1

Writing Basic
SQL SELECT Statements

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

do the following:
• List the capabilities of SQL SELECT statements
• Execute a basic SELECT statement
• Differentiate between SQL statements and
iSQL*Plus commands

1-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Capabilities of SQL SELECT Statements

Projection Selection

Table 1 Table 1

Join

Table 1 Table 2

1-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Basic SELECT Statement

SELECT
SELECT *|{[DISTINCT]
*|{[DISTINCT] column|expression
column|expression [alias],...}
[alias],...}
FROM
FROM table;
table;

• SELECT identifies what columns

• FROM identifies which table

1-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Selecting All Columns

SELECT *
FROM departments;

1-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Selecting Specific Columns

SELECT department_id, location_id

FROM departments;

1-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Writing SQL Statements

• SQL statements are not case sensitive.

• SQL statements can be on one or more lines.
• Keywords cannot be abbreviated or split
across lines.
• Clauses are usually placed on separate lines.
• Indents are used to enhance readability.

1-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Column Heading Defaults

• iSQL*Plus:
– Default heading justification: Center
– Default heading display: Uppercase
• SQL*Plus:
– Character and Date column headings are left-
justified
– Number column headings are right-justified
– Default heading display: Uppercase

1-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Arithmetic Expressions

Create expressions with number and date data by

using arithmetic operators.

Operator Description

+ Add

- Subtract

* Multiply

/ Divide

1-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Using Arithmetic Operators

SELECT last_name, salary, salary + 300

FROM employees;

1-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Operator Precedence

_
// ++ _
**
• Multiplication and division take priority over
addition and subtraction.
• Operators of the same priority are evaluated from
left to right.
• Parentheses are used to force prioritized
evaluation and to clarify statements.

1-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Operator Precedence

SELECT last_name, salary, 12*salary+100

FROM employees;

1-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Using Parentheses

SELECT last_name, salary, 12*(salary+100)

FROM employees;

1-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Defining a Null Value

• A null is a value that is unavailable, unassigned,

unknown, or inapplicable.
• A null is not the same as zero or a blank space.
SELECT last_name, job_id, salary, commission_pct
FROM employees;

1-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Null Values
in Arithmetic Expressions

Arithmetic expressions containing a null value

evaluate to null.
SELECT last_name, 12*salary*commission_pct
FROM employees;

1-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Defining a Column Alias

A column alias:
• Renames a column heading
• Is useful with calculations
• Immediately follows the column name - there can
also be the optional AS keyword between the
column name and alias
• Requires double quotation marks if it contains
spaces or special characters or is case sensitive

1-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Using Column Aliases

SELECT last_name AS name, commission_pct comm

FROM employees;

SELECT last_name "Name", salary*12 "Annual Salary"

FROM employees;

1-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Concatenation Operator

A concatenation operator:
• Concatenates columns or character strings to
other columns
• Is represented by two vertical bars (||)
• Creates a resultant column that is a character
expression

1-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Using the Concatenation Operator

SELECT last_name||job_id AS "Employees"

FROM employees;

1-19 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Literal Character Strings

• A literal is a character, a number, or a date

included in the SELECT list.
• Date and character literal values must be enclosed
within single quotation marks.
• Each character string is output once for each
row returned.

1-20 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Using Literal Character Strings

SELECT last_name ||' is a '||job_id

AS "Employee Details"
FROM employees;

1-21 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Duplicate Rows

The default display of queries is all rows, including

duplicate rows.
SELECT
SELECT department_id
department_id
FROM
FROM employees;
employees;

1-22 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Eliminating Duplicate Rows

Eliminate duplicate rows by using the DISTINCT

keyword in the SELECT clause.
SELECT DISTINCT department_id
FROM employees;

1-23 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 SQL and iSQL*Plus Interaction

SQL statements
iSQL*Plus Oracle
Internet server
Browser

iSQL*Plus Query results

commands

Formatted report

Client

1-24 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 SQL Statements Versus
iSQL*Plus Commands
SQL iSQL*Plus
• A language • An environment
• ANSI standard • Oracle proprietary
• Keyword cannot be • Keywords can be
abbreviated abbreviated
• Statements manipulate • Commands do not allow
data and table definitions manipulation of values in
in the database the database
• Runs on a browser
• Centrally loaded, does not
have to be implemented
on each machine
SQL iSQL*Plus
statements commands

1-25 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Overview of iSQL*Plus

After you log into iSQL*Plus, you can:

• Describe the table structure
• Edit your SQL statement
• Execute SQL from iSQL*Plus
• Save SQL statements to files and append SQL
statements to files
• Execute statements stored in saved files
• Load commands from a text file into the iSQL*Plus
Edit window

1-26 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Logging In to iSQL*Plus

From your Windows browser environment:

1-27 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 The iSQL*Plus Environment
10 8 9

1 7

2 3 4 5

1-28 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Displaying Table Structure

Use the iSQL*Plus DESCRIBE command to display

the structure of a table.

DESC[RIBE]
DESC[RIBE] tablename
tablename

1-29 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Displaying Table Structure

DESCRIBE
DESCRIBE employees
employees

1-30 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Interacting with Script Files

SELECT last_name, hire_date, salary

FROM employees; 1

1-31 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Interacting with Script Files

D:\temp\emp_sql.htm

SELECT last_name, hire_date, salary 2

FROM employees;

1-32 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Interacting with Script Files

DESCRIBE employees
SELECT first_name, last_name, job_id 1
FROM employees;

3 2

1-33 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Write a SELECT statement that:
– Returns all rows and columns from a table
– Returns specified columns from a table
– Uses column aliases to give descriptive column
headings
• Use the iSQL*Plus environment to write, save, and
execute SQL statements and iSQL*Plus commands.
SELECT
SELECT *|{[DISTINCT]
*|{[DISTINCT] column|expression
column|expression [alias],...}
[alias],...}
FROM
FROM table;
table;

1-34 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

 Practice 1 Overview

This practice covers the following topics:

• Selecting all data from different tables
• Describing the structure of tables
• Performing arithmetic calculations and specifying
column names
• Using iSQL*Plus

1-35 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights

1-40 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights