Database

SQL
Restricting and Sorting Data

Pascal TUFENKJI 1 Database SQL

 Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should
be able to do the following:
• Limit the rows retrieved by a query
• Sort the rows retrieved by a query

Pascal TUFENKJI 2 Database SQL

 Limiting Rows Using a Selection
“… retrieve all
employees in
department 10”

Pascal TUFENKJI 3 Database SQL

 Limiting Rows Selected
• Restrict the rows returned by using the
WHERE clause
SELECT [DISTINCT] {*| column [alias],…}
FROM table
WHERE condition(s)];

• The WHERE clause follows the FROM

clause.

Pascal TUFENKJI 4 Database SQL

 Using the WHERE Clause

SELECT ename, job, deptno FROM emp

WHERE job = 'CLERK';

Pascal TUFENKJI 5 Database SQL

 Character Strings and Dates
• Character strings and date values are enclosed in
single quotation marks.
• Character values are case sensitive and date values are
format sensitive.
• The default date format is different from one
database to another

Database Date format

PostgreSQL & MySQL & SQLite YYYY-MM-DD
Oracle DD-MON-YY
SQL Server & MS Access MM/DD/YYYY
(depending on the Regional Options)
Pascal TUFENKJI 6 Database SQL
 Character Strings and Dates

SELECT ename, job, deptno FROM emp

WHERE deptno = 10;

SELECT ename, job, deptno FROM emp

WHERE job = 'CLERK';

SELECT ename, job, deptno FROM emp

WHERE hiredate = '1981-11-17';

Pascal TUFENKJI 7 Database SQL

 Comparison Operators
Operator Meaning
= Equal to
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal to
< Less than
<= Less than or equal to
<>
Not equal to
!=

Pascal TUFENKJI 8 Database SQL

 Using the Comparison Operators

SELECT ename, sal, comm FROM emp

WHERE sal < comm;

Pascal TUFENKJI 9 Database SQL

 Using the Comparison Operators
SELECT empno, ename, job, mgr FROM emp
WHERE mgr <> 7839;

Null values cannot be compared to any other values

Pascal TUFENKJI 10 Database SQL
 Other Comparison Operators

Operator Meaning
BETWEEN
Between two values (inclusive)
…AND…
IN (list) Match any of a list values
LIKE Match a character pattern
IS NULL Is a null value

Pascal TUFENKJI 11 Database SQL

 Using the BETWEEN Operator
• Use the BETWEEN operator to display
rows based on a range of values.
SELECT ename, sal FROM emp
WHERE sal BETWEEN 1000 AND 5000;

Lower limit Higher limit

Pascal TUFENKJI 12 Database SQL

 Using the BETWEEN Operator
• The BETWEEN operator can also be used with date
and character datatypes.
SELECT ename, hiredate FROM emp WHERE hiredate
BETWEEN '1981-01-01' AND '1981-12-31';

SELECT ename FROM emp

WHERE ename BETWEEN 'A' AND 'D';

Pascal TUFENKJI 13 Database SQL

 Using the IN Operator
• Use the IN operator to test for values
in a list.
SELECT empno, ename, sal, mgr FROM emp
WHERE mgr IN (7902, 7566, 7788);

Pascal TUFENKJI 14 Database SQL

 Using the IN Operator
• The IN operator can be used with any
datatype.
• If characters or dates are used in the list,
they must be enclosed in single quotation
marks ('').
SELECT empno, ename, mgr, deptno FROM emp
WHERE ename IN ('FORD', 'ALLEN');

Pascal TUFENKJI 15 Database SQL

 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.
Note: In MS Access, the special character
❑ % is replaced by *
❑ _ is replaced by ?

Pascal TUFENKJI 16 Database SQL

 Using the LIKE Operator
• LIKE is case sensitive in some databases
SELECT ename FROM emp
WHERE ename LIKE 'S%';

• LIKE can be used as a shortcut for

some BETWEEN comparisons
SELECT ename, hiredate FROM emp
WHERE hiredate LIKE '1981%';

Pascal TUFENKJI 17 Database SQL

 Using the LIKE Operator
• You can combine pattern-matching
characters.
SELECT ename FROM emp
WHERE ename LIKE '_A%';

Pascal TUFENKJI 18 Database SQL

 Using the IS NULL Operator
• Test for null values with the IS NULL
operator.

SELECT ename, mgr FROM emp

WHERE mgr IS NULL;

Pascal TUFENKJI 19 Database SQL

 Logical Operators

Operator Meaning
Returns TRUE if both
AND
component conditions are TRUE
Returns TRUE if either
OR
component condition are TRUE
Returns TRUE if the following
NOT
condition is FALSE

Pascal TUFENKJI 20 Database SQL

 Using the AND Operator
AND requires both conditions to be TRUE

SELECT empno, ename, job, sal FROM emp

WHERE sal >= 1100 AND job = 'CLERK';

Pascal TUFENKJI 21 Database SQL

 AND Truth Table
• The following table shows the results of
combining two expressions with AND.

Expression 1 Expression 2 Result

TRUE TRUE TRUE
TRUE FALSE FALSE
FALSE TRUE FALSE
FALSE FALSE FALSE

Pascal TUFENKJI 22 Database SQL

 Using the OR Operator
OR requires either conditions to be TRUE
SELECT empno, ename, job, sal FROM emp
WHERE sal >= 1100 OR job = 'CLERK';

Pascal TUFENKJI 23 Database SQL

 OR Truth Table
• The following table shows the results of
combining two expressions with OR.

Expression 1 Expression 2 Result

TRUE TRUE TRUE
TRUE FALSE TRUE
FALSE TRUE TRUE
FALSE FALSE FALSE

Pascal TUFENKJI 24 Database SQL

 Using the NOT Operator

SELECT ename, job FROM emp

WHERE job NOT IN ('CLERK','MANAGER','ANALYST');

Pascal TUFENKJI 25 Database SQL

 Using the NOT Operator
• The NOT operator can also be used with
other SQL operators, such as
BETWEEN, LIKE, and NULL.

… WHERE NOT job IN ('CLERK','MANAGER','ANALYST');

… WHERE sal NOT BETWEEN 1000 AND 1500;
… WHERE ename NOT LIKE '%A%';
… WHERE comm is NOT NULL;

Pascal TUFENKJI 26 Database SQL

 Rules of Precedence
Order Evaluated Operator
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

Override rules of precedence by using

parentheses.
Pascal TUFENKJI 27 Database SQL
 Rules of Precedence

SELECT ename, job, sal FROM emp

WHERE job = 'SALESMAN'
OR job = 'PRESIDENT'
AND sal > 1500;

Pascal TUFENKJI 28 Database SQL

 Rules of Precedence
• Use parentheses to force priority
SELECT ename, job, sal FROM emp
WHERE (job = 'SALESMAN'
OR job = 'PRESIDENT')
AND sal > 1500;

Pascal TUFENKJI 29 Database SQL

 ORDER BY Clause
• Sort rows with the ORDER BY clause
– ASC: ascending order (default)
– DESC: descending order
• The ORDER BY clause comes last in the
SELECT statement.

Pascal TUFENKJI 30 Database SQL

 ORDER BY Clause
SELECT ename, job, deptno, hiredate
FROM emp
ORDER BY hiredate;

Pascal TUFENKJI 31 Database SQL

 Sorting in Descending Order
SELECT ename, job, deptno, hiredate
FROM emp
ORDER BY hiredate DESC;

Pascal TUFENKJI 32 Database SQL

 Sorting by Column Alias
SELECT empno, ename, job, sal*12 as annsal
FROM emp
ORDER BY annsal;

Pascal TUFENKJI 33 Database SQL

 Sorting by Multiple Columns
• The order of ORDER BY list is the
order of sort.
SELECT ename, deptno, sal
FROM emp
ORDER BY deptno, sal DESC;

Pascal TUFENKJI 34 Database SQL

 Sorting by Multiple Columns
SELECT empno, ename, job, deptno
FROM emp
ORDER BY job DESC, ename;

You can sort by a column that is not in the SELECT list.

Pascal TUFENKJI 35 Database SQL
 DISTINCT & ORDER BY Clause
• The DISTINCT keyword eliminates the
duplicates rows and sets the columns in an
ascending order automatically.

• When using the SELECT DISTINCT, the

sorting of the query is the order of the
columns, unless it’s specified differently in
the ORDER BY clause.

• ORDER BY items must appear in the select

list if SELECT DISTINCT is specified.

Pascal TUFENKJI 36 Database SQL

 DISTINCT & ORDER BY Clause
SELECT distinct job, ename FROM emp;

SELECT distinct job, ename FROM emp

ORDER BY ename, job;

Pascal TUFENKJI 37 Database SQL

 DISTINCT & ORDER BY Clause
SELECT distinct job, ename FROM emp
ORDER BY deptno;

SELECT distinct job, ename, deptno FROM emp

ORDER BY deptno;

Pascal TUFENKJI 38 Database SQL

 Limiting the results
• To limit the number of rows returned by a query, you
often use the LIMIT clause.

• However, the LIMIT clause is not a SQL-standard.

• To conform with the SQL standard, PostgreSQL

provides the FETCH clause to retrieve a portion of
rows returned by a query.

• Note that the FETCH clause was introduced in

SQL:2008.

