Restricting and Sorting Data

2
Restricting and Sorting Data
Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to do the

following:
• Limit the rows that are retrieved by a query
• Sort the rows that are retrieved by a query
• Use ampersand substitution to restrict and sort output at run
time
2-2 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Lesson Agenda
• Limiting rows with:

– The WHERE clause
– The comparison conditions using =, <=, BETWEEN, IN, LIKE,
and NULL conditions
– Logical conditions using AND, OR, and NOT operators
• Rules of precedence for operators in an expression
• Sorting rows using the ORDER BY clause
• Substitution variables
• DEFINE and VERIFY commands

Limiting Rows Using a Selection
EMPLOYEES
…
“retrieve all
employees in
department 90”

Limiting the Rows that Are Selected
• Restrict the rows that are returned by using the WHERE

clause:
SELECT *|{[DISTINCT] column|expression [alias],...}
FROM table
[WHERE condition(s)];
• The WHERE clause follows the FROM clause.

Using the WHERE Clause
SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id, department_id

FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 90 ;

Character Strings and Dates
• Character strings and date values are enclosed with single

quotation marks.
• Character values are case-sensitive and date values are
format-sensitive.
• The default date display format is DD-MON-RR.
SELECT last_name, job_id, department_id

FROM employees
WHERE last_name = 'Whalen' ;
SELECT last_name
FROM employees
WHERE hire_date = '17-FEB-96' ;

Comparison Operators
Operator Meaning
= Equal to
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal to
< Less than
<= Less than or equal to
<> Not equal to
BETWEEN Between two values (inclusive)
...AND...
IN(set) Match any of a list of values
LIKE Match a character pattern

IS NULL Is a null value

Using Comparison Operators
SELECT last_name, salary

FROM employees
WHERE salary <= 3000 ;

Range Conditions Using the BETWEEN Operator
Use the BETWEEN operator to display rows based on a range of

values:
SELECT last_name, salary

FROM employees
WHERE salary BETWEEN 2500 AND 3500 ;
Lower limit Upper limit
2 - 10 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Membership Condition Using the IN Operator
Use the IN operator to test for values in a list:
SELECT employee_id, last_name, salary, manager_id

FROM employees
WHERE manager_id IN (100, 101, 201) ;

Pattern Matching Using the LIKE Operator
• Use the LIKE operator to perform wildcard searches of valid

search string values.
• Search conditions can contain either literal characters or
numbers:
– % denotes zero or many characters.
– _ denotes one character.
SELECT first_name
FROM employees
WHERE first_name LIKE 'S%' ;

Combining Wildcard Characters
• You can combine the two wildcard characters (%, _) with

literal characters for pattern matching:
SELECT last_name
FROM employees
WHERE last_name LIKE '_o%' ;
• You can use the ESCAPE identifier to search for the actual %
and _ symbols.

Using the NULL Conditions
Test for nulls with the IS NULL operator.
SELECT last_name, manager_id

FROM employees
WHERE manager_id IS NULL ;

Defining Conditions Using the Logical Operators
Operator Meaning
AND Returns TRUE if both component conditions
are true
OR Returns TRUE if either component condition
is true
NOT Returns TRUE if the condition is false

Using the AND Operator
AND requires both the component conditions to be true:

SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id, salary
FROM employees
WHERE salary >= 10000
AND job_id LIKE '%MAN%' ;

Using the OR Operator
OR requires either component condition to be true:

SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id, salary
FROM employees
WHERE salary >= 10000
OR job_id LIKE '%MAN%' ;

Using the NOT Operator
SELECT last_name, job_id

FROM employees
WHERE job_id
NOT IN ('IT_PROG', 'ST_CLERK', 'SA_REP') ;

Lesson Agenda

and NULL operators

Rules of Precedence
Operator Meaning
1 Arithmetic operators
2 Concatenation operator
3 Comparison conditions
4 IS [NOT] NULL, LIKE, [NOT] IN
5 [NOT] BETWEEN
6 Not equal to
7 NOT logical condition
8 AND logical condition
9 OR logical condition
You can use parentheses to override rules of precedence.

Rules of Precedence
SELECT last_name, job_id, salary

FROM employees
WHERE job_id = 'SA_REP'
OR job_id = 'AD_PRES' 1
AND salary > 15000;
SELECT last_name, job_id, salary

FROM employees 2
WHERE (job_id = 'SA_REP'
OR job_id = 'AD_PRES')
AND salary > 15000;

Lesson Agenda

and NULL operators

Using the ORDER BY Clause
• Sort retrieved rows with the ORDER BY clause:

– ASC: Ascending order, default
– DESC: Descending order
• The ORDER BY clause comes last in the SELECT statement:
SELECT last_name, job_id, department_id, hire_date
FROM employees
ORDER BY hire_date ;

Sorting
• Sorting in descending order:

FROM employees
ORDER BY hire_date DESC ;
1
• Sorting by column alias:

SELECT employee_id, last_name, salary*12 annsal
FROM employees 2
ORDER BY annsal ;

Sorting
• Sorting by using the column’s numeric position:

FROM employees
ORDER BY 3;
3
• Sorting by multiple columns:

SELECT last_name, department_id, salary
FROM employees 4
ORDER BY department_id, salary DESC;

Lesson Agenda

and NULL operators

Substitution Variables
... salary = ? …
… department_id = ? …
... last_name = ? ...
I want
to query
different
values.

• Use substitution variables to:

– Temporarily store values with single-ampersand (&) and
double-ampersand (&&) substitution
• Use substitution variables to supplement the following:
– WHERE conditions
– ORDER BY clauses
– Column expressions
– Table names
– Entire SELECT statements

Using the Single-Ampersand Substitution
Variable
Use a variable prefixed with an ampersand (&) to prompt the
user for a value:
SELECT employee_id, last_name, salary, department_id

FROM employees
WHERE employee_id = &employee_num ;

Using the Single-Ampersand Substitution
Variable

Character and Date Values with
Use single quotation marks for date and character values:
SELECT last_name, department_id, salary*12

FROM employees
WHERE job_id = '&job_title' ;

Specifying Column Names,
Expressions, and Text
SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id,&column_name

FROM employees
WHERE &condition
ORDER BY &order_column ;

Using the Double-Ampersand
Substitution Variable
Use double ampersand (&&) if you want to reuse the variable
value without prompting the user each time:
SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id, &&column_name
FROM employees
ORDER BY &column_name ;
…
Lesson Agenda

and NULL operators

Using the DEFINE Command
• Use the DEFINE command to create and assign a value to a

variable.
• Use the UNDEFINE command to remove a variable.
DEFINE employee_num = 200
SELECT employee_id, last_name, salary, department_id

FROM employees
WHERE employee_id = &employee_num ;
UNDEFINE employee_num

Using the VERIFY Command
Use the VERIFY command to toggle the display of the

substitution variable, both before and after SQL Developer
replaces substitution variables with values:
SET VERIFY ON
SELECT employee_id, last_name, salary
FROM employees
WHERE employee_id = &employee_num;

Summary
In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Use the WHERE clause to restrict rows of output:
– Use the comparison conditions
– Use the BETWEEN, IN, LIKE, and NULL operators
– Apply the logical AND, OR, and NOT operators
• Use the ORDER BY clause to sort rows of output:
SELECT *|{[DISTINCT] column|expression [alias],...}
FROM table
[WHERE condition(s)]
[ORDER BY {column, expr, alias} [ASC|DESC]] ;
• Use ampersand substitution to restrict and sort output at
run time

Practice 2: Overview
This practice covers the following topics:

• Selecting data and changing the order of the rows
that are displayed
• Restricting rows by using the WHERE clause
• Sorting rows by using the ORDER BY clause
• Using substitution variables to add flexibility to your
SQL SELECT statements

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2

Restricting and Sorting Data

Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do the

2-2 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Limiting rows with:

2-3 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

2-4 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Restrict the rows that are returned by using the WHERE

• The WHERE clause follows the FROM clause.

2-5 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id, department_id

2-6 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Character strings and date values are enclosed with single

SELECT last_name, job_id, department_id

2-7 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

IN(set) Match any of a list of values

LIKE Match a character pattern

2-8 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

SELECT last_name, salary

2-9 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Use the BETWEEN operator to display rows based on a range of

SELECT last_name, salary

Lower limit Upper limit

2 - 10 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Use the IN operator to test for values in a list:

SELECT employee_id, last_name, salary, manager_id

2 - 11 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Use the LIKE operator to perform wildcard searches of valid

2 - 12 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• You can combine the two wildcard characters (%, _) with

2 - 13 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Test for nulls with the IS NULL operator.

SELECT last_name, manager_id

2 - 14 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

2 - 15 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

AND requires both the component conditions to be true:

2 - 16 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

OR requires either component condition to be true:

2 - 17 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

SELECT last_name, job_id

2 - 18 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Limiting rows with:

2 - 19 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

8 AND logical condition

You can use parentheses to override rules of precedence.

2 - 20 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

SELECT last_name, job_id, salary

SELECT last_name, job_id, salary

2 - 21 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Limiting rows with:

2 - 22 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Sort retrieved rows with the ORDER BY clause:

2 - 23 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Sorting in descending order:

• Sorting by column alias:

2 - 24 Copyright © 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

• Sorting by using the column’s numeric position:

• Sorting by multiple columns: