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What is SQL?
• SQL stands for Structured Query Language
• SQL lets you access and manipulate databases
• SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard
However, to be compliant with the ANSI standard, they all support at least the major commands
(such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE) in a similar manner.
Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary extensions in addition
to the SQL standard!
RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like MS SQL Server, IBM
DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and Microsoft Access.
A table is a collections of related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.
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.
The table above contains three records (one for each person) and five columns (P_Id, LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City).
SQL Statements
Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL statements.
The following SQL statement will select all the records in the "Persons" table:
In this tutorial we will teach you all about the different SQL statements.
Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that allow
more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.
We are using MS Access and SQL Server 2000 and we do not have to put a semicolon after each
SQL statement, but some database programs force you to use it.
The query and update commands form the DML part of SQL:
The DDL part of SQL permits database tables to be created or deleted. It also define indexes
(keys), specify links between tables, and impose constraints between tables. The most important
DDL statements in SQL are:
Now we want to select the content of the columns named "LastName" and "FirstName" from the
table above.
LastName FirstName
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari
SELECT * Example
Now we want to select all the columns from the "Persons" table.
The DISTINCT keyword can be used to return only distinct (different) values.
Now we want to select only the distinct values from the column named "City" from the table
above.
Now we want to select only the persons living in the city "Sandnes" from the table above.
This is correct:
This is wrong:
This is correct:
This is wrong:
Operato
Description
r
= Equal
<> Not equal
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
BETWEENBetween an inclusive range
LIKE Search for a pattern
IN If you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of the
columns
The AND & OR operators are used to filter records based on more than one condition.
The OR operator displays a record if either the first condition or the second condition is true.
Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove" AND the last name
equal to "Svendson":
OR Operator Example
Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove" OR the first name
equal to "Ola":
Now we want to select only the persons with the last name equal to "Svendson" AND the first
name equal to "Tove" OR to "Ola":
If you want to sort the records in a descending order, you can use the DESC keyword.
ORDER BY Example
The "Persons" table:
Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we want to sort the persons
by their last name.
The first form doesn't specify the column names where the data will be inserted, only their
values:
The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be inserted:
The following SQL statement will add a new row, but only add data in the "P_Id", "LastName"
and the "FirstName" columns:
Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which
record or records that should be updated. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be
updated!
Now we want to update the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.
UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'
WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'
UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'
Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which
record or records that should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be
deleted!
Now we want to delete the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.
or
Note: Be very careful when deleting records. You cannot undo this statement!
To preserve space, the table above is a subset of the Customers table used in the example below.
Try it Yourself
To see how SQL works, you can copy the SQL statements below and paste them into the
textarea, or you can make your own SQL statements.
When using SQL on text data, "alfred" is greater than "a" (like in a dictionary).
The TOP clause can be very useful on large tables with thousands of records. Returning a large
number of records can impact on performance.
Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
LIMIT 5
Oracle Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE ROWNUM <= number
Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
WHERE ROWNUM <=5
Now we want to select only the two first records in the table above.
Now we want to select only 50% of the records in the table above.
The LIKE operator is used in a WHERE clause to search for a specified pattern in a column.
Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "s" from the table above.
The "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the pattern) both before and
after the pattern.
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that ends with an "s" from the "Persons" table.
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "tav" from the
"Persons" table.
It is also possible to select the persons living in a city that NOT contains the pattern "tav" from
the "Persons" table, by using the NOT keyword.
Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "s" from the table above.
The "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the pattern) both before and
after the pattern.
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that ends with an "s" from the "Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "tav" from the
"Persons" table.
It is also possible to select the persons living in a city that NOT contains the pattern "tav" from
the "Persons" table, by using the NOT keyword.
SQL Wildcards
SQL wildcards can substitute for one or more characters when searching for data in a database.
SQL wildcards must be used with the SQL LIKE operator.
Wildcard Description
% A substitute for zero or more characters
_ A substitute for exactly one character
[charlist] Any single character in charlist
[^charlist] Any single character not in charlist
or
[!charlist]
Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern "nes" from the
"Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement:
Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "S", followed by any
character, followed by "end", followed by any character, followed by "on" from the "Persons"
table.
Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that do not start with "b" or "s" or "p" from
the "Persons" table.
The IN Operator
The IN operator allows you to specify multiple values in a WHERE clause.
SQL IN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,...)
IN Operator Example
The "Persons" table:
P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Now we want to select the persons with a last name equal to "Hansen" or "Pettersen" from the
table above.
The BETWEEN operator is used in a WHERE clause to select a range of data between two
values.
Now we want to select the persons with a last name alphabetically between "Hansen" and
"Pettersen" from the table above.
In some databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will not be listed,
because the BETWEEN operator only selects fields that are between and excluding the test
values).
In other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will be listed, because
the BETWEEN operator selects fields that are between and including the test values).
And in other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" will be listed, but "Pettersen"
will not be listed (like the example above), because the BETWEEN operator selects fields
between the test values, including the first test value and excluding the last test value.
Example 2
To display the persons outside the range in the previous example, use NOT BETWEEN:
SQL Alias
You can give a table or a column another name by using an alias. This can be a good thing to do
if you have very long or complex table names or column names.
Alias Example
Assume we have a table called "Persons" and another table called "Product_Orders". We will
give the table aliases of "p" an "po" respectively.
Now we want to list all the orders that "Ola Hansen" is responsible for.
As you'll see from the two SELECT statements above; aliases can make queries easier to both
write and to read.
SQL joins are used to query data from two or more tables, based on a relationship between
certain columns in these tables.
SQL JOIN
The JOIN keyword is used in an SQL statement to query data from two or more tables, based on
a relationship between certain columns in these tables.
A primary key is a column (or a combination of columns) 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.
Note that the "P_Id" column is the primary key in the "Persons" table. This means that no two
rows can have the same P_Id. The P_Id distinguishes two persons even if they have the same
name.
Note that the "O_Id" column is the primary key in the "Orders" table and that the "P_Id" column
refers to the persons in the "Persons" table without using their names.
Notice that the relationship between the two tables above is the "P_Id" column.
• JOIN: Return rows when there is at least one match in both tables
• LEFT JOIN: Return all rows from the left table, even if there are no matches in the right
table
• RIGHT JOIN: Return all rows from the right table, even if there are no matches in the
left table
• FULL JOIN: Return rows when there is a match in one of the tables
The INNER JOIN keyword return rows when there is at least one match in both tables. If there
are rows in "Persons" that do not have matches in "Orders", those rows will NOT be listed.
Now we want to list all the persons and their orders - if any, from the tables above.
The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons), even if there are no
matches in the right table (Orders).
Now we want to list all the orders with containing persons - if any, from the tables above.
Now we want to list all the persons and their orders, and all the orders with their persons.
The FULL JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons), and all the rows from
the right table (Orders). If there are rows in "Persons" that do not have matches in "Orders", or if
there are rows in "Orders" that do not have matches in "Persons", those rows will be listed as
well.
Notice that each SELECT statement within the UNION must have the same number of columns.
The columns must also have similar data types. Also, the columns in each SELECT statement
must be in the same order.
Note: The UNION operator selects only distinct values by default. To allow duplicate values,
use UNION ALL.
PS: The column names in the result-set of a UNION are always equal to the column names in the
first SELECT statement in the UNION.
"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
Now we want to list all the different employees in Norway and USA.
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 will be listed. The
UNION command selects only distinct values.
Result
E_Name
Hansen, Ola
Svendson, Tove
Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari
Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark
Svendson, Stephen
Scott, Stephen
The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a complete reference of all
the data types available in MS Access, MySQL, and SQL Server, go to our complete Data Types
reference.
The P_Id column is of type int and will hold a number. The LastName, FirstName, Address, and
City columns are of type varchar with a maximum length of 255 characters.
The empty table can be filled with data with the INSERT INTO statement.
The following SQL enforces the "P_Id" column and the "LastName" column to not accept
NULL values:
The UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints both provide a guarantee for uniqueness for a
column or set of columns.
Note that you can have many UNIQUE constraints per table, but only one PRIMARY KEY
constraint per table.
MySQL:
To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL:
Each table should have a primary key, and each table can have only one primary key.
MySQL:
To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
Note: If you use the ALTER TABLE statement to add a primary key, the primary key column(s)
must already have been declared to not contain NULL values (when the table was first created).
To DROP a PRIMARY KEY Constraint
To drop a PRIMARY KEY constraint, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
Let's illustrate the foreign key with an example. Look at the following two tables:
Note that the "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table points to the "P_Id" column in the "Persons"
table.
The "P_Id" column in the "Persons" table is the PRIMARY KEY in the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table is a FOREIGN KEY in the "Orders" table.
The FOREIGN KEY constraint is used to prevent actions that would destroy link between tables.
The FOREIGN KEY constraint also prevents that invalid data is inserted into the foreign key
column, because it has to be one of the values contained in the table it points to.
MySQL:
To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN KEY constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL:
If you define a CHECK constraint on a single column it allows only certain values for this
column.
If you define a CHECK constraint on a table it can limit the values in certain columns based on
values in other columns in the row.
SQL CHECK Constraint on CREATE TABLE
The following SQL creates a CHECK constraint on the "P_Id" column when the "Persons" table
is created. The CHECK constraint specifies that the column "P_Id" must only include integers
greater than 0.
My SQL:
To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint on multiple
columns, use the following SQL syntax:
The default value will be added to all new records, if no other value is specified.
The DEFAULT constraint can also be used to insert system values, by using functions like
GETDATE():
MySQL:
MySQL:
Data types and ranges for Microsoft Access, MySQL and SQL Server.
Text types:
Note: The values are sorted in the order you enter them.
Number types:
*The integer types have an extra option called UNSIGNED. Normally, the integer goes from an
negative to positive value. Adding the UNSIGNED attribute will move that range up so it starts
at zero instead of a negative number.
Date types:
*Even if DATETIME and TIMESTAMP return the same format, they work very differently. In
an INSERT or UPDATE query, the TIMESTAMP automatically set itself to the current date and
time. TIMESTAMP also accepts various formats, like YYYYMMDDHHMMSS,
YYMMDDHHMMSS, YYYYMMDD, or YYMMDD.
Unicode strings:
Binary types:
Number types:
Date types:
Tip: The aggregate functions and the scalar functions will be explained in details in the next
chapters.
The AVG() Function
The AVG() function returns the average value of a numeric column.
OrderAverage
950
Now we want to find the customers that have an OrderPrice value higher than the average
OrderPrice value.
The COUNT() function returns the number of rows that matches a specified criteria.
The COUNT(column_name) function returns the number of values (NULL values will not be
counted) of the specified column:
The COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) function returns the number of distinct values of the
specified column:
Note: COUNT(DISTINCT) works with ORACLE and Microsoft SQL Server, but not with
Microsoft Access.
The result of the SQL statement above will be 2, because the customer Nilsen has made 2 orders
in total:
CustomerNilsen
2
NumberOfOrders
6
NumberOfCustomers
3
which is the number of unique customers (Hansen, Nilsen, and Jensen) in the "Orders" table.
LastOrderPrice
100
LargestOrderPrice
2000
SmallestOrderPrice
100
OrderTotal
5700
Now we want to find the total sum (total order) of each customer.
Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Hansen 2000
Nilsen 1700
Jensen 2000
Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Hansen 5700
Nilsen 5700
Hansen 5700
Hansen 5700
Jensen 5700
Nilsen 5700
Explanation of why the above SELECT statement cannot be used: The SELECT statement
above has two columns specified (Customer and SUM(OrderPrice). The "SUM(OrderPrice)"
returns a single value (that is the total sum of the "OrderPrice" column), while "Customer"
returns 6 values (one value for each row in the "Orders" table). This will therefore not give us the
correct result. However, you have seen that the GROUP BY statement solves this problem.
Now we want to find if any of the customers have a total order of less than 2000.
Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Nilsen 1700
Now we want to find if the customers "Hansen" or "Jensen" have a total order of more than
1500.
Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Hansen 2000
Jensen 2000
Now we want to select the content of the "LastName" and "FirstName" columns above, and
convert the "LastName" column to uppercase.
LastName FirstName
HANSEN Ola
SVENDSON Tove
PETTERSEN Kari
Now we want to select the content of the "LastName" and "FirstName" columns above, and
convert the "LastName" column to lowercase.
LastName FirstName
hansen Ola
svendson Tove
pettersen Kari
Parameter Description
column_name Required. The field to extract characters from
start Required. Specifies the starting position (starts at 1)
length Optional. The number of characters to return. If omitted, the MID()
function returns the rest of the text
Now we want to extract the first four characters of the "City" column above.
SmallCity
Sand
Sand
Stav
Now we want to select the length of the values in the "Address" column above.
LengthOfAddress
12
9
9
Parameter Description
column_name Required. The field to round.
decimals Required. Specifies the number of decimals to be returned.
Now we want to display the product name and the price rounded to the nearest integer.
ProductName UnitPrice
Jarlsberg 10
Mascarpone 33
Gorgonzola 16
Now we want to display the products and prices per today's date.
Now we want to display the products and prices per today's date (with today's date displayed in
the following format "YYYY-MM-DD").
or
or
SELECT column_name
FROM table_name AS table_alias
or
or
or
SELECT column_name(s)
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_table_name
SQL Hosting
If you want your web site to be able to store and display data from a database, your web server
should have access to a database system that uses the SQL language.
If your web server will be hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you will have to look for
SQL hosting plans.
The most common SQL hosting databases are MySQL, MS SQL Server, and MS Access.
You can have SQL databases on both Windows and Linux/UNIX operating systems.
MS SQL Server
MySQL
Imp Points:
Microsoft's ISNULL() function is used to specify how we want to treat NULL values.
The NVL(), IFNULL(), and COALESCE() functions can also be used to achieve the same result.
Below, if "UnitsOnOrder" is NULL it will not harm the calculation, because ISNULL() returns a
zero if the value is NULL:
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:
Another view in the Northwind sample database selects every product in the "Products" table
with a unit price higher than the average unit price:
We can also add a condition to the query. Now we want to see the total sale only for the category
"Beverages":
Now we want to add the "Category" column to the "Current Product List" view. We will update
the view with the following SQL: