SQL Tutorial

SQL Tutorial
SQL is a standard computer language for accessing and
manipulating databases.

In this tutorial you will learn how to use SQL to access and
manipulate data in Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, DB2, Access, and
other database systems.

Introduction to SQL

SQL is a standard computer language for accessing and manipulating databases.

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 - BUT....

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard computer language for accessing
and manipulating database systems. SQL statements are used to retrieve and update data in a
database. 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
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

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

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
Hansen
Svendson
Pettersen

Note: Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of the SQL statement. We don't use
the semicolon in our tutorials.

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

Introduction to SQL

SQL is a standard computer language for accessing and manipulating databases.

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 - BUT....

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard computer language for accessing
and manipulating database systems. SQL statements are used to retrieve and update data in a
database. 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

Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The table above contains three records (one for each person) and four columns (LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City).

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
Hansen
Svendson
Pettersen

Note: Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of the SQL statement. We don't use
the semicolon in our tutorials.

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

SQL WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is used to specify a selection criterion.

The WHERE Clause

To conditionally select data from a table, a WHERE clause can be added to the SELECT statement.

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 "Sandnes", we add a WHERE clause to the SELECT
statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City='Sandnes'

"Persons" table

LastName FirstName Address City Year

Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes 1951
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes 1978
Svendson Stale Kaivn 18 Sandnes 1980
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger 1960

Result

LastName FirstName Address City Year

Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes 1951
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes 1978
Svendson Stale Kaivn 18 Sandnes 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.

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'

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%'
SQL INSERT INTO Statement

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,....)

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

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

And this SQL statement:

INSERT INTO Persons

VALUES ('Hetland', 'Camilla', 'Hagabakka 24', 'Sandnes')

Will give this result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes

Insert Data in Specified Columns

This "Persons" table:

LastName FirstName Address City

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes

And This SQL statement:

INSERT INTO Persons (LastName, Address)

VALUES ('Rasmussen', 'Storgt 67')

Will give this result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes
Rasmussen Storgt 67

SQL UPDATE Statement

The Update Statement

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

Syntax

UPDATE table_name
SET column_name = new_value
WHERE column_name = some_value

Person:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Storgt 67

Update one Column in a Row

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

UPDATE Person SET FirstName = 'Nina'

WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Storgt 67

Update several Columns in a Row

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

UPDATE Person
SET Address = 'Stien 12', City = 'Stavanger'
WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Stien 12 Stavanger

SQL DELETE Statement

The DELETE Statement

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

Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE column_name = some_value

Person:

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Stien 12 Stavanger

Delete a Row

"Nina Rasmussen" is going to be deleted:

DELETE FROM Person WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'

Result

LastName FirstName Address City

Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 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

SQL ORDER BY

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort 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

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

SQL AND & OR

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

Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18 Sandnes

Example

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

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName='Tove'
AND LastName='Svendson'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Example

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

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE firstname='Tove'
OR lastname='Svendson'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18 Sandnes

Example

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

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE

(FirstName='Tove' OR FirstName='Stephen')
AND LastName='Svendson'

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18 Sandnes

SQL IN
IN

The IN operator may be used if you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of the
columns.

SELECT column_name FROM table_name

WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,..)

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName FirstName Address City

Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Nordmann Anna Neset 18 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Example 1

To display the persons with LastName equal to "Hansen" or "Pettersen", use the following SQL:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName IN ('Hansen','Pettersen')

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

SQL BETWEEN

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 (used in the examples)

LastName FirstName Address City

Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Nordmann Anna Neset 18 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
SQL Alias

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

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

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

And this SQL:

SELECT LastName AS Family, FirstName AS Name

FROM Persons

Returns this result:

Family Name
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari

Example: Using a Table Alias

This table (Persons):

LastName FirstName Address City

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

And this SQL:

SELECT LastName, FirstName

FROM Persons AS Employees

Returns this result:

Table Employees:

LastName FirstName
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari

SQL JOIN

Joins and Keys

Sometimes we have to select data from two or more 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. 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.

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.

When you look at 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 Hansen, Ola
02 Svendson, Tove
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Pettersen, Kari

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

Result

Name Product
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen 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
Hansen, Ola

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
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen Chair

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
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen Chair
Pettersen, Kari
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.

Result

Name Product
Hansen, Ola Printer
Svendson, Stephen Table
Svendson, Stephen 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
Hansen, Ola

SQL UNION and UNION ALL

UNION
The UNION command is used to select related information from two tables, much like the JOIN
command. However, when using the UNION command all selected columns need to be of the same
data type.

Note: With UNION, only distinct values are selected.

SQL Statement 1
UNION
SQL Statement 2

Employees_Norway:

E_ID E_Name
01 Hansen, Ola
02 Svendson, Tove
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Pettersen, Kari

Employees_USA:

E_ID E_Name
01 Turner, Sally
02 Kent, Clark
03 Svendson, Stephen
04 Scott, Stephen

Using the UNION Command

Example

List all different employee names in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway

UNION
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result

E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Scott, Stephen
Note: This command cannot be used to list all employees in Norway and USA. In the example
above we have two employees with equal names, and only one of them is listed. The UNION
command only selects distinct values.

UNION ALL

The UNION ALL command is equal to the UNION command, except that UNION ALL selects all
values.

SQL Statement 1
UNION ALL
SQL Statement 2

Using the UNION ALL Command

Example

List all employees in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway

UNION ALL
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result

E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Svendson, Stephen
Scott, Stephen

SQL Create Database, Table, and Index

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
)

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
numeric(size,d) specified 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)

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)

SQL Drop Index, Table and Database

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

Syntax for Microsoft SQLJet (and Microsoft Access):

DROP INDEX index_name ON table_name

Syntax for MS SQL Server:

DROP INDEX table_name.index_name

Syntax for IBM DB2 and Oracle:

DROP INDEX index_name

Syntax for MySQL:

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP INDEX index_name

Delete a Table or Database

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

DROP TABLE table_name

To delete a database:

DROP DATABASE database_name

Truncate a Table

What if we only want to get rid of the data inside a table, and not the table itself? Use the
TRUNCATE TABLE command (deletes only the data inside the table):

TRUNCATE TABLE table_name

SQL ALTER TABLE

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).

Person:

LastName FirstName Address

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20

Example

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

ALTER TABLE Person ADD City varchar(30)

Result:

LastName FirstName Address City

Pettersen Kari Storgt 20

Example

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

ALTER TABLE Person DROP COLUMN Address

Result:

LastName FirstName City

Pettersen Kari

SQL Functions

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

Function Syntax

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!!

"Persons" table (used in most examples)

Name Age
Hansen, Ola 34
Svendson, Tove 45
Pettersen, Kari 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 a specified field
LAST(column) Returns the value of the last record in a 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 a specified field (not
supported in SQLServer2K)
LAST(column) Returns the value of the last record in a specified field (not
supported in SQLServer2K)
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.

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,char) 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

SQL GROUP BY and HAVING

Aggregate functions (like SUM) often need an added GROUP BY functionality.

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:

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

SQL SELECT INTO Statement

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:

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 "Sandnes" from the
"Persons" table:

SELECT LastName,Firstname INTO Persons_backup

FROM Persons
WHERE City='Sandnes'

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

SQL CREATE VIEW Statement

A view is a virtual table based on the result-set of a SELECT statement.

What is a View?

In SQL, a VIEW is a virtual table based on the result-set of a SELECT statement.

A view contains rows and columns, just like a real table. The fields in a view are fields from one or
more real tables in the database. You can add SQL functions, WHERE, and JOIN statements to a
view and present the data as if the data were coming from a single table.

Note: The database design and structure will NOT be affected by the functions, where, or join
statements in a view.

Syntax

CREATE VIEW view_name AS

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition

Note: The database does not store the view data! The database engine recreates the data, using
the view's SELECT statement, every time a user queries a view.

Using Views

A view could be used from inside a query, a stored procedure, or from inside another view. By
adding functions, joins, etc., to a view, it allows you to present exactly the data you want to the
user.

The sample database Northwind has some views installed by default. The view "Current Product
List" lists all active products (products that are not discontinued) from the Products table. The view
is created with the following SQL:

CREATE VIEW [Current Product List] AS

SELECT ProductID,ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE Discontinued=No

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Current Product List]

Another view from the Northwind sample database selects every product in the Products table that
has a unit price that is higher than the average unit price:

CREATE VIEW [Products Above Average Price] AS

SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice
FROM Products
WHERE UnitPrice>(SELECT AVG(UnitPrice) FROM Products)

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Products Above Average Price]

Another example view from the Northwind database calculates the total sale for each category in
1997. Note that this view select its data from another view called "Product Sales for 1997":

CREATE VIEW [Category Sales For 1997] AS

SELECT DISTINCT CategoryName,Sum(ProductSales) AS CategorySales
FROM [Product Sales for 1997]
GROUP BY CategoryName

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997]

We can also add a condition to the query. Now we want to see the total sale only for the category
"Beverages":

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997]

WHERE CategoryName='Beverages'

SQL Servers - RDBMS

Modern SQL Servers are built on RDBMS.

DBMS - Database Management System

A Database Management System (DBMS) is a computer program that can access data in a
database.

The DBMS program enables you to extract, modify, or store information in a database.

Different DBMS programs provides different functions for querying data, reporting data, and
modifying data.

RDBMS - Relational Database Management System

A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a Database Management System (DBMS)

where the database is organized and accessed according to the relationships between data.
RDBMS was invented by IBM in the early 1970's.

RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like Oracle, SQL Server, IBM DB2,
Sybase, MySQL, and Microsoft Access.