SQL BASICS

The SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

The SELECT DISTINCT statement is used to return only distinct (different)
values.

Inside a table, a column often contains many duplicate values; and

sometimes you only want to list the different (distinct) values.

Syntax:

SELECT DISTINCT column1, column2, ...

FROM table_name;

For example:

select distinct working_area from AGENTS;

select distinct AGENT_CODE , AGENT_NAME , GENDER, AGE, WORKING_AREA ,

SALARY,
COMMISSION,PHONE_NO ,COUNTRY
FROM AGENTS;

select distinct *
FROM AGENTS

The following SQL statement lists the number of different (distinct) customer
countries:

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT working_area) FROM AGENTS;

The SQL WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is used to filter records.

WHERE Syntax
SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;
The WHERE clause is not only used in SELECT statements, it is also used
in UPDATE, DELETE, etc.!
Example
SELECT * from AGENTS where working_area='Bangalore';
SELECT AGENT_CODE , AGENT_NAME from AGENTS where working_area='Bangalore'

SELECT* FROM AGENTS WHERE COMMISSION=0.15

The SQL AND, OR and NOT Operators

The AND and OR operators are used to filter records based on more than
one condition:

 The AND operator displays a record if all the conditions separated

by AND are TRUE.
 The OR operator displays a record if any of the conditions separated
by OR is TRUE.
 The NOT operator displays a record if the condition(s) is NOT TRUE.

Example
select * from CUSTOMER where GRADE> 2 AND OPENING_AMT> 6000
SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER WHERE GRADE> 2 OR OPENING_AMT> 6000
select * from CUSTOMER where CUST_CITY='Bangalore' and
CUST_COUNTRY='India'
select * from CUSTOMER where CUST_CITY='Bangalore' or CUST_COUNTRY='India'
SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER WHERE NOT CUST_CITY='Bangalore';

SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER

WHERE NOT CUST_CITY='Bangalore' AND NOT CUST_COUNTRY='India';

The SQL LIKE Operator

The LIKE operator is used in a WHERE clause to search for a specified pattern in

a column.

There are two wildcards often used in conjunction with the LIKE operator:

  The percent sign (%) represents zero, one, or multiple characters

  The underscore sign (_) represents one, single character

A)% wildcard character examples

SELECT first_name,last_name,phone FROM contacts WHERE last_name LIKE 'St%'
-- whose last names start with 'St'

SELECT first_name,last_name,phone FROM contacts WHERE last_name LIKE '%er'

-- whose last names end with the string 'er'
The following example uses the NOT LIKE operator
SELECT first_name,last_name,phone FROM contacts WHERE phone NOT LIKE '+1%'
-- to find contacts whose phone numbers do not start with '+1':

B) _ wildcard character examples

The following example finds the phone numbers and emails of contacts
whose first names have the following pattern 'Je_i':

SELECT first_name,last_name,email,phone FROM contacts WHERE first_name

LIKE 'Je_i'

The pattern 'Je_i' matches any string that starts with 'Je', followed by one
character, and then followed by 'i' e.g., Jeri or Jeni, but not Jenni

C) Mixed wildcard characters example

the following statement finds contacts whose first names that have "r" in the
second position:

SELECT first_name,last_name,email,phone FROM contacts wHERE

first_name LIKE '_r%';

Oracle ORDER BY Clause

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set in ascending or
descending order.
The ORDER BY keyword sorts the records in ascending order by default. To
sort the records in descending order, use the DESC keyword.
Syntax:

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2, ... ASC|DESC;

SELECT name,address,credit_limit FROM customers ORDER BY name ASC;

SELECT name,address,credit_limit FROM customers ORDER BY name;
SELECT name,address,credit_limit FROM customers ORDER BY name DESC;
SELECT first_name,last_name FROM contacts ORDER BY first_name,last_name
SELECT first_name,last_name FROM contacts ORDER BY 1,2
SELECT first_name,last_name FROM contacts ORDER BY last_name,first_name
 SELECT first_name,last_name FROM contacts ORDER BY 2,1
SELECT first_name,last_name FROM contacts ORDER BY 2 DESC ,1

Sorting by date example

This example uses the ORDER BY clause to sort orders by order date:

SELECT order_id, customer_id, status, order_date fROM orders ORDER BY

order_date DESC;

IS NULL

NULL is
special. It is a marker for missing information or the information is
not applicable.

NULL is special in the sense that it is not a value like a number, character
string, or datetime,

you cannot compare it with any other values like zero (0) or an empty string
(”).

IS NULL EXAMPLE

The following query returns all sales orders that do not have a responsible
salesman:

SELECT * FROM orders

WHERE salesman_id IS NULL -- YOU SHOULD NOT USE salesman_id=null

IS NOT NULL

The operator IS NOT NULL returns true if the expression or value in the

column is not null. Otherwise, it returns false.

IS NOT NULL EXAMPLE

the following example returns all sales orders which have a responsible
salesman:

SELECT * FROM orders

WHERE salesman_id IS NOT NULL