Although SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard,

there are many different versions of the SQL language.

Introduction to SQL
SQL is a standard language for accessing and manipulating databases.

What is SQL?

SQL stands for Structured Query Language

SQL lets you access and manipulate databases

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute)

standard

What Can SQL do?

However, to be compliant with the ANSI standard, they all support at least
the major commands (such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT,
WHERE) in a similar manner.
Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary
extensions in addition to the SQL standard!

Using SQL in Your Web Site

To build a web site that shows some data from a database, you will need the
following:

An RDBMS database program (i.e. MS Access, SQL Server,

MySQL)
A server-side scripting language, like PHP or ASP

SQL

HTML / CSS

SQL can execute queries against a database

SQL can retrieve data from a database

SQL can insert records in a database

SQL can update records in a database

SQL can delete records from a database

RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System.

SQL can create new databases

SQL can create new tables in a database

RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like MS
SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and Microsoft Access.

SQL can create stored procedures in a database

The data in RDBMS is stored in database objects called tables.

SQL can create views in a database

SQL can set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

A table is a collection of related data entries and it consists of columns and

rows.

RDBMS

SQL is a Standard - BUT....

1

SQL Syntax

Semicolon after SQL Statements?

Database Tables

Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of each SQL

statement.

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified
by a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows)
with data.

Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database

systems that allow more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same
call to the server.

Below is an example of a table called "Persons":

We are using MS Access and SQL Server 2000 and we do not have to put a
semicolon after each SQL statement, but some database programs force you
to use it.

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SQL DML and DDL

SQL can be divided into two parts: The Data Manipulation Language
(DML) and the Data Definition Language (DDL).
The query and update commands form the DML part of SQL:

The table above contains three records (one for each person) and five
columns (P_Id, LastName, FirstName, Address, and City).

SQL Statements
Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL
statements.
The following SQL statement will select all the records in the "Persons"
table:
SELECT * FROM Persons

SELECT - extracts data from a database

UPDATE - updates data in a database

DELETE - deletes data from a database

INSERT INTO - inserts new data into a database

The DDL part of SQL permits database tables to be created or deleted. It

also define indexes (keys), specify links between tables, and impose
constraints between tables. The most important DDL statements in SQL are:

CREATE DATABASE - creates a new database

ALTER DATABASE - modifies a database

CREATE TABLE - creates a new table

2

ALTER TABLE - modifies a table

DROP TABLE - deletes a table

CREATE INDEX - creates an index (search key)

DROP INDEX - deletes an index

Now we want to select the content of the columns named "LastName" and
"FirstName" from the table above. We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

SQL SELECT Statement

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.
The result is stored in a result table, called the result-set.

LastName

FirstName

Hansen

Ola

Svendson

Tove

Pettersen

Kari

SQL SELECT Syntax

Now we want to select all the columns from the "Persons" table. We use the
following SELECT statement:

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

SELECT * FROM Persons

and

The result-set will look like this:

SELECT * FROM table_name

Note: SQL is not case sensitive. SELECT is the same as select.

The "Persons" table:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

In a table, some of the columns may contain duplicate
values. This is not a problem, however, sometimes you will want
to list only the different (distinct) values in a table.
3

The DISTINCT keyword can be used to return only distinct (different)

values.

SQL WHERE Clause

SQL SELECT DISTINCT Syntax

The WHERE clause is used to filter records. It is used to extract only those
records that fulfill a specified criterion. SQL WHERE Syntax is:

SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s)

FROM table_name

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value

The "Persons" table:

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select only the distinct values from the column named
"City" from the table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT DISTINCT City FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

City
Sandne
s
Stavang
er

Now we want to select only the persons living in the city "Sandnes" from
the table above. We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE City='Sandnes'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Quotes Around Text Fields

SQL uses single quotes around text values (most database systems will also
accept double quotes).
Although, numeric values should not be enclosed in quotes.
For text values:
This is correct:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tove'
This is wrong:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName=Tove

>=

Greater than or equal

<=

Less than or equal

BETWE
Between an inclusive range
EN
LIKE

Search for a pattern

IN

If you know the exact value you want

to return for at least one of the
columns

For numeric values:

This is correct:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year=1965
This is wrong:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year='1965'

Operators Allowed in the WHERE Clause

Operat
Description
or
=

Equal

<> or !
Not equal
=
>

Greater than

<

Less than

SQL AND & OR Operators

The AND & OR operators are used to filter records based on more than one
condition.
The AND operator displays a record if both the first condition and the
second condition is true.
The OR operator displays a record if either the first condition or the second
condition is true.
The "Persons" table:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes
5

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

You can also combine AND and OR (use parenthesis to form complex
expressions).

Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove"
AND the last name equal to "Svendson":

Now we want to select only the persons with the last name equal to
"Svendson" AND the first name equal to "Tove" OR to "Ola":

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName='Tove'
AND LastName='Svendson'

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE

LastName='Svendson'
AND (FirstName='Tove' OR FirstName='Ola')

The result-set will look like this:

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove"
OR the first name equal to "Ola":
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName='Tove'
OR FirstName='Ola'

SQL ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set by a specified column
(in ascending order by default). If you want to sort the records in a
descending order, you can use the DESC keyword.

The result-set will look like this:

SQL ORDER BY Syntax

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name(s) ASC|DESC

The "Persons" table:

Combining AND & OR

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City
6

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

The result-set will look like this:

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we
want to sort the persons by their last name.
SELECT * FROM Persons
ORDER BY LastName

SQL INSERT INTO Statement

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

ORDER BY DESC Example

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we
want to sort the persons descending by their last name.
SELECT * FROM Persons
ORDER BY LastName DESC

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new records in a table.

SQL INSERT INTO Syntax

It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two forms.
The first form doesn't specify the column names where the data will be
inserted, only their values:
INSERT INTO table_name
VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)

The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be
inserted:
INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3,...)
VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)

We have the following "Persons" table:

7

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

VALUES (5, 'Tjessem', 'Jakob')

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to insert a new row in the "Persons" table. We use the
following SQL statement:
INSERT INTO Persons
VALUES (4,'Nilsen', 'Johan', 'Bakken 2', 'Stavanger')

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Johan

Bakken 2

Stavanger

Tjessem

Jakob

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

The UPDATE statement is used to update existing records in a table.

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SQL UPDATE Syntax

Nilsen

Johan

Bakken 2

Stavanger

UPDATE table_name
SET column1=value, column2=value2,...
WHERE some_column=some_value

Insert Data Only in Specified Columns

It is also possible to only add data in specific columns.
The following SQL statement will add a new row, but only add data in the
"P_Id", "LastName" and the "FirstName" columns:
INSERT INTO Persons (P_Id, LastName, FirstName)

SQL UPDATE Statement

Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE
clause specifies which record or records that should be updated. If you omit
the WHERE clause, all records will be updated!
The "Persons" table:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City
8

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Be careful when updating records. If we had omitted the WHERE clause in

the example above, like this:

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'

Nilsen

Johan

Bakken 2

Stavanger

The "Persons" table would have looked like this:

Tjessem

Jakob

Now we want to update the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.
We use the following SQL statement:
UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'
WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Nissestien 67

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Nissestien 67

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Nissestien 67

Sandnes

Nilsen

Johan

Nissestien 67

Sandnes

Tjessem

Jakob

Nissestien 67

Sandnes

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

The DELETE statement is used to delete rows in a table.

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SQL DELETE Syntax

Nilsen

Johan

Bakken 2

Stavanger

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE some_column=some_value

Tjessem

Jakob

Nissestien 67

Sandnes

SQL UPDATE Warning

SQL DELETE Statement

Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE syntax. The WHERE
clause specifies which record or records that should be deleted. If you omit
the WHERE clause, all records will be deleted!

SQL DELETE Example

Delete All Rows

The "Persons" table:

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This
means that the table structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Johan

Bakken 2

Stavanger

Tjessem

Jakob

Nissestien 67

Sandnes

Now we want to delete the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.
We use the following SQL statement:

DELETE FROM table_name

or
DELETE * FROM table_name

Note: Be very careful when deleting records. You cannot undo this
statement!

The TOP Clause

The TOP clause is used to specify the number of records to return.
The TOP clause can be very useful on large tables with thousands of records.
Returning a large number of records can impact on performance.
Note: Not all database systems support the TOP clause.

DELETE FROM Persons

WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'

SQL Server Syntax

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

SELECT TOP number|percent column_name(s)

FROM table_name

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Johan

Bakken 2

Stavanger

SQL SELECT TOP Equivalent in MySQL and

Oracle
MySQL Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
LIMIT number

10

Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
LIMIT 5

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

If we want to select only 50% of the records in the person table.

Oracle Syntax

SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT * FROM Persons

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE ROWNUM <= number

The result-set will look like this:

Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
WHERE ROWNUM <= 5

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

SQL IN Operator

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Nilsen

Tom

Vingvn 23

Stavanger

Now we want to select only the two first records in the table above. We use
the following SELECT statement:

The IN Operator
The IN operator allows you to specify multiple values in a WHERE clause.

SQL IN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,...)

Now we want to select the persons with a last name equal to "Hansen" or
"Pettersen" from the person table.

SELECT TOP 2 * FROM Persons

SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName IN ('Hansen','Pettersen')

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

The result-set will look like this:

11

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

WHERE City LIKE 's%'

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

The "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the
pattern) both before and after the pattern.
The result-set will look like this:

SQL LIKE Operator

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

SQL LIKE Syntax

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name LIKE pattern

Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that ends with an "s"
from the "Persons" table. We use the following SELECT statement:

The "Persons" table:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE '%s'

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "s" from
the table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern
"tav" from the "Persons" table. We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE City LIKE '%tav%'

12

The result-set will look like this:

A substitute for exactly one character

Any single character in charlist

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

[charlist]

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

[^charlist] or Any single character not in charlist

[!charlist]

It is also possible to select the persons living in a city that NOT contains the
pattern "tav" from the "Persons" table, by using the NOT keyword.

We have the following "Persons" table:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City NOT LIKE '%tav%'

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

The result-set will look like this:

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

SQL Wildcards
SQL wildcards can substitute for one or more characters when searching for
data in a database. SQL wildcards must be used with the SQL LIKE
operator.
With SQL, the following wildcards can be used:
Wildcard

Description

A substitute for zero or more characters

Using the % Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "sa" from
the "Persons" table.
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE City LIKE 'sa%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes
13

Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern
"nes" from the "Persons" table. We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName LIKE 'S_end_on'

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE '%nes%'

The result-set will look like this:

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Using the _ Wildcard

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName LIKE '_la'

The result-set will look like this:

LastName
Hansen

FirstName
Ola

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Using the [charlist] Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "b" or
"s" or "p" from the "Persons" table.
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName LIKE '[bsp]%'

Now we want to select the persons with a first name that starts with any
character, followed by "la" from the "Persons" table. We use the following
SELECT statement:

P_Id

P_Id

Address
Timoteivn 10

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

City
Sandnes

Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "S",
followed by any character, followed by "end", followed by any character,
followed by "on" from the "Persons" table.

Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that do not start with
"b" or "s" or "p" from the "Persons" table.
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName LIKE '[!bsp]%'

The result-set will look like this:

14

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

The result-set will look like this:

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

SQL BETWEEN Operator

Note: The BETWEEN operator is treated differently in different databases.
The BETWEEN operator selects a range of data between two values. The
values can be numbers, text, or dates.

SQL BETWEEN Syntax

In other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen"

will be listed, because the BETWEEN operator selects fields that are
between and including the test values).

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
BETWEEN value1 AND value2

And in other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" will be

listed, but "Pettersen" will not be listed (like the example above), because
the BETWEEN operator selects fields between the test values, including the
first test value and excluding the last test value.

The "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

In some databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen"

will not be listed, because the BETWEEN operator only selects fields that
are between and excluding the test values).

Address

City

Therefore: Check how your database treats the BETWEEN operator.

1

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons with a last name alphabetically between
"Hansen" and "Pettersen" from the table above.
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName
BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

To display the persons outside the range in the previous example, use NOT
BETWEEN:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName
NOT BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes
15

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SQL Alias
You can give a table or a column another name by using an alias. This can
be a good thing to do if you have very long or complex table names or
column names.

The same SELECT statement without aliases:

SELECT Product_Orders.OrderID, Persons.LastName,
Persons.FirstName
FROM Persons,
Product_Orders
WHERE Persons.LastName='Hansen'
WHERE Persons.FirstName='Ola'

As you'll see from the two SELECT statements above; aliases can make
queries easier to both write and to read.

An alias name could be anything, but usually it is short.

SQL Alias Syntax for Tables

SQL Joins
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
AS alias_name

SQL Alias Syntax for Columns

The JOIN keyword is used in an SQL statement to query data from two or
more tables, based on a relationship between certain columns in these tables.
Tables in a database are often related to each other with keys.

SELECT column_name AS alias_name

FROM table_name

Assume we have a table called "Persons" and another table called

"Product_Orders". We will give the table aliases of "p" an "po" respectively.

A primary key is a column (or a combination of columns) with a unique

value for each row. Each primary key value must be unique within the table.
The purpose is to bind data together, across tables, without repeating all of
the data in every table. Look at the "Persons" table:

Now we want to list all the orders that "Ola Hansen" is responsible for.

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

We use the following SELECT statement:

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

SELECT po.OrderID, p.LastName, p.FirstName

FROM Persons AS p,
Product_Orders AS po
WHERE p.LastName='Hansen'
WHERE p.FirstName='Ola'

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

16

Note that the "P_Id" column is the primary key in the "Persons" table. This
means that no two rows can have the same P_Id. The P_Id distinguishes two
persons even if they have the same name. Next, we have the "Orders" table:
O_Id

OrderNo

P_Id

77895

44678

22456

24562

34764

15

Note that the "O_Id" column is the primary key in the "Orders" table and
that the "P_Id" column refers to the persons in the "Persons" table without
using their names.
Notice that the relationship between the two tables above is the "P_Id"
column.

Different SQL JOINs

Before we continue with examples, we will list the types of JOIN you can
use, and the differences between them.

JOIN: Return rows when there is at least one match in both

tables
LEFT JOIN: Return all rows from the left table, even if there
are no matches in the right table
RIGHT JOIN: Return all rows from the right table, even if
there are no matches in the left table

FULL JOIN: Return rows when there is a match in one of

the tables

SQL INNER JOIN Keyword

The INNER JOIN keyword return rows when there is at least one match in
both tables.

SQL INNER JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
INNER JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

PS: INNER JOIN is the same as JOIN.

From "Persons" and "Orders" tables, we want to list all the persons with any
orders. We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo
FROM Persons
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

LastName

FirstName

OrderNo

Hansen

Ola

22456

Hansen

Ola

24562

Pettersen

Kari

77895
17

Pettersen

Kari

44678
Hansen

Ola

24562

The INNER JOIN keyword return rows when there is at least one match in
both tables. If there are rows in "Persons" that do not have matches in
"Orders", those rows will NOT be listed.

Pettersen

Kari

77895

Pettersen

Kari

44678

SQL LEFT JOIN Keyword

Svendson

Tove

The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all rows from the left table (table_name1),
even if there are no matches in the right table (table_name2).

The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons),
even if there are no matches in the right table (Orders).

SQL LEFT JOIN Syntax

SQL RIGHT JOIN Keyword

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
LEFT JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

The RIGHT JOIN keyword Return all rows from the right table
(table_name2), even if there are no matches in the left table (table_name1).

PS: In some databases LEFT JOIN is called LEFT OUTER JOIN.

Now we want to list all the persons and their orders - if any, from the tables
"Persons" and "Orders".
SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo
FROM Persons
LEFT JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

SQL RIGHT JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
RIGHT JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

PS: In some databases RIGHT JOIN is called RIGHT OUTER JOIN.

LastName

FirstName

OrderNo

Hansen

Ola

22456

Now we want to list all the orders with containing persons - if any, from the
tables "Persons" and "Orders".
18

SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo

FROM Persons
RIGHT JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

LastName

FirstName

OrderNo

Hansen

Ola

22456

Hansen

Ola

24562

Pettersen

Kari

77895

Pettersen

Kari

44678
34764

The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the right table
(Orders), even if there are no matches in the left table (Persons).

FROM table_name1
FULL JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

Now we want to list all the persons and their orders, and all the orders with
their persons. We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo
FROM Persons
FULL JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

LastName

FirstName

OrderNo

Hansen

Ola

22456

Hansen

Ola

24562

Pettersen

Kari

77895

Pettersen

Kari

44678

Svendson

Tove
34764

SQL FULL JOIN Keyword

The FULL JOIN keyword return rows when there is a match in one of the
tables.

The FULL JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons),
and all the rows from the right table (Orders). If there are rows in "Persons"
that do not have matches in "Orders", or if there are rows in "Orders" that do
not have matches in "Persons", those rows will be listed as well.

SQL FULL JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)

19

SQL UNION Operator

The UNION operator is used to combine the result-set of two or more
SELECT statements.
Notice that each SELECT statement within the UNION must have the same
number of columns. The columns must also have similar data types. Also,
the columns in each SELECT statement must be in the same order.

01

Hansen, Ola

02

Svendson, Tove

03

Svendson, Stephen

04

Pettersen, Kari

SQL UNION Syntax

SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1
UNION
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2

Note: The UNION operator selects only distinct values by default. To allow
duplicate values, use UNION ALL.

SQL UNION ALL Syntax

SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1
UNION ALL
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2

PS: The column names in the result-set of a UNION are always equal to the
column names in the first SELECT statement in the UNION.

"Employees_USA":
E_ID

E_Name

01

Turner, Sally

02

Kent, Clark

03

Svendson, Stephen

04

Scott, Stephen

Now we want to list all the different employees in Norway and USA.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway
UNION
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Look at the following tables:

"Employees_Norway":
E_ID

E_Name

The result-set will look like this:

E_Name
Hansen, Ola
20

Svendson, Tove

Turner, Sally

Svendson, Stephen

Kent, Clark

Pettersen, Kari

Svendson, Stephen

Turner, Sally

Scott, Stephen

Kent, Clark
Scott, Stephen

SQL SELECT INTO Statement

Note: This command cannot be used to list all employees in Norway and
USA. In the example above we have two employees with equal names, and
only one of them will be listed. The UNION command selects only distinct
values.

The SQL SELECT INTO statement can be used to create backup copies of
tables.

Now we want to list all employees in Norway and USA:

The SELECT INTO statement selects data from one table and inserts it into
a different table. The SELECT INTO statement is most often used to create
backup copies of tables.

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway

UNION ALL
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

SQL SELECT INTO Syntax

Result

SELECT *
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_tablename

E_Name

We can select all columns into the new table:

Hansen, Ola

Or we can select only the columns we want into the new table:

Svendson, Tove

SELECT column_name(s)
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_tablename

Svendson, Stephen
Pettersen, Kari

21

Make a Backup Copy - Now we want to make an exact copy of the data in
our "Persons" table.

The following example creates a "Persons_Order_Backup" table contains

data from the two tables "Persons" and "Orders":

SELECT *
INTO Persons_Backup
FROM Persons

SELECT Persons.LastName,Orders.OrderNo
INTO Persons_Order_Backup
FROM Persons
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id

We can also use the IN clause to copy the table into another database:
SELECT *
INTO Persons_Backup IN 'Backup.mdb'
FROM Persons

We can also copy only a few fields into the new table:
SELECT LastName,FirstName
INTO Persons_Backup
FROM Persons

SQL SELECT INTO - With a WHERE Clause

We can also add a WHERE clause.
The following SQL statement creates a "Persons_Backup" table with only
the persons who lives in the city "Sandnes":
SELECT LastName,Firstname
INTO Persons_Backup
FROM Persons
WHERE City='Sandnes'

SQL CREATE DATABASE Statement

The CREATE DATABASE statement is used to create a database.

SQL CREATE DATABASE Syntax

CREATE DATABASE database_name

Now we want to create a database called "my_db". We use the following

CREATE DATABASE statement:
CREATE DATABASE my_db

Database tables can be added with the CREATE TABLE statement.

SQL CREATE TABLE Statement

The CREATE TABLE statement is used to create a table in a database.

SQL SELECT INTO - Joined Tables

Selecting data from more than one table is also possible.

SQL CREATE TABLE Syntax

CREATE TABLE table_name
(
column_name1 data_type,

22

The empty table can be filled with data with the INSERT INTO statement.

column_name2 data_type,
column_name3 data_type,
....
)

The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a
complete reference of all the data types available in MS Access, MySQL,
and SQL Server, go to our complete Data Types reference.

SQL Constraints

CREATE TABLE Example

Now we want to create a table called "Persons" that contains five columns:
P_Id, LastName, FirstName, Address, and City.

Constraints are used to limit the type of data that can go into a table.

We use the following CREATE TABLE statement:

Constraints can be specified when a table is created (with the CREATE

TABLE statement) or after the table is created (with the ALTER TABLE
statement).

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int,
LastName varchar(255),
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

We will focus on the following constraints:

The P_Id column is of type int and will hold a number. The LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City columns are of type varchar with a maximum
length of 255 characters.
The empty "Persons" table will now look like this:
P_Id

LastName

SQL Constraints

FirstName

Address

City

NOT NULL
UNIQUE

PRIMARY KEY

FOREIGN KEY

CHECK

DEFAULT

The next chapters will describe each constraint in details.

23

SQL NOT NULL Constraint

By default, a table column can hold NULL values.

SQL UNIQUE Constraint

The UNIQUE constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table.
The UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints both provide a guarantee for
uniqueness for a column or set of columns.

SQL NOT NULL Constraint

A PRIMARY KEY constraint automatically has a UNIQUE constraint

defined on it.

The NOT NULL constraint enforces a column to NOT accept NULL values.
The NOT NULL constraint enforces a field to always contain a value. This
means that you cannot insert a new record, or update a record without
adding a value to this field.
The following SQL enforces the "P_Id" column and the "LastName" column
to not accept NULL values:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

SQL UNIQUE Constraint

Note that you can have have many UNIQUE constraints per table, but only
one PRIMARY KEY constraint per table.

SQL UNIQUE Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column
when the "Persons" table is created:
MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
UNIQUE (P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL UNIQUE,

24

LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,

FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID UNIQUE (P_Id,LastName)

To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE

constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

To DROP a UNIQUE Constraint

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

To drop a UNIQUE constraint, use the following SQL:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID UNIQUE (P_Id,LastName)
)

MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP INDEX uc_PersonID

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID

SQL UNIQUE Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD UNIQUE (P_Id)

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint

To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE

constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database

table.

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

Primary keys must contain unique values.

25

A primary key column cannot contain NULL values.

Each table should have a primary key, and each table can have only one
primary key.

To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a

PRIMARY KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL
syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on CREATE

TABLE
The following SQL creates a PRIMARY KEY on the "P_Id" column when
the "Persons" table is created:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName)
)

MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on ALTER

TABLE
To create a PRIMARY KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table
is already created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)

To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a

PRIMARY KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL
syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons

26

ADD CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName)

Note: If you use the ALTER TABLE statement to add a primary key, the
primary key column(s) must already have been declared to not contain
NULL values (when the table was first created).

Let's illustrate the foreign key with an example. Look at the following two
tables:
The "Persons" table:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

To DROP a PRIMARY KEY Constraint

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

To drop a PRIMARY KEY constraint, use the following SQL:

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP PRIMARY KEY

The "Orders" table:

O_Id

OrderNo

P_Id

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

77895

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID

44678

22456

24562

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint

Note that the "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table points to the "P_Id"
column in the "Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column in the "Persons" table is the PRIMARY KEY in the
"Persons" table.

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint

The "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table is a FOREIGN KEY in the

"Orders" table.

A FOREIGN KEY in one table points to a PRIMARY KEY in another table.

27

The FOREIGN KEY constraint is used to prevent actions that would destroy
link between tables.
The FOREIGN KEY constraint also prevents that invalid data is inserted
into the foreign key column, because it has to be one of the values contained
in the table it points to.

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint on CREATE

TABLE
The following SQL creates a FOREIGN KEY on the "P_Id" column when
the "Orders" table is created:
MySQL:
CREATE TABLE Orders
(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
FOREIGN KEY (P_Id) REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders
(
O_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a

FOREIGN KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL
syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders
(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint on ALTER

TABLE
To create a FOREIGN KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the
"Orders" table is already created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Orders
ADD FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)

To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a

FOREIGN KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL
syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Orders
ADD CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders
FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)

28

To DROP a FOREIGN KEY Constraint

SQL CHECK Constraint on CREATE TABLE

To drop a FOREIGN KEY constraint, use the following SQL:

The following SQL creates a CHECK constraint on the "P_Id" column when
the "Persons" table is created. The CHECK constraint specifies that the
column "P_Id" must only include integers greater than 0.

MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Orders
DROP FOREIGN KEY fk_PerOrders

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders
DROP CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders

My SQL:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CHECK (P_Id>0)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

SQL CHECK Constraint

SQL CHECK Constraint

The CHECK constraint is used to limit the value range that can be placed in
a column.

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL CHECK (P_Id>0),
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK

constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

If you define a CHECK constraint on a single column it allows only certain

values for this column.

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

If you define a CHECK constraint on a table it can limit the values in certain
columns based on values in other columns in the row.

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,

29

LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,

FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT chk_Person CHECK (P_Id>0 AND City='Sandnes')
)

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP CONSTRAINT chk_Person

SQL CHECK Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a CHECK constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CHECK (P_Id>0)

To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK

constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:
MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ADD CONSTRAINT chk_Person CHECK (P_Id>0 AND City='Sandnes')

To DROP a CHECK Constraint

To drop a CHECK constraint, use the following SQL:
SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
30

SQL DEFAULT Constraint

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
OrderDate date DEFAULT GETDATE()
)

SQL DEFAULT Constraint

The DEFAULT constraint is used to insert a default value into a column.
The default value will be added to all new records, if no other value is
specified.

SQL DEFAULT Constraint on CREATE

TABLE

SQL DEFAULT Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER City SET DEFAULT 'SANDNES'

The following SQL creates a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column

when the "Persons" table is created:

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

My SQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER COLUMN City SET DEFAULT 'SANDNES'

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255) DEFAULT 'Sandnes'
)

The DEFAULT constraint can also be used to insert system values, by using
functions like GETDATE():

To DROP a DEFAULT Constraint

To drop a DEFAULT constraint, use the following SQL:
MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER City DROP DEFAULT

31

Creates an index on a table. Duplicate values are allowed:

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER COLUMN City DROP DEFAULT

CREATE INDEX index_name

ON table_name (column_name)

SQL CREATE UNIQUE INDEX Syntax

Creates a unique index on a table. Duplicate values are not allowed:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name
ON table_name (column_name)

SQL CREATE INDEX Statement

The CREATE INDEX statement is used to create indexes in tables.

Indexes allow the database application to find data fast; without reading the
whole table.

Note: The syntax for creating indexes varies amongst different databases.
Therefore: Check the syntax for creating indexes in your database.

CREATE INDEX Example

The SQL statement below creates an index named "PIndex" on the
"LastName" column in the "Persons" table:

Indexes

CREATE INDEX PIndex

ON Persons (LastName)

An index can be created in a table to find data more quickly and efficiently.

If you want to create an index on a combination of columns, you can list the
column names within the parentheses, separated by commas:

The users cannot see the indexes, they are just used to speed up
searches/queries.
Note: Updating a table with indexes takes more time than
updating a table without (because the indexes also need an
update). So you should only create indexes on columns (and
tables) that will be frequently searched against.

CREATE INDEX PIndex

ON Persons (LastName, FirstName)

SQL CREATE INDEX Syntax

32

SQL DROP INDEX, DROP TABLE, and DROP

DATABASE

Indexes, tables, and databases can easily be deleted/removed with the DROP
statement.

The DROP TABLE statement is used to delete a table.

DROP TABLE table_name

The DROP DATABASE Statement

The DROP DATABASE statement is used to delete a database.

The DROP INDEX Statement

DROP DATABASE database_name

The DROP INDEX statement is used to delete an index in a table.

DROP INDEX Syntax for MS Access:

The TRUNCATE TABLE Statement

DROP INDEX index_name ON table_name

DROP INDEX Syntax for MS SQL Server:

DROP INDEX table_name.index_name

DROP INDEX Syntax for DB2/Oracle:

What if we only want to delete the data inside the table, and not the table
itself?
Then, use the TRUNCATE TABLE statement:
TRUNCATE TABLE table_name

DROP INDEX index_name

DROP INDEX Syntax for MySQL:

SQL ALTER TABLE Statement

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP INDEX index_name

The ALTER TABLE Statement

The DROP TABLE Statement

The ALTER TABLE statement is used to add, delete, or modify columns in

an existing table.
33

SQL ALTER TABLE Syntax

We use the following SQL statement:

To add a column in a table, use the following syntax:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD DateOfBirth date

ALTER TABLE table_name

ADD column_name datatype

To delete a column in a table, use the following syntax (notice that some
database systems don't allow deleting a column):

Notice that the new column, "DateOfBirth", is of type date and is going to
hold a date. The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold.
For a complete reference of all the data types available in MS Access,
MySQL, and SQL Server, go to our complete Data Types reference.
The "Persons" table will now like this:

ALTER TABLE table_name

DROP COLUMN column_name

To change the data type of a column in a table, use the following syntax:
ALTER TABLE table_name
ALTER COLUMN column_name datatype

P_Id

LastNam FirstNam
Address
e
e

Hansen

Svendson Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Ola

City

DateOfBirth

Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

SQL ALTER TABLE Example

Look at the "Persons" table:

Change Data Type Example

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Now we want to change the data type of the column named "DateOfBirth"
in the "Persons" table.

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

We use the following SQL statement:

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to add a column named "DateOfBirth" in the "Persons" table.

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER COLUMN DateOfBirth year

Notice that the "DateOfBirth" column is now of type year and is going to
hold a year in a two-digit or four-digit format.
34

AUTO INCREMENT a Field

DROP COLUMN Example
Next, we want to delete the column named "DateOfBirth" in the "Persons"
table.

Very often we would like the value of the primary key field to be created
automatically every time a new record is inserted.
We would like to create an auto-increment field in a table.

We use the following SQL statement:

ALTER TABLE Persons
DROP COLUMN DateOfBirth

Syntax for MySQL

The "Persons" table will now like this:

The following SQL statement defines the "P_Id" column to be an autoincrement primary key field in the "Persons" table:

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
)

MySQL uses the AUTO_INCREMENT keyword to perform an autoincrement feature.

SQL AUTO INCREMENT Field

By default, the starting value for AUTO_INCREMENT is 1, and it will

increment by 1 for each new record.
To let the AUTO_INCREMENT sequence start with another value, use the
following SQL statement:

Auto-increment allows a unique number to be generated when a new record

is inserted into a table.

ALTER TABLE Persons AUTO_INCREMENT=100

To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will not have to specify a
value for the "P_Id" column (a unique value will be added automatically):
35

INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName,LastName)

VALUES ('Lars','Monsen')

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons"
table. The "P_Id" column would be assigned a unique value. The
"FirstName" column would be set to "Lars" and the "LastName" column
would be set to "Monsen".

Syntax for SQL Server

The following SQL statement defines the "P_Id" column to be an autoincrement primary key field in the "Persons" table:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

The MS SQL Server uses the IDENTITY keyword to perform an autoincrement feature.
By default, the starting value for IDENTITY is 1, and it will increment by 1
for each new record.
To specify that the "P_Id" column should start at value 10 and increment by
5, change the identity to IDENTITY(10,5).
To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will not have to specify a
value for the "P_Id" column (a unique value will be added automatically):
INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName,LastName)

VALUES ('Lars','Monsen')

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons"
table. The "P_Id" column would be assigned a unique value. The
"FirstName" column would be set to "Lars" and the "LastName" column
would be set to "Monsen".

Syntax for Access

The following SQL statement defines the "P_Id" column to be an autoincrement primary key field in the "Persons" table:
CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

The MS Access uses the AUTOINCREMENT keyword to perform an autoincrement feature.

By default, the starting value for AUTOINCREMENT is 1, and it will
increment by 1 for each new record.
To specify that the "P_Id" column should start at value 10 and increment by
5, change the autoincrement to AUTOINCREMENT(10,5).
To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will not have to specify a
value for the "P_Id" column (a unique value will be added automatically):
INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName,LastName)
VALUES ('Lars','Monsen')

36

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons"
table. The "P_Id" column would be assigned a unique value. The
"FirstName" column would be set to "Lars" and the "LastName" column
would be set to "Monsen".

seq_person sequence. The "FirstName" column would be set to "Lars" and

the "LastName" column would be set to "Monsen".

Syntax for Oracle

SQL Views

In Oracle the code is a little bit more tricky.

You will have to create an auto-increment field with the sequence object
(this object generates a number sequence).

A view is a virtual table.

Use the following CREATE SEQUENCE syntax:

This chapter shows how to create, update, and delete a view.

CREATE SEQUENCE seq_person

MINVALUE 1
START WITH 1
INCREMENT BY 1
CACHE 10

SQL CREATE VIEW Statement

The code above creates a sequence object called seq_person, that starts with
1 and will increment by 1. It will also cache up to 10 values for
performance. The cache option specifies how many sequence values will be
stored in memory for faster access.
To insert a new record into the "Persons" table, we will have to use the
nextval function (this function retrieves the next value from seq_person
sequence):
INSERT INTO Persons (P_Id,FirstName,LastName)
VALUES (seq_person.nextval,'Lars','Monsen')

The SQL statement above would insert a new record into the "Persons"
table. The "P_Id" column would be assigned the next number from the

In SQL, a view is a virtual table based on the result-set of an SQL statement.

A view contains rows and columns, just like a real table. The fields in a view
are fields from one or more real tables in the database.
You can add SQL functions, WHERE, and JOIN statements to a view and
present the data as if the data were coming from one single table.

SQL CREATE VIEW Syntax

CREATE VIEW view_name AS
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition

Note: A view always shows up-to-date data! The database engine recreates
the data, using the view's SQL statement, every time a user queries a view.
37

SQL CREATE VIEW Examples

If you have the Northwind database you can see that it has several views
installed by default.
The view "Current Product List" lists all active products (products that are
not discontinued) from the "Products" table. The view is created with the
following SQL:
CREATE VIEW [Current Product List] AS
SELECT ProductID,ProductName
FROM Products
WHERE Discontinued=No

CREATE VIEW [Category Sales For 1997] AS

SELECT DISTINCT CategoryName,Sum(ProductSales) AS
CategorySales
FROM [Product Sales for 1997]
GROUP BY CategoryName

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997]

We can also add a condition to the query. Now we want to see the total sale
only for the category "Beverages":
SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997]
WHERE CategoryName='Beverages'

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Current Product List]

Another view in the Northwind sample database selects every product in the
"Products" table with a unit price higher than the average unit price:
CREATE VIEW [Products Above Average Price] AS
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice
FROM Products
WHERE UnitPrice>(SELECT AVG(UnitPrice) FROM Products)

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Products Above Average Price]

Another view in the Northwind database calculates the total sale for each
category in 1997. Note that this view selects its data from another view
called "Product Sales for 1997":

SQL Updating a View

You can update a view by using the following syntax:

SQL CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW Syntax

CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW view_name AS
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition

Now we want to add the "Category" column to the "Current Product List"
view. We will update the view with the following SQL:
CREATE VIEW [Current Product List] AS
SELECT ProductID,ProductName,Category
FROM Products
WHERE Discontinued=No

38

The following table lists the most important built-in date functions in
MySQL:

SQL Dropping a View

You can delete a view with the DROP VIEW command.

SQL DROP VIEW Syntax

Function

Description

NOW()

Returns the current date and time

CURDATE()

Returns the current date

CURTIME()

Returns the current time

DATE()

Extracts the date part of a date or date/time

expression

EXTRACT()

Returns a single part of a date/time

DATE_ADD()

Adds a specified time interval to a date

DATE_SUB()

Subtracts a specified time interval from a date

DATEDIFF()

Returns the number of days between two dates

DROP VIEW view_name

SQL Date Functions

SQL Dates
The most difficult part when working with dates is to be sure that the
format of the date you are trying to insert, matches the format of the date
column in the database.
As long as your data contains only the date portion, your queries will work
as expected. However, if a time portion is involved, it gets complicated.
Before talking about the complications of querying for dates, we will look at
the most important built-in functions for working with dates.

