Basics in SQL
Basics in SQL
Basics in SQL
SQL-99: SchemaDefinition,
Constraints, and Queries and Views
Slide 8- 2
CREATE TABLE
Specifies a new base relation by giving it a name, and
specifying each of its attributes and their data types
(INTEGER, FLOAT, DECIMAL(i,j), CHAR(n),
VARCHAR(n))
A constraint NOT NULL may be specified on an attribute
CREATE TABLE DEPARTMENT (
DNAME VARCHAR(10)
NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT
NULL,
MGRSSN CHAR(9),
MGRSTARTDATE CHAR(9) );
Slide 8- 3
CREATE TABLE
In SQL2, can use the CREATE TABLE command for specifying the primary
key attributes, secondary keys, and referential integrity constraints (foreign
keys).
Key attributes can be specified via the PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE phrases
CREATE TABLE DEPT (
DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT
NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
MGRSSN CHAR(9),
MGRSTARTDATE CHAR(9),
PRIMARY KEY (DNUMBER),
UNIQUE (DNAME),
FOREIGN KEY (MGRSSN) REFERENCES EMP );
Slide 8- 4
DROP TABLE
Used to remove a relation (base table) and its
definition
The relation can no longer be used in queries,
updates, or any other commands since its
description no longer exists
Example:
Slide 8- 5
ALTER TABLE
Used to add an attribute to one of the base
relations
The new attribute will have NULLs in all the tuples of
the relation right after the command is executed;
hence, the NOT NULL constraint is not allowed for
such an attribute
Example:
ALTER TABLE EMPLOYEE ADD JOB
VARCHAR(12);
Slide 8- 6
Features Added in SQL2 and SQL-99
Create schema
Referential integrity options
Slide 8- 7
CREATE SCHEMA
Specifies a new database schema by giving it a
name
Slide 8- 8
REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY
OPTIONS
We can specify RESTRICT, CASCADE, SET NULL or SET
DEFAULT on referential integrity constraints (foreign keys)
CREATE TABLE DEPT (
DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT
NULL,
MGRSSN CHAR(9),
MGRSTARTDATE CHAR(9),
PRIMARY KEY (DNUMBER),
UNIQUE (DNAME),
FOREIGN KEY (MGRSSN) REFERENCES EMP
ON DELETE SET DEFAULT ON UPDATE
CASCADE);
Slide 8- 9
REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY
OPTIONS (continued)
CREATE TABLE EMP(
ENAME VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
ESSN CHAR(9),
BDATE DATE,
DNO INTEGER DEFAULT 1,
SUPERSSN CHAR(9),
PRIMARY KEY (ESSN),
FOREIGN KEY (DNO) REFERENCES DEPT
ON DELETE SET DEFAULT ON UPDATE
CASCADE,
FOREIGN KEY (SUPERSSN) REFERENCES EMP
ON DELETE SET NULL ON UPDATE CASCADE);
Slide 8- 10
Additional Data Types in SQL2 and
SQL-99
Has DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP data types
DATE:
Slide 8- 11
Additional Data Types in SQL2 and
SQL-99 (contd.)
TIMESTAMP:
Has both DATE and TIME components
INTERVAL:
Specifies a relative value rather than an absolute
value
Can be DAY/TIME intervals or YEAR/MONTH
intervals
Can be positive or negative when added to or
subtracted from an absolute value, the result is an
absolute value
Slide 8- 12
Retrieval Queries in SQL
SQL has one basic statement for retrieving information
from a database; the SELECT statement
This is not the same as the SELECT operation of the
relational algebra
Important distinction between SQL and the formal
relational model:
SQL allows a table (relation) to have two or more tuples that
are identical in all their attribute values
Hence, an SQL relation (table) is a multi-set (sometimes
called a bag) of tuples; it is not a set of tuples
SQL relations can be constrained to be sets by specifying
PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE attributes, or by using the
DISTINCT option in a query
Slide 8- 13
Retrieval Queries in SQL (contd.)
A bag or multi-set is like a set, but an element
may appear more than once.
Example: {A, B, C, A} is a bag. {A, B, C} is also a
bag that also is a set.
Bags also resemble lists, but the order is irrelevant
in a bag.
