELECT empid,
2        name,
3        dno,
4        salary,
5        NTILE(6) OVER (ORDER BY salary) AS container_no
6 FROM   employee;

54. VARIANCE, VAR_POP, and VAR_SAMP Query

The VARIANCE, VAR_POP, and VAR_SAMP are aggregate functions. These are utilized to determine the variance, group
variance, and sample variance of a collection of data individually. As aggregate queries or functions, they decrease the
number of rows, therefore the expression “aggregate”. If the data isn’t arranged we change the total rows in the Employee
table to a separate row with the aggregated values. For example, the following query is displaying the use of these
functions:

1 SELECT VARIANCE(salary) AS var_salary,

2        VAR_POP(salary) AS pop_salary,
3        VAR_SAMP(salary) AS samp_salary
4 FROM   employee;
5  
6 VAR_SALARY   POP_SALARY   SAMP_SALARY
7 ------------ ----------- ------------
8 1479414.97  1588574.81   1388717.27

55. STDDEV, STDDEV_POP, and STDDEV_SAMP Queries

The STDDEV, STDDEV_POP, and STDDEV_SAMP aggregate queries or functions are applied to determine the standard
deviation, population standard deviation, and cumulative sample standard deviation individually. As aggregate queries,
they decrease the number of rows, therefore the expression “aggregate”. If the data isn’t arranged we convert all the rows
in the EMPLOYEE table to a separate row. For example, the following query is displaying the use of all these functions.

1 SELECT STDDEV(salary) AS stddev_salary,

2        STDDEV_POP(salary) AS pop_salary,
3        STDDEV_SAMP(salary) AS samp_salary
4 FROM   employee;
5  
6 STDDEV_SALARY POP_SALARY SAMP_SALARY
7 ---------- -------------- ---------------
8 1193.50     1159.588      1193.603

If there is more than one account after dropping nulls, the STDDEV function gives the result of the STDDEV_SAMP. Using
an empty OVER clause converts the STDDEV query result into an analytic query. The absence of a partitioning indicates the
entire output set is interpreted as a particular partition, so we accept the standard deviation of the salary and the primary
data.

56. Pattern Matching

The pattern matching syntax adds various alternatives. Data must be treated precisely and in a proper form. The
PARTITION BY and ORDER BY conditions of all SQL analytic queries is applied to split the data into accumulations and
within each group. If no partitions are specified, it is considered the entire sequence set is one huge partition.
For example,
The MEASURES clause specifies the column result that will be provided for each match.

Syntax

1 MEASURES  STRT.tstamp AS initial_tstamp,

2           LAST(UP.tstamp) AS first_tstamp,
3           LAST(DOWN.tstamp) AS finished_tstamp

Example
 1 DEFINE
2   UP AS UP.products_sold > PREV(UP.products_sold),
3   FLAT AS FLAT.products_sold = PREV(FLAT.products_sold),
4   DOWN AS DOWN.products_sold < PREV(DOWN.products_sold)

57. FIRST_VALUE
The simplest way to get analytic functions is to begin by studying aggregate functions. An aggregate function collects or
gathers data from numerous rows into a unique result row. For instance, users might apply the AVG function to get an
average of all the salaries in the EMPLOYEE table. Let’s take a look at how First_Value can be used. The primary
explanation for the FIRST_VALUE analytic function is displayed below.

Syntax:

1 FIRST_VALUE
2   { (expr) [NULLS ]
3   | (expr [NULLS ])
4   }
5   OVER (analytic clause)

Example

1 SELECT eno,
2        dno,
3        salary,
4        FIRST_VALUE(salary) IGNORE NULLS
5          OVER (PARTITION BY dno ORDER BY salary) AS lowest_salary_in_dept
6 FROM   employee;

The above query will ignore null values.

58. LAST_VALUE
The primary explanation for the LAST_VALUE analytic query or function is displayed below.

1 Syntax: LAST_VALUE
2   { (expr) [ { NULLS ]
3   | (expr [ NULLS ])
4   OVER (analytic clause)

The LAST_VALUE analytic query is related to the LAST analytic function. The function enables users to get the last output
from an organized column. Applying the default windowing to the output can be surprising. For example,

1 SELECT eno,
2        dno,
3        salary,
4        LAST_VALUE(salary) IGNORE NULLS
5          OVER (PARTITION BY dno ORDER BY salary) AS highest_salary_in_dept
6 FROM   employee;

59. Prediction
The design sample foretells the gender and age of clients who are most expected to adopt an agreement card (target = 1).
The PREDICTION function takes the price matrix correlated with the design and applies for marital status, and house size
as predictors. The syntax of the PREDICTION function can also apply a piece of arbitrary GROUPING information when
getting a partitioned model.
 1 SELECT client_gender, COUNT(*) AS ct, ROUND(AVG(age)) AS average_age
2    FROM mining_data_shop
3    WHERE PREDICTION(sample COST MODEL
4       USING client_marital_status, house_size) = 1
5    GROUP BY client_gender
6    ORDER BY client_gender;
7     
8 CUST_GENDER         CNT    AVG_AGE
9 ------------ ---------- ----------
10 F                   270         40
11 M                   585         41

