Structured Query Language

Overview

What is SQL?

SQL (pronounced "ess-que-el") stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is used to communicate with a database. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), it is the standard language for relational database management systems. SQL statements are used to perform tasks such as update data on a database, or retrieve data from a database. Some common relational database management systems that use SQL are: Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Ingres, etc. Although most database systems use SQL, most of them also have their own additional proprietary extensions that are usually only used on their system. However, the standard SQL commands such as "Select", "Insert", "Update", "Delete", "Create", and "Drop" can be used to accomplish almost everything that one needs to do with a database. This tutorial will provide you with the instruction on the basics of each of these commands as well as allow you to put them to practice using the SQL Interpreter.

Tables

A relational database system contains one or more objects called tables. The data or information for the database are stored in these tables. Tables are uniquely identified by their names and are comprised of columns and rows. Columns contain the column name, data type, and any other attributes for the column. Rows contain the records or data for the columns. Here is a sample table called "weather".

city, state, high, and low are the columns. The rows contain the data for this table:

weather

city	state	high	low
Phoenix	Arizona	105	90
Tucson	Arizona	101	92
Flagstaff	Arizona	88	69
San Diego	California	77	60
Albuquerque	New Mexico	80	72

Retrieving Data

Basic Select

In a relational database, data is stored in tables. An example table would relate Social Security Number, Name, and Address:

EmployeeAddressTable
SSN	FirstName	LastName	Address	City	State
512687458	Joe	Smith	83 First Street	Howard	Ohio
758420012	Mary	Scott	842 Vine Ave.	Losantiville	Ohio
102254896	Sam	Jones	33 Elm St.	Paris	New York
876512563	Sarah	Ackerman	440 U.S. 110	Upton	Michigan

Now, let's say you want to see the address of each employee. Use the SELECT statement, like so:

SELECT FirstName, LastName, Address, City, State
FROM EmployeeAddressTable;

The following is the results of your query of the database:

First Name	Last Name	Address	City	State
Joe	Smith	83 First Street	Howard	Ohio
Mary	Scott	842 Vine Ave.	Losantiville	Ohio
Sam	Jones	33 Elm St.	Paris	New York
Sarah	Ackerman	440 U.S. 110	Upton	Michigan

To explain what you just did, you asked for the all of data in the EmployeeAddressTable, and specifically, you asked for the columns called FirstName, LastName, Address, City, and State. Note that column names and table names do not have spaces...they must be typed as one word; and that the statement ends with a semicolon (;). The general form for a SELECT statement, retrieving all of the rows in the table is:

SELECT ColumnName, ColumnName, ...
FROM TableName;

To get all columns of a table without typing all column names, use:

SELECT * FROM TableName;

Each database management system (DBMS) and database software has different methods for logging in to the database and entering SQL commands; see the local computer "guru" to help you get onto the system, so that you can use SQL.

Conditional Selection

To further discuss the SELECT statement, let's look at a new example table (for hypothetical purposes only):

EmployeeStatisticsTable
EmployeeIDNo	Salary	Benefits	Position
010	75000	15000	Manager
105	65000	15000	Manager
152	60000	15000	Manager
215	60000	12500	Manager
244	50000	12000	Staff
300	45000	10000	Staff
335	40000	10000	Staff
400	32000	7500	Entry-Level
441	28000	7500	Entry-Level

Relational Operators

There are six Relational Operators in SQL, and after introducing them, we'll see how they're used:

=	Equal
<> or !=	Not Equal
<	Less Than
>	Greater Than
<=	Less Than or Equal To
>=	Greater Than or Equal To

The WHERE clause is used to specify that only certain rows of the table are displayed, based on the criteria described in that WHERE clause. It is most easily understood by looking at a couple of examples.

If you wanted to see the EMPLOYEEIDNO's of those making at or over $50,000, use the following:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE SALARY >= 50000;

Notice that the >= (greater than or equal to) sign is used, as we wanted to see those who made greater than $50,000, or equal to $50,000, listed together. This displays:

EMPLOYEEIDNO
------------
010
105
152
215
244

The WHERE description, SALARY >= 50000, is known as a condition (an operation which evaluates to True or False). The same can be done for text columns:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE POSITION = 'Manager';

This displays the ID Numbers of all Managers. Generally, with text columns, stick to equal to or not equal to, and make sure that any text that appears in the statement is surrounded by single quotes ('). Note: Position is now an illegal identifier because it is now an unused, but reserved, keyword in the SQL-92 standard.

Aggregate Functions

SQL has five important aggregate functions: SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN, and COUNT. They are called aggregate functions because they summarize the results of a query, rather than listing all of the rows.

• SUM () gives the total of all the rows, satisfying any conditions, of the given column, where the given column is numeric.


• AVG () gives the average of the given column.


• MAX () gives the largest figure in the given column.


• MIN () gives the smallest figure in the given column.


• COUNT(*) gives the number of rows satisfying the conditions.

Looking at the tables at the top of the document, let's look at three examples:

SELECT SUM(SALARY), AVG(SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE;

This query shows the total of all salaries in the table, and the average salary of all of the entries in the table.

SELECT MIN(BENEFITS)
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE POSITION = 'Manager';

This query gives the smallest figure of the Benefits column, of the employees who are Managers, which is 12500.

SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE POSITION = 'Staff';

This query tells you how many employees have Staff status (3).

More Complex Conditions:
Compound Conditions / Logical Operators

The AND operator joins two or more conditions, and displays a row only if that row's data satisfies ALL conditions listed (i.e. all conditions hold true). For example, to display all staff making over $40,000, use:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE SALARY > 40000 AND POSITION = 'Staff';

The OR operator joins two or more conditions, but returns a row if ANY of the conditions listed hold true. To see all those who make less than $40,000 or have less than $10,000 in benefits, listed together, use the following query:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE SALARY < 40000 OR BENEFITS < 10000;

AND & OR can be combined, for example:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE POSITION = 'Manager' AND SALARY > 60000 OR BENEFITS > 12000;

First, SQL finds the rows where the salary is greater than $60,000 and the position column is equal to Manager, then taking this new list of rows, SQL then sees if any of these rows satisfies the previous AND condition or the condition that the Benefits column is greater than $12,000. Subsequently, SQL only displays this second new list of rows, keeping in mind that anyone with Benefits over $12,000 will be included as the OR operator includes a row if either resulting condition is True. Also note that the AND operation is done first.

To generalize this process, SQL performs the AND operation(s) to determine the rows where the AND operation(s) hold true (remember: all of the conditions are true), then these results are used to compare with the OR conditions, and only display those remaining rows where any of the conditions joined by the OR operator hold true (where a condition or result from an AND is paired with another condition or AND result to use to evaluate the OR, which evaluates to true if either value is true). Mathematically, SQL evaluates all of the conditions, then evaluates the AND "pairs", and then evaluates the OR's (where both operators evaluate left to right).

To look at an example, for a given row for which the DBMS is evaluating the SQL statement Where clause to determine whether to include the row in the query result (the whole Where clause evaluates to True), the DBMS has evaluated all of the conditions, and is ready to do the logical comparisons on this result:

True AND False OR True AND True OR False AND False

First simplify the AND pairs:

False OR True OR False

Now do the OR's, left to right:

True OR False
True

The result is True, and the row passes the query conditions. Be sure to see the next section on NOT's, and the order of logical operations. I hope that this section has helped you understand AND's or OR's, as it's a difficult subject to explain briefly.

To perform OR's before AND's, like if you wanted to see a list of employees making a large salary ($50,000) or have a large benefit package ($10,000), and that happen to be a manager, use parentheses:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE POSITION = 'Manager' AND (SALARY > 50000 OR BENEFITS > 10000);

IN & BETWEEN

An easier method of using compound conditions uses IN or BETWEEN. For example, if you wanted to list all managers and staff:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE POSITION IN ('Manager', 'Staff');

or to list those making greater than or equal to $30,000, but less than or equal to $50,000, use:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE SALARY BETWEEN 30000 AND 50000;

To list everyone not in this range, try:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEESTATISTICSTABLE
WHERE SALARY NOT BETWEEN 30000 AND 50000;

Similarly, NOT IN lists all rows excluded from the IN list.

Additionally, NOT's can be thrown in with AND's & OR's, except that NOT is a unary operator (evaluates one condition, reversing its value, whereas, AND's & OR's evaluate two conditions), and that all NOT's are performed before any AND's or OR's.

SQL Order of Logical Operations (each operates from left to right)

1. NOT


2. AND


3. OR

Using LIKE

Look at the EmployeeStatisticsTable, and say you wanted to see all people whose last names started with "S"; try:

SELECT EMPLOYEEIDNO
FROM EMPLOYEEADDRESSTABLE
WHERE LASTNAME LIKE 'S%';

The percent sign (%) is used to represent any possible character (number, letter, or punctuation) or set of characters that might appear after the "S". To find those people with LastName's ending in "S", use '%S', or if you wanted the "S" in the middle of the word, try '%S%'. The '%' can be used for any characters in the same position relative to the given characters. NOT LIKE displays rows not fitting the given description. Other possibilities of using LIKE, or any of these discussed conditionals, are available, though it depends on what DBMS you are using; as usual, consult a manual or your system manager or administrator for the available features on your system, or just to make sure that what you are trying to do is available and allowed. This disclaimer holds for the features of SQL that will be discussed below. This section is just to give you an idea of the possibilities of queries that can be written in SQL.

Joins

In this section, we will only discuss inner joins, and equijoins, as in general, they are the most useful.

Good database design suggests that each table lists data only about a single entity, and detailed information can be obtained in a relational database, by using additional tables, and by using a join.

First, take a look at these example tables:

AntiqueOwners

OwnerID	OwnerLastName	OwnerFirstName
01	Jones	Bill
02	Smith	Bob
15	Lawson	Patricia
21	Akins	Jane
50	Fowler	Sam

Orders

OwnerID	ItemDesired
02	Table
02	Desk
21	Chair
15	Mirror

Antiques

SellerID	BuyerID	Item
01	50	Bed
02	15	Table
15	02	Chair
21	50	Mirror
50	01	Desk
01	21	Cabinet
02	21	Coffee Table
15	50	Chair
01	15	Jewelry Box
02	21	Pottery
21	02	Bookcase
50	01	Plant Stand

Keys

First, let's discuss the concept of keys. A primary key is a column or set of columns that uniquely identifies the rest of the data in any given row. For example, in the AntiqueOwners table, the OwnerID column uniquely identifies that row. This means two things: no two rows can have the same OwnerID, and, even if two owners have the same first and last names, the OwnerID column ensures that the two owners will not be confused with each other, because the unique OwnerID column will be used throughout the database to track the owners, rather than the names.

A foreign key is a column in a table where that column is a primary key of another table, which means that any data in a foreign key column must have corresponding data in the other table where that column is the primary key. In DBMS-speak, this correspondence is known as referential integrity. For example, in the Antiques table, both the BuyerID and SellerID are foreign keys to the primary key of the AntiqueOwners table (OwnerID; for purposes of argument, one has to be an Antique Owner before one can buy or sell any items), as, in both tables, the ID rows are used to identify the owners or buyers and sellers, and that the OwnerID is the primary key of the AntiqueOwners table. In other words, all of this "ID" data is used to refer to the owners, buyers, or sellers of antiques, themselves, without having to use the actual names.

Performing a Join

The purpose of these keys is so that data can be related across tables, without having to repeat data in every table--this is the power of relational databases. For example, you can find the names of those who bought a chair without having to list the full name of the buyer in the Antiques table...you can get the name by relating those who bought a chair with the names in the AntiqueOwners table through the use of the OwnerID, which relates the data in the two tables. To find the names of those who bought a chair, use the following query:

SELECT OWNERLASTNAME, OWNERFIRSTNAME
FROM ANTIQUEOWNERS, ANTIQUES
WHERE BUYERID = OWNERID AND ITEM = 'Chair';

Note the following about this query...notice that both tables involved in the relation are listed in the FROM clause of the statement. In the WHERE clause, first notice that the ITEM = 'Chair' part restricts the listing to those who have bought (and in this example, thereby own) a chair. Secondly, notice how the ID columns are related from one table to the next by use of the BUYERID = OWNERID clause. Only where ID's match across tables and the item purchased is a chair (because of the AND), will the names from the AntiqueOwners table be listed. Because the joining condition used an equal sign, this join is called an equijoin. The result of this query is two names: Smith, Bob & Fowler, Sam.

Dot notation refers to prefixing the table names to column names, to avoid ambiguity, as follows:

SELECT ANTIQUEOWNERS.OWNERLASTNAME, ANTIQUEOWNERS.OWNERFIRSTNAME
FROM ANTIQUEOWNERS, ANTIQUES
WHERE ANTIQUES.BUYERID = ANTIQUEOWNERS.OWNERID AND ANTIQUES.ITEM = 'Chair';

As the column names are different in each table, however, this wasn't necessary. In general, you should always use Dot notation as when you change your database, some queries that did not use Dot notation may cease working because they become ambiguous.

GROUP BY & HAVING

One special use of GROUP BY is to associate an aggregate function (especially COUNT; counting the number of rows in each group) with groups of rows. First, assume that the Antiques table has the Price column, and each row has a value for that column. We want to see the price of the most expensive item bought by each owner. We have to tell SQL to group each owner's purchases, and tell us the maximum purchase price:

SELECT BUYERID, MAX(PRICE)
FROM ANTIQUES
GROUP BY BUYERID;

Now, say we only want to see the maximum purchase price if the purchase is over $1000, so we use the HAVING clause:

SELECT BUYERID, MAX(PRICE)
FROM ANTIQUES
GROUP BY BUYERID
HAVING PRICE > 1000;

DISTINCT and Eliminating Duplicates

Let's say that you want to list the ID and names of only those people who have sold an antique. Obviously, you want a list where each seller is only listed once--you don't want to know how many antiques a person sold, just the fact that this person sold one (for counts, see the Aggregate Function section below). This means that you will need to tell SQL to eliminate duplicate sales rows, and just list each person only once. To do this, use the DISTINCT keyword.

First, we will need an equijoin to the AntiqueOwners table to get the detail data of the person's LastName and FirstName. However, keep in mind that since the SellerID column in the Antiques table is a foreign key to the AntiqueOwners table, a seller will only be listed if there is a row in the AntiqueOwners table listing the ID and names. We also want to eliminate multiple occurrences of the SellerID in our listing, so we use DISTINCT on the column where the repeats may occur (however, it is generally not necessary to strictly put the Distinct in front of the column name).

To throw in one more twist, we will also want the list alphabetized by LastName, then by FirstName (on a LastName tie). Thus, we will use the ORDER BY clause:

SELECT DISTINCT SELLERID, OWNERLASTNAME, OWNERFIRSTNAME
FROM ANTIQUES, ANTIQUEOWNERS
WHERE SELLERID = OWNERID
ORDER BY OWNERLASTNAME, OWNERFIRSTNAME;

In this example, since everyone has sold an item, we will get a listing of all of the owners, in alphabetical order by last name. For future reference (and in case anyone asks), this type of join is considered to be in the category of inner joins.

Aliases & In/Subqueries

In this section, we will talk about Aliases, In and the use of subqueries, and how these can be used in a 3-table example. First, look at this query which prints the last name of those owners who have placed an order and what the order is, only listing those orders which can be filled (that is, there is a buyer who owns that ordered item):

SELECT OWN.OWNERLASTNAME Last Name, ORD.ITEMDESIRED Item Ordered
FROM ORDERS ORD, ANTIQUEOWNERS OWN
WHERE ORD.OWNERID = OWN.OWNERID
AND ORD.ITEMDESIRED IN

(SELECT ITEM
FROM ANTIQUES);This gives:

Last Name Item Ordered
--------- ------------
Smith     Table
Smith     Desk
Akins     Chair
Lawson    Mirror

There are several things to note about this query:

1. First, the "Last Name" and "Item Ordered" in the Select lines gives the headers on the report.


2. The OWN & ORD are aliases; these are new names for the two tables listed in the FROM clause that are used as prefixes for all dot notations of column names in the query (see above). This eliminates ambiguity, especially in the equijoin WHERE clause where both tables have the column named OwnerID, and the dot notation tells SQL that we are talking about two different OwnerID's from the two different tables.


3. Note that the Orders table is listed first in the FROM clause; this makes sure listing is done off of that table, and the AntiqueOwners table is only used for the detail information (Last Name).


4. Most importantly, the AND in the WHERE clause forces the In Subquery to be invoked ("= ANY" or "= SOME" are two equivalent uses of IN). What this does is, the subquery is performed, returning all of the Items owned from the Antiques table, as there is no WHERE clause. Then, for a row from the Orders table to be listed, the ItemDesired must be in that returned list of Items owned from the Antiques table, thus listing an item only if the order can be filled from another owner. You can think of it this way: the subquery returns a set of Items from which each ItemDesired in the Orders table is compared; the In condition is true only if the ItemDesired is in that returned set from the Antiques table.


5. Also notice, that in this case, that there happened to be an antique available for each one desired...obviously, that won't always be the case. In addition, notice that when the IN, "= ANY", or "= SOME" is used, that these keywords refer to any possible row matches, not column matches...that is, you cannot put multiple columns in the subquery Select clause, in an attempt to match the column in the outer Where clause to one of multiple possible column values in the subquery; only one column can be listed in the subquery, and the possible match comes from multiple row values in that one column, not vice-versa.

More Subqueries

Another common usage of subqueries involves the use of operators to allow a Where condition to include the Select output of a subquery. First, list the buyers who purchased an expensive item (the Price of the item is $100 greater than the average price of all items purchased):

SELECT BUYERID
FROM ANTIQUES
WHERE PRICE >

(SELECT AVG(PRICE) + 100
FROM ANTIQUES);The subquery calculates the average Price, plus $100, and using that figure, an OwnerID is printed for every item costing over that figure. One could use DISTINCT BUYERID, to eliminate duplicates.

List the Last Names of those in the AntiqueOwners table, ONLY if they have bought an item:

SELECT OWNERLASTNAME
FROM ANTIQUEOWNERS
WHERE OWNERID IN

(SELECT DISTINCT BUYERID
FROM ANTIQUES);The subquery returns a list of buyers, and the Last Name is printed for an Antique Owner if and only if the Owner's ID appears in the subquery list (sometimes called a candidate list). Note: on some DBMS's, equals can be used instead of IN, but for clarity's sake, since a set is returned from the subquery, IN is the better choice.

For an Update example, we know that the gentleman who bought the bookcase has the wrong First Name in the database...it should be John:

UPDATE ANTIQUEOWNERS
SET OWNERFIRSTNAME = 'John'
WHERE OWNERID =

(SELECT BUYERID
FROM ANTIQUES
WHERE ITEM = 'Bookcase');First, the subquery finds the BuyerID for the person(s) who bought the Bookcase, then the outer query updates his First Name.

Remember this rule about subqueries: When you have a subquery as part of a WHERE condition, the Select clause in the subquery must have columns that match in number and type to those in the Where clause of the outer query. In other words, if you have "WHERE ColumnName = (SELECT...);", the Select must have only one column in it, to match the ColumnName in the outer Where clause, and they must match in type (both being integers, both being character strings, etc.).

Adding, Modifying, and Deleting Data

Adding Data

To insert rows into a table, do the following:

INSERT INTO ANTIQUES VALUES (21, 01, 'Ottoman', 200.00);

This inserts the data into the table, as a new row, column-by-column, in the pre-defined order. Instead, let's change the order and leave Price blank:

INSERT INTO ANTIQUES (BUYERID, SELLERID, ITEM)
VALUES (01, 21, 'Ottoman');

Deleting Data

Let's delete this new row back out of the database:

DELETE FROM ANTIQUES
WHERE ITEM = 'Ottoman';

But if there is another row that contains 'Ottoman', that row will be deleted also. Let's delete all rows (one, in this case) that contain the specific data we added before:

DELETE FROM ANTIQUES
WHERE ITEM = 'Ottoman' AND BUYERID = 01 AND SELLERID = 21;

Updating Data

Let's update a Price into a row that doesn't have a price listed yet:

UPDATE ANTIQUES SET PRICE = 500.00 WHERE ITEM = 'Chair';

This sets all Chair's Prices to 500.00. As shown above, more WHERE conditionals, using AND, must be used to limit the updating to more specific rows. Also, additional columns may be set by separating equal statements with commas.

Modifying the Database

Creating New Tables

All tables within a database must be created at some point in time...let's see how we would create the Orders table:

CREATE TABLE ORDERS
(OWNERID INTEGER NOT NULL,
ITEMDESIRED CHAR(40) NOT NULL);

This statement gives the table name and tells the DBMS about each column in the table. Please note that this statement uses generic data types, and that the data types might be different, depending on what DBMS you are using. As usual, check local listings. Some common generic data types are:

 

• Char(x) - A column of characters, where x is a number designating the maximum number of characters allowed (maximum length) in the column.


• Integer - A column of whole numbers, positive or negative.


• Decimal(x, y) - A column of decimal numbers, where x is the maximum length in digits of the decimal numbers in this column, and y is the maximum number of digits allowed after the decimal point. The maximum (4,2) number would be 99.99.


• Date - A date column in a DBMS-specific format.


• Logical - A column that can hold only two values: TRUE or FALSE.

One other note, the NOT NULL means that the column must have a value in each row. If NULL was used, that column may be left empty in a given row.

Altering Tables

Let's add a column to the Antiques table to allow the entry of the price of a given Item (Parentheses optional):

ALTER TABLE ANTIQUES ADD (PRICE DECIMAL(8,2) NULL);

The data for this new column can be updated or inserted as shown later.

Indexes

Indexes allow a DBMS to access data quicker (please note: this feature is nonstandard/not available on all systems). The system creates this internal data structure (the index) which causes selection of rows, when the selection is based on indexed columns, to occur faster. This index tells the DBMS where a certain row is in the table given an indexed-column value, much like a book index tells you what page a given word appears. Let's create an index for the OwnerID in the AntiqueOwners table:

CREATE INDEX OID_IDX ON ANTIQUEOWNERS (OWNERID);

Now on the names:

CREATE INDEX NAME_IDX ON ANTIQUEOWNERS (OWNERLASTNAME, OWNERFIRSTNAME);

To get rid of an index, drop it:

DROP INDEX OID_IDX;

By the way, you can also "drop" a table, as well (careful!--that means that your table is deleted). In the second example, the index is kept on the two columns, aggregated together--strange behavior might occur in this situation...check the manual before performing such an operation.

Some DBMS's do not enforce primary keys; in other words, the uniqueness of a column is not enforced automatically. What that means is, if, for example, I tried to insert another row into the AntiqueOwners table with an OwnerID of 02, some systems will allow me to do that, even though we do not, as that column is supposed to be unique to that table (every row value is supposed to be different). One way to get around that is to create a unique index on the column that we want to be a primary key, to force the system to enforce prohibition of duplicates:

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX OID_IDX ON ANTIQUEOWNERS (OWNERID);