Example:
{A, B, A} = {B, A, A} as bags
However, [A, B, A] is not equal to [B, A, A] as lists
Slide 8- 14
Retrieval Queries in SQL (contd.)
Basic form of the SQL SELECT statement is called a
mapping or a SELECT-FROM-WHERE block
Slide 8- 15
Relational Database Schema--Figure 5.5
Slide 8- 16
Populated Database--Fig.5.6
Slide 8- 17
Simple SQL Queries
Basic SQL queries correspond to using the
following operations of the relational algebra:
SELECT
PROJECT
JOIN
All subsequent examples use the COMPANY
database
Slide 8- 18
Simple SQL Queries (contd.)
Example of a simple query on one relation
Query 0: Retrieve the birthdate and address of the
employee whose name is 'John B. Smith'.
Q0: SELECT BDATE, ADDRESS
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE FNAME='John' AND MINIT='B’
AND LNAME='Smith’
Similar to a SELECT-PROJECT pair of relational algebra
operations:
The SELECT-clause specifies the projection attributes and the
WHERE-clause specifies the selection condition
However, the result of the query may contain duplicate
tuples
Slide 8- 19
Simple SQL Queries (contd.)
Query 1: Retrieve the name and address of all employees
who work for the 'Research' department.
Slide 8- 20
Simple SQL Queries (contd.)
Query 2: For every project located in 'Stafford', list the project
number, the controlling department number, and the department
manager's last name, address, and birthdate.
Slide 8- 21
Aliases, * and DISTINCT, Empty
WHERE-clause
In SQL, we can use the same name for two (or
more) attributes as long as the attributes are in
different relations
A query that refers to two or more attributes with
the same name must qualify the attribute name
with the relation name by prefixing the relation
name to the attribute name
Example:
EMPLOYEE.LNAME, DEPARTMENT.DNAME
Slide 8- 22
ALIASES
Some queries need to refer to the same relation twice
In this case, aliases are given to the relation name
Query 8: For each employee, retrieve the employee's name, and the
name of his or her immediate supervisor.
Slide 8- 23
ALIASES (contd.)
Aliasing can also be used in any SQL query for
convenience
Can also use the AS keyword to specify aliases
Slide 8- 24
UNSPECIFIED
WHERE-clause
A missing WHERE-clause indicates no condition; hence,
all tuples of the relations in the FROM-clause are selected
This is equivalent to the condition WHERE TRUE
Query 9: Retrieve the SSN values for all employees.
Slide 8- 25
UNSPECIFIED
WHERE-clause (contd.)
Example:
Slide 8- 26
USE OF *
To retrieve all the attribute values of the selected tuples, a
* is used, which stands for all the attributes
Examples:
Q1C: SELECT *
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNO=5
Q1D: SELECT *
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND
DNO=DNUMBER
Slide 8- 27
USE OF DISTINCT
SQL does not treat a relation as a set; duplicate tuples
can appear
To eliminate duplicate tuples in a query result, the
keyword DISTINCT is used
For example, the result of Q11 may have duplicate
SALARY values whereas Q11A does not have any
duplicate values
Slide 8- 28
SET OPERATIONS
SQL has directly incorporated some set operations
There is a union operation (UNION), and in some versions
of SQL there are set difference (MINUS) and intersection
(INTERSECT) operations
The resulting relations of these set operations are sets of
tuples; duplicate tuples are eliminated from the result
The set operations apply only to union compatible
relations; the two relations must have the same attributes
and the attributes must appear in the same order
Slide 8- 29
SET OPERATIONS (contd.)
Query 4: Make a list of all project numbers for projects that involve an
employee whose last name is 'Smith' as a worker or as a manager of
the department that controls the project.
Slide 8- 30
NESTING OF QUERIES
A complete SELECT query, called a nested query, can be
specified within the WHERE-clause of another query,
called the outer query
Many of the previous queries can be specified in an
alternative form using nesting
Query 1: Retrieve the name and address of all employees
who work for the 'Research' department.
Slide 8- 31
NESTING OF QUERIES (contd.)
The nested query selects the number of the 'Research'
department
The outer query select an EMPLOYEE tuple if its DNO
value is in the result of either nested query
The comparison operator IN compares a value v with a
set (or multi-set) of values V, and evaluates to TRUE if v
is one of the elements in V
In general, we can have several levels of nested queries
A reference to an unqualified attribute refers to the
relation declared in the innermost nested query
In this example, the nested query is not correlated with
the outer query
Slide 8- 32
CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES
If a condition in the WHERE-clause of a nested query references an
attribute of a relation declared in the outer query, the two queries are
said to be correlated
The result of a correlated nested query is different for each tuple
Slide 8- 33
CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES
(contd.)
In Q12, the nested query has a different result in the outer
query
A query written with nested SELECT... FROM... WHERE...
blocks and using the = or IN comparison operators can
always be expressed as a single block query. For example,
Q12 may be written as in Q12A
E.FNAME=D.DEPENDENT_NAME
Slide 8- 34
CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES
(contd.)
The original SQL as specified for SYSTEM R also had a
CONTAINS comparison operator, which is used in
conjunction with nested correlated queries
This operator was dropped from the language, possibly
because of the difficulty in implementing it efficiently
Most implementations of SQL do not have this operator
The CONTAINS operator compares two sets of values, and
returns TRUE if one set contains all values in the other set
Reminiscent of the division operation of algebra
Slide 8- 35
CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES
(contd.)
Query 3: Retrieve the name of each employee who works
on all the projects controlled by department number 5.
Slide 8- 36
CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES
(contd.)
In Q3, the second nested query, which is not
correlated with the outer query, retrieves the
project numbers of all projects controlled by
department 5
The first nested query, which is correlated,
retrieves the project numbers on which the
employee works, which is different for each
employee tuple because of the correlation
Slide 8- 37
THE EXISTS FUNCTION
EXISTS is used to check whether the result of a
correlated nested query is empty (contains no
tuples) or not
We can formulate Query 12 in an alternative form
that uses EXISTS as Q12B
Slide 8- 38
THE EXISTS FUNCTION (contd.)
Query 12: Retrieve the name of each employee
who has a dependent with the same first name as
the employee.
FNAME=DEPENDENT_NAME)
Slide 8- 39
THE EXISTS FUNCTION (contd.)
Query 6: Retrieve the names of employees who have no
dependents.
Slide 8- 40
EXPLICIT SETS
It is also possible to use an explicit
(enumerated) set of values in the WHERE-
clause rather than a nested query
Query 13: Retrieve the social security numbers of
all employees who work on project number 1, 2,
or 3.
Q13: SELECT DISTINCT ESSN
FROM WORKS_ON
WHERE PNO IN (1, 2, 3)
Slide 8- 41
NULLS IN SQL QUERIES
SQL allows queries that check if a value is NULL (missing
or undefined or not applicable)
SQL uses IS or IS NOT to compare NULLs because it
considers each NULL value distinct from other NULL
values, so equality comparison is not appropriate.
Query 14: Retrieve the names of all employees who do
not have supervisors.
Q14: SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE SUPERSSN IS NULL
Note: If a join condition is specified, tuples with NULL values
for the join attributes are not included in the result
Slide 8- 42
Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2
Can specify a "joined relation" in the FROM-
clause
Looks like any other relation but is the result of a
join
Allows the user to specify different types of joins
(regular "theta" JOIN, NATURAL JOIN, LEFT
OUTER JOIN, RIGHT OUTER JOIN, CROSS
JOIN, etc)
Slide 8- 43
Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2 (contd.)
Examples:
Q8: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME, S.FNAME, S.LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE E S
WHERE E.SUPERSSN=S.SSN
Slide 8- 44
Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2 (contd.)
Examples:
Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND
DNUMBER=DNO
could be written as:
Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM (EMPLOYEE JOIN DEPARTMENT
ON DNUMBER=DNO)
WHERE DNAME='Research’
or as:
Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM (EMPLOYEE NATURAL JOIN
DEPARTMENT
AS DEPT(DNAME, DNO, MSSN,
MSDATE)
WHERE DNAME='Research’
Slide 8- 45
Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2 (contd.)
Another Example: Q2 could be written as follows;
this illustrates multiple joins in the joined tables
Q2: SELECT PNUMBER, DNUM, LNAME,
BDATE, ADDRESS
FROM (PROJECT JOIN
DEPARTMENT ON
DNUM=DNUMBER)
JOIN EMPLOYEE ON
MGRSSN=SSN) )
WHERE PLOCATION='Stafford’
Slide 8- 46
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS
Include COUNT, SUM, MAX, MIN, and AVG
Query 15: Find the maximum salary, the minimum
salary, and the average salary among all
employees.
Q15: SELECT MAX(SALARY),
MIN(SALARY), AVG(SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEE
Slide 8- 47
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (contd.)
Query 16: Find the maximum salary, the minimum
salary, and the average salary among employees
who work for the 'Research' department.
Q16: SELECT MAX(SALARY),
MIN(SALARY), AVG(SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEE,
DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNO=DNUMBER AND
DNAME='Research'
Slide 8- 48
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (contd.)
Queries 17 and 18: Retrieve the total number of
employees in the company (Q17), and the number of
employees in the 'Research' department (Q18).
Q17: SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM EMPLOYEE
Slide 8- 49
GROUPING
In many cases, we want to apply the aggregate
functions to subgroups of tuples in a relation
Each subgroup of tuples consists of the set of
tuples that have the same value for the grouping
attribute(s)
The function is applied to each subgroup
independently
SQL has a GROUP BY-clause for specifying the
grouping attributes, which must also appear in
the SELECT-clause
Slide 8- 50
GROUPING (contd.)
Query 20: For each department, retrieve the department
number, the number of employees in the department, and
their average salary.
Q20: SELECT DNO, COUNT (*), AVG (SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEE
GROUP BY DNO
In Q20, the EMPLOYEE tuples are divided into groups-
Each group having the same value for the grouping attribute
DNO
The COUNT and AVG functions are applied to each such
group of tuples separately
The SELECT-clause includes only the grouping attribute
and the functions to be applied on each group of tuples
A join condition can be used in conjunction with grouping
Slide 8- 51
GROUPING (contd.)
Query 21: For each project, retrieve the project number,
project name, and the number of employees who work on
that project.
Slide 8- 52
THE HAVING-CLAUSE
Sometimes we want to retrieve the values of
these functions for only those groups that satisfy
certain conditions
The HAVING-clause is used for specifying a
selection condition on groups (rather than on
individual tuples)
Slide 8- 53
THE HAVING-CLAUSE (contd.)
Query 22: For each project on which more than
two employees work, retrieve the project number,
project name, and the number of employees who
work on that project.
Q22: SELECT PNUMBER, PNAME,
COUNT(*)
FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE PNUMBER=PNO
GROUP BY PNUMBER, PNAME
HAVING COUNT (*) > 2
Slide 8- 54
SUBSTRING COMPARISON
The LIKE comparison operator is used to
compare partial strings
Two reserved characters are used: '%' (or '*' in
some implementations) replaces an arbitrary
number of characters, and '_' replaces a single
arbitrary character
Slide 8- 55
SUBSTRING COMPARISON (contd.)
Query 25: Retrieve all employees whose address
is in Houston, Texas. Here, the value of the
ADDRESS attribute must contain the substring
'Houston,TX‘ in it.
Q25: SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE ADDRESS LIKE
'%Houston,TX%'
Slide 8- 56
SUBSTRING COMPARISON (contd.)
Query 26: Retrieve all employees who were born during
the 1950s.
Here, '5' must be the 8th character of the string (according
to our format for date), so the BDATE value is '_______5_',
with each underscore as a place holder for a single arbitrary
character.
Q26: SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE BDATE LIKE '_______5_’
Slide 8- 57
ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS
The standard arithmetic operators '+', '-'. '*', and '/' (for
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division,
respectively) can be applied to numeric values in an SQL
query result
Query 27: Show the effect of giving all employees who
work on the 'ProductX' project a 10% raise.
Q27: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, 1.1*SALARY
FROM EMPLOYEE, WORKS_ON,
PROJECT
WHERE SSN=ESSN AND
PNO=PNUMBER AND
PNAME='ProductX’
Slide 8- 58
ORDER BY
The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the tuples in a query
result based on the values of some attribute(s)
Query 28: Retrieve a list of employees and the projects
each works in, ordered by the employee's department, and
within each department ordered alphabetically by employee
last name.
Q28: SELECT DNAME, LNAME, FNAME, PNAME
FROM DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE,
WORKS_ON, PROJECT
WHERE DNUMBER=DNO AND
SSN=ESSN AND
PNO=PNUMBER
ORDER BY DNAME, LNAME
Slide 8- 59
ORDER BY (contd.)
The default order is in ascending order of values
We can specify the keyword DESC if we want a
descending order; the keyword ASC can be used
to explicitly specify ascending order, even though
it is the default
Slide 8- 60
Summary of SQL Queries
A query in SQL can consist of up to six clauses,
but only the first two, SELECT and FROM, are
mandatory. The clauses are specified in the
following order:
Slide 8- 61
Summary of SQL Queries (contd.)
The SELECT-clause lists the attributes or functions to be retrieved
The FROM-clause specifies all relations (or aliases) needed in the
query but not those needed in nested queries
The WHERE-clause specifies the conditions for selection and join of
tuples from the relations specified in the FROM-clause
GROUP BY specifies grouping attributes
HAVING specifies a condition for selection of groups
ORDER BY specifies an order for displaying the result of a query
A query is evaluated by first applying the WHERE-clause, then
Slide 8- 62
Specifying Updates in SQL
There are three SQL commands to modify the
database: INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE
Slide 8- 63
INSERT
In its simplest form, it is used to add one or more
tuples to a relation
Attribute values should be listed in the same
order as the attributes were specified in the
CREATE TABLE command
Slide 8- 64
INSERT (contd.)
Example:
U1: INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE
VALUES ('Richard','K','Marini', '653298653', '30-
DEC-52',
'98 Oak Forest,Katy,TX', 'M', 37000,'987654321', 4 )
Slide 8- 65
INSERT (contd.)
Important Note: Only the constraints specified in
the DDL commands are automatically enforced
by the DBMS when updates are applied to the
database
Another variation of INSERT allows insertion of
multiple tuples resulting from a query into a
relation
Slide 8- 66
INSERT (contd.)
Example: Suppose we want to create a temporary table that has the
name, number of employees, and total salaries for each department.
A table DEPTS_INFO is created by U3A, and is loaded with the
Slide 8- 67
INSERT (contd.)
Note: The DEPTS_INFO table may not be up-to-
date if we change the tuples in either the
DEPARTMENT or the EMPLOYEE relations after
issuing U3B. We have to create a view (see later)
to keep such a table up to date.
Slide 8- 68
DELETE
Removes tuples from a relation
Includes a WHERE-clause to select the tuples to be deleted
Referential integrity should be enforced
Tuples are deleted from only one table at a time (unless
CASCADE is specified on a referential integrity constraint)
A missing WHERE-clause specifies that all tuples in the
relation are to be deleted; the table then becomes an empty
table
The number of tuples deleted depends on the number of
tuples in the relation that satisfy the WHERE-clause
Slide 8- 69
DELETE (contd.)
Examples:
U4A: DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE LNAME='Brown’
Slide 8- 70
UPDATE
Used to modify attribute values of one or more
selected tuples
A WHERE-clause selects the tuples to be
modified
An additional SET-clause specifies the attributes
to be modified and their new values
Each command modifies tuples in the same
relation
Referential integrity should be enforced
Slide 8- 71
UPDATE (contd.)
Example: Change the location and controlling
department number of project number 10 to
'Bellaire' and 5, respectively.
U5: UPDATE PROJECT
SET PLOCATION = 'Bellaire',
DNUM = 5
WHERE PNUMBER=10
Slide 8- 72
UPDATE (contd.)
Example: Give all employees in the 'Research'
department a 10% raise in salary.
U6: UPDATE EMPLOYEE
SET SALARY = SALARY *1.1
WHERE DNO IN (SELECT DNUMBER
FROM DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research')
Slide 8- 73
Recap of SQL Queries
A query in SQL can consist of up to six clauses, but only
the first two, SELECT and FROM, are mandatory. The
clauses are specified in the following order:
Slide 8- 74