Pascal TUFENKJI 39 Database SQL

 FETCH & OFFSET
• The following illustrates the syntax of the
row limiting clause:

• In this syntax:
– ROW and FIRST are synonymous with ROWS and
NEXT respectively.
– The start is an integer that must be zero or positive.
By default, it is zero if the OFFSET clause is not
specified.
– The row_count is one or higher. By default, the value of
row_count is one if it is not specified.
Pascal TUFENKJI 40 Database SQL
 FETCH & OFFSET
• The following query returns the first row of the film
sorted by title

• The following statement returns the next five films

after the first five films sorted by the title:

Pascal TUFENKJI 41 Database SQL

 Limiting the results
• Limiting results in a query differ from one
database to another

Database Keyword
PostgreSQL Limit x Offset y
MySQL Limit x, y
SQL Server Top x
Oracle Rownum

Pascal TUFENKJI 42 Database SQL

 LIMIT & OFFSET Clause in Postgres
• If a LIMIT count is given, no more than
that many rows will be returned.

• OFFSET says to skip that many rows

before beginning to return rows.

Pascal TUFENKJI 43 Database SQL

 LIMIT & OFFSET Clause in Postgres

[LIMIT { number | ALL } ] [ OFFSET number ];

• LIMIT ALL is the same as omitting the

LIMIT clause.

• OFFSET 0 is the same as omitting the

OFFSET clause

Pascal TUFENKJI 44 Database SQL

 LIMIT Clause
SELECT empno, ename FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

SELECT empno, ename FROM emp

ORDER BY empno limit 5;

Pascal TUFENKJI 45 Database SQL

 OFFSET Clause
SELECT empno, ename FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

SELECT empno, ename FROM emp

ORDER BY empno offset 5;

Pascal TUFENKJI 46 Database SQL

 Both OFFSET and LIMIT Clause
SELECT empno, ename FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

SELECT empno, ename FROM emp

ORDER BY empno limit 5 offset 5;

Pascal TUFENKJI 47 Database SQL

 TOP and Offset rows in SQL Server
• Unfortunately, TOP can not be used in the
same query or sub-query as a OFFSET.
SELECT TOP 10 * FROM `your_table`;

This will display the first 10 results from the database.

SELECT TOP 50 percent * FROM `your_table`;

This will display half the results from the database.

SELECT * FROM `your_table` OFFSET 5 ROWS;

This will omit 5 results from the database.

Pascal TUFENKJI 48 Database SQL

 TOP
SELECT empno, ename FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

SELECT TOP 5 empno, ename FROM emp

ORDER BY empno;

Pascal TUFENKJI 49 Database SQL

 OFFSET ROWS
SELECT empno, ename FROM emp
ORDER BY empno;

SELECT empno, ename FROM emp

ORDER BY empno OFFSET 5 ROWS;

Pascal TUFENKJI 50 Database SQL

 LIMIT in MySQL
• You can use it to show the first X number of results, or to
show a range from X - Y results.
• It is phrased as Limit X, Y and included at the end of your
query.
• X is the starting point (remember the first record is 0)
and Y is the duration (how many records to display).

SELECT * FROM `your_table` LIMIT 0, 10;

This will display the first 10 results from the database.

SELECT * FROM `your_table` LIMIT 5, 5;

This will show records 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10

Pascal TUFENKJI 51 Database SQL

 FETCH in Oracle
• The following illustrates the syntax of the
row limiting clause:

Pascal TUFENKJI 52 Database SQL

 FETCH in Oracle
• OFFSET clause
– If the offset is negative, then it is treated
as 0.
– If the offset is NULL or greater than the
number of rows returned by the query,
then no row is returned.
– If the offset includes a fraction, then the
fractional portion is truncated.

Pascal TUFENKJI 53 Database SQL

 FETCH in Oracle
• FETCH clause
– The FETCH clause specifies the number of rows or
percentage of rows to return.
– you can use the keyword ROW instead of ROWS,
FIRST instead of NEXT
– The ONLY returns exactly the number of rows or
percentage of rows after FETCH NEXT (or
FIRST).
– The WITH TIES returns additional rows with the
same sort key as the last row fetched. Note that
if you use WITH TIES, you must specify an
ORDER BY clause in the query. If you don’t, the
query will not return the additional rows.
Pascal TUFENKJI 54 Database SQL
 FETCH in Oracle
SELECT val
FROM rownum_order_test
ORDER BY val DESC
FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS ONLY;

Pascal TUFENKJI 55 Database SQL

 FETCH in Oracle
SELECT val
FROM rownum_order_test
ORDER BY val DESC
FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS WITH TIES;

Pascal TUFENKJI 56 Database SQL

 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 conditions
– Apply the logical AND, OR, and NOT operators
• Use the ORDER BY clause to sort rows of output:

SELECT [DISTINCT] {*| column [alias],…}

FROM table
[WHERE condition(s)]
[ORDER BY {column, expr, alias} {ASC|DESC]]
[LIMIT { number | ALL } ] [ OFFSET number ];

Pascal TUFENKJI 57 Database SQL