SQL

1
CONTENTS
 Data Definition
 Basic Query Structure

 Set Operations

 Aggregate Functions

 Null Values

 Nested Subqueries

 Complex Queries

 Views

 Modification of the Database

 Joined Relations
2
HISTORY
 IBM Sequel language developed as part of System R project at the IBM San
Jose Research Laboratory
 Renamed Structured Query Language (SQL)
 ANSI and ISO standard SQL:
 SQL-86
 SQL-89
 SQL-92
 SQL:1999 (language name became Y2K compliant!)
 SQL:2003
 Commercial systems offer most, if not all, SQL-92 features, plus varying
feature sets from later standards and special proprietary features.
 Not all examples here may work on your particular system.

3
DATA DEFINITION LANGUAGE
Allows the specification of:
 The schema for each relation, including attribute types.

 Integrity constraints

 Authorization information for each relation.

 Non-standard SQL extensions also allow specification of

 The set of indices to be maintained for each relations.
 The physical storage structure of each relation on disk.

4
CREATE TABLE CONSTRUCT
 An SQL relation is defined using the create table command:
create table r (A1 D1, A2 D2, ..., An Dn,
(integrity-constraint1),
...,
(integrity-constraintk))
 r is the name of the relation
 each Ai is an attribute name in the schema of relation r
 Di is the data type of attribute Ai
 Example:
create table branch
(branch_name char(15),
branch_city char(30),
assets integer)

5
DOMAIN TYPES IN SQL
 char(n). Fixed length character string, with user-specified length n.
 varchar(n). Variable length character strings, with user-specified
maximum length n.
 int. Integer (a finite subset of the integers that is machine-dependent).
 smallint. Small integer (a machine-dependent subset of the integer domain
type).
 numeric(p,d). Fixed point number, with user-specified precision of p
digits, with n digits to the right of decimal point.
 real, double precision. Floating point and double-precision floating point
numbers, with machine-dependent precision.
 float(n). Floating point number, with user-specified precision of at least n
digits.

6
INTEGRITY CONSTRAINTS ON TABLES
 not null
 primary key (A1, ..., An )

 Example: Declare branch_name as the primary key for

branch
create table branch
(branch_name char(15),
branch_city char(30) not null,
assets integer,
primary key (branch_name))
primary key declaration on an attribute automatically
ensures not null in SQL-92 onwards, needs to be 7
explicitly stated in SQL-89
BASIC INSERTION AND DELETION OF
TUPLES
 Newly created table is empty
 Add a new tuple to account

insert into account

values ('A-9732', 'Perryridge', 1200)
 Insertion fails if any integrity constraint is violated
 Delete all tuples from account
delete from account
Note: Will see later how to delete selected tuples

8
DROP AND ALTER TABLE CONSTRUCTS
 The drop table command deletes all information about the dropped relation
from the database.
 The alter table command is used to add attributes to an existing relation:
alter table r add A D
where A is the name of the attribute to be added to relation r and D is the
domain of A.
 All tuples in the relation are assigned null as the value for the new attribute.
 The alter table command can also be used to drop attributes of a relation:
alter table r drop A
where A is the name of an attribute of relation r
 Dropping of attributes not supported by many databases

9
BASIC QUERY STRUCTURE
 A typical SQL query has the form:
select A1, A2, ..., An
from r1, r2, ..., rm
where P
 Ai represents an attribute
 Ri represents a relation
 P is a predicate.
 This query is equivalent to the relational algebra expression.

 The result of an SQL query is a relation.

 A1 , A2 ,..., An ( p ( r1  r2  ....  rm ))

10
THE SELECT CLAUSE
 The select clause list the attributes desired in the result of a
query
 corresponds to the projection operation of the relational algebra
 Example: find the names of all branches in the loan relation:
select branch_name
from loan
 In the relational algebra, the query would be:

branch_name (loan)
 NOTE: SQL names are case insensitive (i.e., you may use
upper- or lower-case letters.)
 E.g.Branch_Name ≡ BRANCH_NAME ≡ branch_name 11
 Some people use upper case wherever we use bold font.
THE SELECT CLAUSE (CONTD..)
 SQL allows duplicates in relations as well as in query results.
 To force the elimination of duplicates, insert the keyword distinct
after select.
 Find the names of all branches in the loan relations, and remove
duplicates
select distinct branch_name from loan
 The keyword all specifies that duplicates not be removed.
select all branch_name from loan

12
THE SELECT CLAUSE (CONTD..)
 An asterisk in the select clause denotes “all attributes”
select * from loan
 The select clause can contain arithmetic expressions

involving the operation, +, –, , and /, and operating on

constants or attributes of tuples.
 E.g.:

select loan_number, branch_name, amount  100 from

loan

13
THE WHERE CLAUSE
 The where clause specifies conditions that the result must satisfy
 Corresponds to the selection predicate of the relational algebra.
 To find all loan number for loans made at the Perryridge branch
with loan amounts greater than $1200.
select loan_number from loan
where branch_name = 'Perryridge' and amount > 1200
 Comparison results can be combined using the logical connectives
and, or, and not.

14
THE FROM CLAUSE
 The from clause lists the relations involved in the query
 Corresponds to the Cartesian product operation of the relational algebra.
 Find the Cartesian product borrower X loan
select  from borrower, loan
 Find the name, loan number and loan amount of all customers
having a loan at the Perryridge branch.
select customer_name, borrower.loan_number, amount
from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number and
branch_name = 'Perryridge'
15
THE RENAME OPERATION
 SQL allows renaming relations and attributes using the
as clause:
old-name as new-name
 E.g. Find the name, loan number and loan amount of all
customers; rename the column name loan_number as
loan_id.
select customer_name, borrower.loan_number as
loan_id, amount
from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number
16
TUPLE VARIABLES
 Tuple variables are defined in the from clause via the
use of the as clause.
 Find the customer names and their loan numbers and
amount for all customers having a loan at some branch.
select customer_name, T.loan_number, S.amount
from borrower as T, loan as S
where T.loan_number = S.loan_number

17
TUPLE VARIABLES (CONTD..)
 Find the names of all branches that have greater assets
than some branch located in Brooklyn
select distinct T.branch_name
from branch as T, branch as S
where T.assets > S.assets and S.branch_city =
'Brooklyn’
 Keyword as is optional and may be omitted
borrower as T ≡ borrower T
 Some database such as Oracle require as to be omitted

18
STRING OPERATIONS
 SQL includes a string-matching operator for comparisons on character
strings. The operator “like” uses patterns that are described using two
special characters:
 percent (%). The % character matches any substring.
 underscore (_). The _ character matches any character.
 Find the names of all customers whose street includes the substring “Main”.
select customer_name
from customer
where customer_street like '% Main%'
 Match the name “Main%”
like 'Main\%' escape '\'
 SQL supports a variety of string operations such as
 concatenation (using “||”)
 converting from upper to lower case (and vice versa)
 finding string length, extracting substrings, etc.

19
ORDERING THE DISPLAY OF TUPLES
 List in alphabetic order the names of all customers
having a loan in Perryridge branch
select distinct customer_name
from borrower, loan
where borrower loan_number = loan.loan_number
and
branch_name = 'Perryridge'
order by customer_name
 We may specify desc for descending order or asc for
ascending order, for each attribute; ascending order is the
default.
 Example: order by customer_name desc 20
DUPLICATES
 In relations with duplicates, SQL can define how many
copies of tuples appear in the result.
 Multiset versions of some of the relational algebra
operators – given multiset relations r1 and r2:
1.  (r1): If there are c1 copies of tuple t1 in r1, and t1 satisfies
selections ,, then there are c1 copies of t1 in  (r1).
2. A (r ): For each copy of tuple t1 in r1, there is a copy of tuple
A (t1) in A (r1) where A (t1) denotes the projection of the
single tuple t1.
3. r1 x r2 : If there are c1 copies of tuple t1 in r1 and c2 copies of
tuple t2 in r2, there are c1 x c2 copies of the tuple t1. t2 in r1 x r2 21
DUPLICATES (CONTD..)
 Example: Suppose multiset relations r1 (A, B) and r2 (C)
are as follows:
r1 = {(1, a) (2,a)} r2 = {(2), (3), (3)}
 Then B(r1) would be {(a), (a)}, while B(r1) x r2 would be
{(a,2), (a,2), (a,3), (a,3), (a,3), (a,3)}
 SQL duplicate semantics:

select A1,, A2, ..., An

from r1, r2, ..., rm
where P  A1,A2 ,,An ( P (r1  r2    rm ))
is equivalent to the multiset version of the expression:
22
SET OPERATIONS
 The set operations union, intersect, and except operate
on relations and correspond to the relational algebra
operations 
 Each of the above operations automatically eliminates
duplicates; to retain all duplicates use the corresponding
multiset versions union all, intersect all and except all.

Suppose a tuple occurs m times in r and n times in s,

then, it occurs:
m + n times in r union all s
 min(m,n) times in r intersect all s
 max(0, m – n) times in r except all s 23
SET OPERATIONS (CONTD..)
 Find all customers who have a loan, an account, or both
(select customer_name from depositor)
union
(select customer_name from borrower)
 Find all customers who have both a loan and an account.

(select customer_name from depositor)

intersect
(select customer_name from borrower)
 Find all customers who have an account but no loan.

(select customer_name from depositor)

except 24
(select customer_name from borrower)
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS
 These functions operate on the multiset of values of a
column of a relation, and return a value
avg: average value
min: minimum value
max: maximum value
sum: sum of values
count: number of values

25
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (CONTD..)
 Find the average account balance at the Perryridge
branch.
select avg (balance)
from account
where branch_name = 'Perryridge'
 Find the number of tuples in the customer relation.

select count (*)

from customer
 Find the number of depositors in the bank.

select count (distinct customer_name)

from depositor 26
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS – GROUP BY
 Find the number of depositors for each branch.
select branch_name, count (distinct customer_name)
from depositor, account
where depositor.account_number
=account.account_number
group by branch_name
 Note: Attributes in select clause outside of aggregate
functions must
appear in group by list

27
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS – HAVING
CLAUSE
Find the names of all branches where the average
account balance is more than $1,200.
select branch_name, avg (balance)
from account
group by branch_name
having avg (balance) > 1200
Note: Predicates in the having clause are applied after the
formation of groups whereas predicates in the where

clause are applied before forming groups

28
NESTED SUBQUERIES
 SQL provides a mechanism for the nesting of subqueries.
 A subquery is a select-from-where expression that is
nested within another query.
 A common use of subqueries is to perform tests for set
membership, set comparisons, and set cardinality.

29
“IN” CONSTRUCT
 Find all customers who have both an account and a loan
at the bank.
select distinct customer_name
from borrower
where customer_name in (select customer_name
from depositor )
 Find all customers who have a loan at the bank but do
not have an account at the bank.
select distinct customer_name
from borrower
where customer_name not in (select customer_name
30
from depositor )
EXAMPLE QUERY
Find all customers who have both an account and a loan at the
Perryridge branch.
select distinct customer_name
from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number and
branch_name = 'Perryridge' and
(branch_name, customer_name ) in
(select branch_name, customer_name
from depositor, account
where depositor.account_number =
account.account_number )
Note: Above query can be written in a much simpler manner. The
31
formulation above is simply to illustrate SQL features.
“SOME” CONSTRUCT
 Find all branches that have greater assets than some branch
located in Brooklyn.
select distinct T.branch_name
from branch as T, branch as S
where T.assets > S.assets and
S.branch_city = 'Brooklyn'
 Same query using > some clause

select branch_name
from branch
where assets > some
(select assets
from branch 32
where branch_city = 'Brooklyn')
“ALL” CONSTRUCT
 Find the names of all branches that have greater assets
than all branches located in Brooklyn.
select branch_name
from branch
where assets > all
(select assets
from branch
where branch_city = 'Brooklyn')

