DATABASE LAB

Lab2: SQL Functions

Ruba Sultan
SQL FUNCTIONS
 Functions are a very powerful feature of SQL can
be used to do the following:

 Perform calculations on data

 Modify individual data items
 Manipulate output for groups of rows
 Format dates and numbers for display
 Convert column data types

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TWO TYPES OF SQL FUNCTIONS2

 There are two distinct types of SQL Functions

Single Row Function (SRF)
Multiple Row Function (MRF)

2 Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL P3-4. Neena Kochhar, Ellen Gravina and Priya Nathan, July 1999
SINGLE ROW FUNCTION

 Single Row Function Categories3

Character Functions
Number Functions

Date Functions

Conversion Functions

General Functions

3 Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL P3-6 Neena Kochhar, Ellen Gravina and Priya Nathan, July 1999
CHARACTER FUNCTIONS4

4 Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL P3-7 Neena Kochhar, Ellen Gravina and Priya Nathan, July 1999
 CHARACTER FUNCTIONS

Character Functions
LOWER (column | expression)
UPPER (column | expression)
INITCAP (column | expression)
CONCAT(column1|expression1,column2|expression2)
SUBSTR (column , m ,[n])
LENGTH (column | expression)
INSTR (column | expression , m)
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LPAD (column , n , ‘string’)

QUESTIONS

 Question1
Write a query to display all employee’s names and
their jobs.
Note: format must be as the following example

Blake is a manager
 Question2
Write a query to display first name and three letters
of last name for all employees in department 90.

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QUESTIONS

 Question3
Write a query to display last three letters of
employee’s names.

 Question4
Write a query to display all employee’s information
whose their names contain 4 letters.

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 NUMBER FUNCTIONS

Number Functions
ROUND (column | expression , n)
TRUNC (column | expression , n)
MOD (m , n)

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EXAMPLES

SELECT
ROUND(65.723,2) , ROUND(65.723),
ROUND(65.723,-1), ROUND(65.723,-2)
FROM dual;

SELECT
TRUNC(65.723,2) , TRUNC(65.723),
TRUNC(65.723,-1), TRUNC(65.723,-2)
FROM dual;
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DUAL TABLE

 DUAL table owned by the user SYSTEM and can be

accessed by all users5.
 It contains one column DUMMY and one row with the
value X5.
 The DUAL table is useful when you want to return a
value once only5.
 It can be used to test function on expressions.

 It can be used to display current date using

SYSDATE.

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5 Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL P3-17 Neena Kochhar, Ellen Gravina and Priya Nathan, July 1999
ARITHMETIC WITH DATES6
 Add or subtract a number to or from a date for a
resultant date value.
 Subtract two dates to find the number of days
between those dates.
 Add hours to a date by dividing the number of hours
by 24.

Operation Result Description

date + number Date Adds a number of days to a date
date - number Date Subtracts a number of days from a date
date - date Number of days Subtracts one date from another
date + number/24 Date Adds a number of hours to a12date
QUESTIONS
 Question5
Write a query to display employee's name,
numbers and the number of weeks employed for
all employees who earns more than $5750.

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DATE FUNCTIONS

Date Functions
MONTHS_BETWEEN (date1,date2)
ADD_MONTHS (date ,n)
NEXT_DAY( date, ‘char’)
LAST_DAY (date)

 The default date format DD-MON-YY7

 SYSDATE is a function returning date and time.

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QUESTIONS

 Question6
Write a query to display the date of the first FRIDAY.

 Question7
Write a query to display your age in months.

 Question8
Write a query to display last date of the current
month.

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GENERAL FUNCTIONS

 NVL Function
 U sed to converts NULL into actual values.
 NVL (column | expression , expression)

 Question9
Write a query to display employee’s first names and
their annual income.

Note: For employees who have unknown commission

consider it to be 0.

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GENERAL FUNCTIONS (CONT.)

 DECODE Function
 It has similar capability as CASE or IF ELSE statements.
 DECODE syntax

DECODE (column | expression ,

search1 , result1,
search2 , result2,….,
default)

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 GENERAL FUNCTIONS (CONT.)

 Question10
Write a query to display all employee’s names, their
salaries, and situation.
Note: situation of employee known form salary value.

Salary Situation
800 Low
3000 Moderate

5000 High
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Otherwise Unknown
QUESTIONS
 Question11
List ten functions other than listed in the
slides. Gives an example of each one.

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JOIN
 Join types
 Equijoin
 Non – Equijoin
 Outer Join
 Self Join
 To join n tables together you need a minimum of (n-1)
join conditions.
 Are used to obtain data from more than one table.
 If the same column appears in more than one table, the
column name must be prefixed with the table name.

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CARTESIAN PRODUCT9
 Cartesian product formed when
 Join condition is omitted
 Join condition is invalid
 To avoid a Cartesian product, always include a valid
join condition in a WHERE clause.

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EQUIJOIN
 Also called simple joins or inner joins.

SELECT
e.first_name,d.department_id,d.department_name

FROM employees e, deptartments d

WHERE e.department_id=d.department_id;

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EQUIJOIN

Notes:
• Use table prefixes to qualify column names that
are in multiple tables.
• improve performance by using table prefixes.
• distinguish columns that have identical names
but reside in different tables by using column
aliases.

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QUESTIONS
 Question12
Write a query to display all employee’s first
names, their department’s names and their
job title for all employees in department 30
and 80.

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OUTER JOIN
SELECT table1.column,table2.column
FROM table1 , table2
WHERE table1.column = table2.column(+)
Deficiency of Data
 Question13
Write a query to display employee’s first
names, their last names, departments
numbers, and names of their departments.

Note: 25
Include departments that have no employees
SELF JOIN
 This type occurs when join occurred to the table itself.

 Question13
Write a query to display employee’s numbers,
their names, their managers numbers and
their managers names.

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