60. CLUSTER_SET
CLUSTER_SET can get the data in one of the couple steps: It can use a mining type object to the information, or it can mine
the data by performing an analytic clause that creates and uses one or more moving mining patterns.
This example enumerates the properties that have the biggest influence on cluster distribution for client ID 1000. The
query requests the CLUSTER_DETAILS and CLUSTER_SET functions, which use the clustering model my_sample.

Example

1 SELECT S.cluster_id, prob,

2        CLUSTER_DETAILS(my_sample, S.cluster_id, 7 USING T.*) kset
3 FROM
4   (SELECT v.*, CLUSTER_SET(my_sample, USING *) nset
5     FROM mining_data
6    WHERE client_id = 1000) T,
7   TABLE(T.nset) Q
8 ORDER BY 2 DESC; 

A cluster is a group table that distributes the corresponding data blocks i.e. all the tables are actually put together. For
example, EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT tables are connected to the DNO column. If you cluster them, it will actually store
all rows in the same data blocks.

.. and TEN More Advanced SQL Queries for our Users!

61. WITH (Common Table Expressions)

A common table expression (CTE) is a defined short result set that endures within the range of a particular statement and
that can be called later within that statement, perhaps on many occasions. The following query is describing the CTE:

Syntax

1 WITH all_emp
2 AS
3 (
4 SELECT empId, BossId, FirstName, LastName
5 FROM Emp
6 WHERE BossId is NULL
7  
8 UNION ALL
9  
10 SELECT e.empId, e.BossId, e.FirstName, e.LastName
11 FROM Emp e INNER JOIN all_emp r
12 ON e.BossId = r.Id
13 )
14 SELECT * FROM all_emp

62. NANVL
This function is utilized to deliver an optional value n1 if the inserted value n2 is NaN (not a number), and gives n2 if n2 is
not a number. This function is used only for type BINARY_FLOAT. The following query is displaying its use:
Example

1 SELECT bin_float, NANVL(bin_float,0)

2 FROM my_demo_table;

63. WIDTH_BUCKET
This function is used to obtain the bucket number. In this, it gives the value of the expression that would come under after
being assessed. The following query is displaying its use:

Example

1 SELECT emp_id, first_name,last_name,dept_id,mgr_id,

2 WIDTH_BUCKET(department_id,20,40,10) "Exists in Dept"
3 FROM emp
4 WHERE mgr_id < 300
5 ORDER BY "Exists in Dept";

64. COSH
This function is used to deliver the hyperbolic cosine of a number. It accepts all numeric or non-numeric data types as an
argument. The following query is displaying its use:

Example

1 SELECT COSH(0) "COSH of 0" FROM DUAL;

65. SOUNDEX
The SOUNDEX function delivers a character string comprising the description of char. It allows users to match words that
are spelled antagonistically, but sound similar in English. It does not support CLOB. The following query is displaying its
use:

Example

1 SELECT last_name, first_name

2 FROM hr.emp
3 WHERE SOUNDEX(last_name)
4 = SOUNDEX('SCOTTY');

66. TZ_OFFSET
The TZ_OFFSET gives the time zone offset identical to the case based on the date the statement is given. The following
query is displaying its use:

Example

1 SELECT TZ_OFFSET('US/Eastern') FROM DUAL;

67. CARDINALITY
CARDINALITY is utilized to obtain the number of components in a nested table. It is supported in different versions. The
following query is displaying its use:

Example

1 SELECT product_id, CARDINALITY(ad_mydocs_get)

2 FROM my_media_table;
68. DUMP
DUMP is one of the important string/char functions. It is utilized to get a VARCHAR2 value. The value delivered defines the
data type code. The following query is displaying its use:

Example

1 SELECT DUMP('pqr', 1033)

2 FROM DUAL;

69. PATH
PATH is applied simply with the UNDER_PATH and EQUALS_PATH requirements. It gives the corresponding path that points
to the resource defined in the main state. The following query is displaying its use:

Example

1 SELECT ANY_PATH FROM RESOURCE_VIEW

2 WHERE EQUALS_PATH(res, '/sys/schemas/OE/www.pqr.com')=3;

70. UNISTR
UNISTR accepts an expression that determines character data and delivers it in the general character set. It gives support
to the Unicode string literals by allowing users to define the Unicode value. The following query is displaying its use:

Example

1 SELECT UNISTR('pqr\00e4\00f3\00f9') FROM DUAL;

 
  
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