Structured Query Language Version 1.2 “x Copyright © 2001 Relational Systems Corporation 3646 Townline Road Omer, Mich gan 48749 Phone 989-653-3114 - Fax 989-653-3115Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION Course Objectives What is a Relational Database? What is SQL? 2 BASIC QUERIES Selecting All Columns & Rows Selecting Specific Columns Selecting Specific Rows Sorting Rows Eliminating Duplicate Rows 3 ADVANCED OPERATORS The LIKE Operator The AND Operator ‘The BETWEEN Operator The OR Operator The IN Operator The IS NULL Operator Precedence and Negation 4 EXPRESSIONS Arithmetic Expressions Expressions in Other Clauses Column Aliases 5 FUNCTIONS Statistical Functions Grouping Functions in Other Clauses 4 1 13 17 20 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 38 a 43 46 49 51 MULTI-TABLE QUERIES Joins Table Aliases Unions QUERIES WITHIN QUERIES Single-Valued Subqueries Multi-Valued Subqueries Correlated Subqueries MAINTAINING TABLES Inserting Rows Updating Rows Deleting Rows Transactions DEFINING DATABASE OBJECTS Defining Tables Loading Tables Integrity Constraints Defining Indices Defining Views APPENDICES The Exercise Database Answers to Exercises Syntax Summary A Brief Critique Recommended Reading Index 55 59 61 64 66 68 m1 73 75 77 80 82 84 88 90 93 94 111 116 117 118INTRODUCTION Course Objectives What is a Relational Database? What is SQL?Course Objectives When you finish this course, you will know what a relational database is, know what ‘SQL is, and know what you can do to the former with the latter. You will also know why SQL is an important relational database language, and will actually be able to... MAINTAIN QueRY DEFINE Query a relational database The full range of SQL's query capabilities are explored in this course. Ample exercises, with answers, are provided for each topic. By the time you're done, you will be able to get information out of a relational database using SQL. Maintain a relational database You will also be able to put information into a relational database via SQL. You will learn how to insert new data, update existing data, and delete obsolete data. You will also understand how databases work in multi-user environments. Define a relational database Finally, you will know enough to actually create database objects with SQL, including, tables, constraints, indices, and views. Database design, however, which is covered in our other course offerings, is not addressed in this course.What is a Relational Database? A relational database is a collection of data stored in tables. Each table consists of one or more vertical columns, and zero or more horizontal rows. Pictured below are two tables from our exercise database, with three rows of sample data in each. PERSONS. PERSON _|NAME BDATE GENDER | COUNTRY |JOB i) Einstein 1879-03-20 | Male Germany |S 2 Dickens [1812-07-22 |Male England |W 3 Dickinson |1830-07-15 | Female USA Ww COUNTRIES COUNTRY POP. AREA GNP|LANGUAGE | LITERACY] Germany 81337541 137823| _1331000|German 100 USA, 263814032| 3679192] _6380000|English 95 England 58295119 94251] 980200|English 99 Tables are identified by name Table names must be unique within a database. Typical SQL databases allow up to 18 characters in a table name. The first character must be a letter, while the remaining characters can be letters, numbers, or underscores. Columns are identified by name Column names are unique within each table, but the same column name can appear in different tables. Both tables above, for example, have COUNTRY columns. Rows are identified by their contents The rows of a table do not have names, nor is their position in a table fixed. Therefore, we refer to the rows of tables by describing the data values they contain: ‘Person number 2,' for instance, or ‘All English-speaking countries."What is SQL? SQL is the most popular of all database languages. The name is an acronym for Structured Query Language, though SQL 's much more than just a query language. Some pronounce the name as three separate letters, S-Q-L, but most say, 'sequel.” i Cy WhiEW i WRGLE Developed by IBM Originally developed in 1974 by