33
“EXISTS” CONSTRUCT
 Find all customers who have an account at all branches located in
Brooklyn.
select distinct S.customer_name
from depositor as S
where not exists (
(select branch_name
from branch
where branch_city = 'Brooklyn')
except
(select R.branch_name
from depositor as T, account as R
where T.account_number = R.account_number and
S.customer_name = T.customer_name ))
 Note that X – Y = Ø  X Y
34
 Note: Cannot write this query using = all and its variants
ABSENCE OF DUPLICATE TUPLES
 The unique construct tests whether a subquery has any
duplicate tuples in its result.
 Find all customers who have at most one account at the
Perryridge branch.
select T.customer_name
from depositor as T
where unique (
select R.customer_name
from account, depositor as R
where T.customer_name = R.customer_name and
R.account_number = account.account_number
and 35
account.branch_name = 'Perryridge')
EXAMPLE QUERY
 Find all customers who have at least two accounts at the
Perryridge branch.
select distinct T.customer_name
from depositor as T
where not unique (
select R.customer_name
from account, depositor as R
where T.customer_name = R.customer_name and
R.account_number = account.account_number and
account.branch_name = 'Perryridge')
 Variable from outer level is known as a correlation variable 36
MODIFICATION OF THE DATABASE –
DELETION
 Delete all account tuples at the Perryridge branch
delete from account
where branch_name = 'Perryridge'
 Delete all accounts at every branch located in the city
‘Needham’.
delete from account
where branch_name in (select branch_name
from branch
where branch_city = 'Needham')

37
EXAMPLE QUERY
 Delete the record of all accounts with balances below the
average at the bank.
delete from account
where balance < (select avg (balance )
from account )
 Problem: as we delete tuples from deposit, the average balance
changes
 Solution used in SQL:
1. First, compute avg balance and find all tuples to delete
2. Next, delete all tuples found above (without recomputing avg or
retesting the tuples)

38
MODIFICATION OF THE DATABASE –
INSERTION
 Add a new tuple to account
insert into account
values ('A-9732', 'Perryridge', 1200)
or equivalently
insert into account (branch_name, balance,
account_number)
values ('Perryridge', 1200, 'A-9732')
 Add a new tuple to account with balance set to null

insert into account

values ('A-777','Perryridge', null )
39
MODIFICATION OF THE DATABASE –
INSERTION
 Provide as a gift for all loan customers of the Perryridge branch, a
$200 savings account. Let the loan number serve as the account
number for the new savings account
insert into account
select loan_number, branch_name, 200
from loan
where branch_name = 'Perryridge'
insert into depositor
select customer_name, loan_number
from loan, borrower
where branch_name = 'Perryridge'
and loan.account_number = borrower.account_number
 The select from where statement is evaluated fully before any of its
results are inserted into the relation 40
 Motivation: insert into table1 select * from table1
MODIFICATION OF THE DATABASE –
UPDATES
 Increase all accounts with balances over $10,000 by 6%,
all other accounts receive 5%.
 Write two update statements:
update account
set balance = balance  1.06
where balance > 10000

update account
set balance = balance  1.05
where balance  10000
 The order is important
 Can be done better using the case statement (next slide)
41
CASE STATEMENT FOR CONDITIONAL
UPDATES
 Same query as before: Increase all accounts with
balances over $10,000 by 6%, all other accounts receive
5%.

update account
set balance = case
when balance <= 10000 then balance *1.05
else balance * 1.06
end

42