D. D. Chamberlin and others at IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory, SQL was finally released to the public as an integral part of IBM's SQL/DS and DB2 database products in 1982-1983. Accepted by the world SQL was adopted as an official standard by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986, and in 1987 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It is currently available in over 100 commercial products. Implemented in many different ways In spite of its popularity and its acceptance as an official standard, the SQL language is rather poorly defined and suffers from a number of internal inconsistencies. The result is a variety of SQL ‘dialects’ that differ slightly, but annoyingly, one from another.What is SQL? continued The basic SQL language is actually quite small, and relatively easy to learn and use. It consists of six basic statement types (select, insert, update, delete, create, and drop) that can be conveniently grouped into the three categories shown below. SQL STATEMENTS BY CATEGORY CATEGORY _ [STATEMENT PURPOSE Query SELECT Display rows of one or more tables Maintenance | INSERT Add rows to a table UPDATE Change rows in a table DELETE Remove rows from a table Definition CREATE Add tables, indices, views DROP Remove tables, indices, views Query statements The SELECT statement, which has many different forms, is used to formulate all queries. SELECT statements ‘ask questions’ whose answers may be found in, or derived from, one or more of the tables in a database. tenance statements The INSERT statement, which has two different forms, is used to add new rows to a table (one or more at a time). The UPDATE statement is used to modify existing rows, while the DELETE statement is used to remove obsolete rows. Definition statements The CREATE statement, which also has several different forms, is used to define new tables, indices, and views in a database. Various forms of the DROP statement are used to remove these components when they are no longer required.What is SQL? continued A SQL statement is a collection of clauses, keywords, and parameters that perform a particular function. In the examples below, each clause is shown on a separate line; keywords appear in all uppercase letters, parameters in all lowercase letters. [MAINTENANCE STMT DEFINITION STMT. SELECT columns DELETE CREATE FROM table FROM table INDEX index WHERE comparisons WHERE comparisons ON table (columns ) Clauses The various clauses of SQL statements are named after their initial words: the SELECT clause, for example, or the FROM clause. SQL allows multiple clauses per line, but most SQL programmers use separate lines for clarity and ease of editing. Keywords SQL reserves a small number of words, called keywords, for specific purposes. Keywords can be entered in upper, lower, or mixed-case letters; they are shown here in all uppercase. Keywords may not be used as table or column names. Parameters Parameters are the ‘variable’ parts of each clause. When formulating a SQL statement, you insert the appropriate column names, table names, and other such values in place of the lowercase parameters shown above.BASIC QUERIES Selecting All Columns & Rows Selecting Specific Columns Selecting Specific Rows Sorting Rows Eliminating Duplicate RowsSelecting All Columns & Rows The simplest kind of query displays all the columns and all the rows of a single table. An asterisk is entered in the SELECT clause (to indicate that all columns should be included), and the table name is specified in the FROM clause, like so: SQL STATEMENT JOB. THLE s Scientist SELECT * > E Entertainer FROM JOBS Ww Writer U Instructor SQLSTATEMENT a GOUNTRY [RELIGION | PERCENT Germany _ [Protestant 45 SELECT * » Germany _ | Catholic 37 FROM RELIGIONS England _| Catholic 30 England _| Anglican 70 All queries have SELECT and FROM clauses The FROM clause follows the SELECT clause The asterisk ( * ) means ‘all columns' The table name is specified in the FROM clause Columns and rows appear in arbitrary orderSelecting All Columns & ROWS. continuss The general syntax of a SQL SELECT statement appears below. Keywords and examples are shown in uppercase letters, while parameters appear in lowercase. SYNTAX SUMMARY | CLAUSE -JPARAMETERS: EXAMPLE SELECT * * FROM table JOBS Exercises 1. Ask the instructor for a brief tutorial in the use of the classroom database. 2. Select all the columns and all the rows of the PERSONS table. 3. Explore the COUNTRIES table using a SELECT statement. 4. Take a look at the ERRORS table. 5. Inspect the ARMIES table. Extra Credit 6. Most self-respecting databases have a table called SYSCOLUMNS. Take a peek. 7. Choose any other table from the SYSCOLUMNS table and display it. 10Selecting Specific Columns To select specific columns, we enter a list of columns in the SELECT statement (instead of an asterisk). Each column name is separated from the others by a comma and optional spaces. The columns are displayed in the order listed. SQL STATEMENT THLE Scientist SELECT TITLE > Entertainer FROM JOBS Writer Instructor ‘SQL STATEMENT | TLE JOB Scientist |S SELECT TITLE, JOB » Entertainer [E FROM JOBS Writer Ww Instructor [I SQL STATEMENT 2 JOB TITLE JOB. s Scientist |S SELECT *, JOB » E Entertainer [E FROM JOBS vo Ww Writer Ww. I Instructor _|I Column names are listed in the SELECT clause Column names are separated by commas Columns appear in the order listed Rows appear in arbitrary orderSelecting Specific Columns continued The revised syntax of a SQL SELECT statement appears below. Note that it has been expanded to include the column list parameter in the SELECT clause. SYNTAX SUMMARY CLAUSE PARAMETERS |EXAMPLE SELECT 7 ie col list LANGUAGE, COUNTRY FROM table JOBS Exercises 1. Select only the JOB column from the JOBS table. 2. Show the NAME and BDATE columns from the PERSONS table. 3. The RELIGIONS table contains three columns — COUNTRY, RELIGION, and PERCENT. Display all of these columns, but show them in reverse order. Extra Credit 4. Show all the columns of the COUNTRIES table, but put the COUNTRY column on both ends (so we can line ‘em up with a ruler). Do this first without using an asterisk, then do it again with one. 12Selecting Specific Rows Rows in a table are identified by the values they contain. It is therefore important to understand the different categories of values that SQL supports, and the appropriate syntax for entering each kind of value in query statements. VALUE SUMMARY CATEGORY _|DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES NUMERIC positive values. 3, +12 negative values -7, -1024000 decimal values 3.141519, -.96 NON- single words ‘Chamberlin’, ‘SELECT’ NUMERIC multiple words ‘We love SQL’, ‘The LORD is good to me’ single quotes "10 O"Clock’, ‘| don"t know! DATE “'yyyy-mm-dd' format "1996-01-01", 1996-12-31" Numeric values are entered in the normal way Numeric values are specified in queries as one or more of the following characters: +-0123456789. The sign is optional, but must appear first. Only one decimal point is allowed. Note that commas, dollar signs, and percent signs are not allowed in numeric values. Non-numeric values are enclosed in quotes Non-numeric values, called strings, are entered inside of single quote marks. Use two consecutive single quote marks inside a string to represent a single quote. Date values are entered in 'yyyy-mm-dd' format While the SQL standard lacks a uniform representation of dates, the format shown above is supported in most SQL dialects. Dates must be enclosed in single quotes. 13,Selecting Specific Rows continued A comparison is a phrase that consists of a column name, a comparison operator, and a value. All comparisons yield a result of either true or false. Comparisons are used to specify which rows of a table should be included in the result of a query. COMPARISON OPERATORS OPERATOR __|MEANING EXAMPLE = Equal to NAME = ‘EINSTEIN > Not equal to IBDATE <> '1944-05-02' < Less than POP < 100000 <= Less than or equalto _ [NAME <= ‘O'Grady’ > Greater than |AREA > 999 >= Greater than or equal to_|BDATE >= 1962-06-19" Acolumn name is specified on the left The column name can be entered in upper, lower, or mixed-case letters. In this text, columns names are shown in uppercase. Note that even though column names are non-numeric, they are not enclosed in quotes. A value is specified on the right Values must be entered appropriately for their value type — that is, numbers as they would normally be written, strings in single quotes, and dates in the 'yyyy-mm-dd" format. Values should be of the same type as columns to which they are compared. An operator is specified in the middle Comparison operators are placed between column names and values. Spaces on either side of a comparison operator are allowed, but are not required. However, spaces are not allowed between symbols in multiple symbol operators ( <>, <=, >= ). 14Selecting Specific Rows continued Comparisons are specified in the WHERE clause of a SQL SELECT statement. The WHERE clause must immediately follow the FROM clause. The result table includes all the rows of the source table where the comparison is true. SQUSTATEMENT COUNTRY AREA\ USA 3679192 SELECT COUNTRY, AREA f Canada 3849674 FROM COUNTRIES China 3696100 WHERE AREA > 3000000 Brazil 3286500 Russia 6592800 SQL STATEMENT NAME COUNTRY Rand Russia SELECT NAME, COUNTRY Tolstoy [Russia FROM PERSONS Chekhov [Russia WHERE COUNTRY = ‘RUSSIA’ Babel Russia SOUSTATEMENT NAME BDATE Dante 1265-03-21 SELECT NAME, BDATE Shikabu [1000-09-03 FROM PERSONS ‘Augustino [0354-04-30 WHERE BDATE < "1300-01-01" Magnus |1193-12-05 Paul 0013-06-01 The WHERE clause follows the FROM clause Comparisons are entered in the WHERE clause Rows where the comparison is true are displayedSelecting Specific Rows continued The current syntax of a SQL SELECT statement appears below. Note the addition of the WHERE clause. A summary of SQL's comparison operators is also included. SYNTAX SUMMARY ‘CLAUSE PARAMETERS: EXAMPLE SELECT : col fist LANGUAGE, COUNTRY FROM. table JOBS WHERE col oper value AREA > 3000000 OPERATOR MEANING EXAMPLE = Equal to NAME ='EINSTEIN' <> Not equal to BDATE <> '1944-05-02" < Less than POP < 100000 <= Less than or equalto _ [NAME <= ‘O'Grady’ > Greater than AREA > 999 >= Greater than or equal to | BDATE >='1962-06-19' Exercises 1. Display all columns and rows in the COUNTRIES table. Now show only countries whose area is less than 30 square miles. There should be 5 rows in the result. 2. Show the name and country of everyone in the PERSONS table. Now limit the result to people who were born in Canada. The final result table contains 6 rows. 3. Show the name and birth date of people born after 1964-01-01. There are 9 rows. Extra Credit 4, What is the birth date of the person named O'Toole? 16Sorting Rows To sort the rows of a result table, use the ORDER BY clause. This optional clause must be the last clause in a query. Column names, column positions in the SELECT clause, and the keyword DESC (descending) can be entered as parameters. SGU STATEMENT : COUNTRY AREA Monaco 1 SELECT COUNTRY, AREA : Vatican City 1 FROM COUNTRIES 7 [Nauru 8 ORDER BY AREA Tuvalu 9 ‘San Marino 24 SOL STATEMENT COUNTRY | AREA Monaco 1 SELECT COUNTRY, AREA » Vatican City 1 FROM COUNTRIES: Nauru 8 ORDER BY 2 Tuvalu 9 San Marino 24 [SQL STATEMENT COUNTRY ‘AREA’ Russia 6592800 SELECT COUNTRY, AREA Canada 3849674 FROM COUNTRIES: China 3696100 ORDER BY AREA DESC USA 3679192 Brazil 3286500 The ORDER BY clause must be last Acolumn name or position can be specified DESC indicates a descending sort 17Sorting Rows continued Rows in a result table can be ordered based on the values in more than one column by entering a column list in the ORDER BY clause. The left-to-right order of the columns indicates the major-to-minor sort sequence. ‘SQL STATEMENT LANGUAGE POP| Afrikaans 1651545 ‘SELECT LANGUAGE, POP Albanian 3413904 FROM COUNTRIES. Amharic 55979018 ORDER BY LANGUAGE Arabic 549338 Arabic 65359623, Arabic | __ 533916] Arabic 20643769 [SQUSTATEMENT. LANGUAGE POP| Afrikaans 1651545, SELECT LANGUAGE, POP Albanian 3413904 FROM COUNTRIES, Amharic 55979018 ORDER BY LANGUAGE, POP DESC Arabic. 65359623 Arabic 30120420 Arabic. 29168848 Arabic 28539321 Acolumn list is allowed in the ORDER BY clause Column names are separated by commas Columns are listed in major-to-minor sequence 18