MySQL Date Functions

DATE_FORMAT
Displays date/time data in different formats
()

SQL Server Date Functions

The following table lists the most important built-in date functions in SQL
Server:
Function

Description

GETDATE()

Returns the current date and time

39

For an overview of all data types available, go to our complete Data Types
reference.
DATEPART()

Returns a single part of a date/time

DATEADD()

Adds or subtracts a specified time interval from a

date

DATEDIFF()

Returns the time between two dates

CONVERT()

Displays date/time data in different formats

SQL Date Data Types

MySQL comes with the following data types for storing a date or a
date/time value in the database:

DATE - format YYYY-MM-DD

DATETIME - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

TIMESTAMP - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

YEAR - format YYYY or YY

SQL Server comes with the following data types for storing a date or a
date/time value in the database:

SQL Working with Dates

You can compare two dates easily if there is no time component involved!
Assume we have the following "Orders" table:
OrderId

ProductName

OrderDate

Geitost

2008-11-11

Camembert Pierrot

2008-11-09

Mozzarella di Giovanni

2008-11-11

Mascarpone Fabioli

2008-10-29

Now we want to select the records with an OrderDate of "2008-11-11" from

the table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate='2008-11-11'

DATE - format YYYY-MM-DD

DATETIME - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

The result-set will look like this:

SMALLDATETIME - format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

OrderId

ProductName

OrderDate

TIMESTAMP - format: a unique number

Geitost

2008-11-11

Mozzarella di Giovanni

2008-11-11

Note: The date types are chosen for a column when you create a new table
in your database!

40

NULL values represent missing unknown data.

By default, a table column can hold NULL values.
Now, assume that the "Orders" table looks like this (notice the time
component in the "OrderDate" column):

This chapter will explain the IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators.

OrderId

ProductName

OrderDate

Geitost

2008-11-11 13:23:44

Camembert Pierrot

2008-11-09 15:45:21

Mozzarella di Giovanni

2008-11-11 11:12:01

If a column in a table is optional, we can insert a new record or update an

existing record without adding a value to this column. This means that the
field will be saved with a NULL value.

Mascarpone Fabioli

2008-10-29 14:56:59

NULL values are treated differently from other values.

If we use the same SELECT statement as above:

SQL NULL Values

NULL is used as a placeholder for unknown or inapplicable values.

Note: It is not possible to compare NULL and 0; they are not equivalent.

SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate='2008-11-11'

we will get no result! This is because the query is looking only for dates
with no time portion.
Tip: If you want to keep your queries simple and easy to maintain, do not
allow time components in your dates!

SQL NULL Values

SQL Working with NULL Values

Look at the following "Persons" table:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Hansen

Ola

Svendson

Tove

Pettersen

Kari

Address

City
Sandnes

Borgvn 23

Sandnes
Stavanger

41

Suppose that the "Address" column in the "Persons" table is optional. This
means that if we insert a record with no value for the "Address" column, the
"Address" column will be saved with a NULL value.
How can we test for NULL values?
It is not possible to test for NULL values with comparison operators, such as
=, <, or <>.
We will have to use the IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators instead.

SQL IS NOT NULL

How do we select only the records with no NULL values in the "Address"
column?
We will have to use the IS NOT NULL operator:
SELECT LastName,FirstName,Address FROM Persons
WHERE Address IS NOT NULL

The result-set will look like this:

SQL IS NULL

LastNam FirstNam
Address
e
e

How do we select only the records with NULL values in the "Address"
column?

Svendson Tove

We will have to use the IS NULL operator:

In the next chapter we will look at the ISNULL(), NVL(), IFNULL() and
COALESCE() functions.

SELECT LastName,FirstName,Address FROM Persons

WHERE Address IS NULL

Borgvn 23

The result-set will look like this:

LastName FirstName Address
Hansen

Ola

Pettersen

Kari

Tip: Always use IS NULL to look for NULL values.

42

achieve the same result.

SQL NULL Functions

In this case we want NULL values to be zero.

SQL ISNULL(), NVL(), IFNULL() and

COALESCE() Functions

Below, if "UnitsOnOrder" is NULL it will not harm the calculation, because

ISNULL() returns a zero if the value is NULL:
SQL Server / MS Access
SELECT
ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+ISNULL(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products

Look at the following "Products" table:

P_Id ProductName UnitPrice UnitsInStock UnitsOnOrder
1

Jarlsberg

10.45

16

Mascarpone

32.56

23

Gorgonzola

15.67

15

Oracle
Oracle does not have an ISNULL() function. However, we can use the
NVL() function to achieve the same result:

20

Suppose that the "UnitsOnOrder" column is optional, and may contain

NULL values.
We have the following SELECT statement:
SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+UnitsOnOrder)
FROM Products

In the example above, if any of the "UnitsOnOrder" values are NULL, the
result is NULL.
Microsoft's ISNULL() function is used to specify how we want to treat
NULL values.

SELECT
ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+NVL(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products

MySQL
MySQL does have an ISNULL() function. However, it works a little bit
different from Microsoft's ISNULL() function.
In MySQL we can use the IFNULL() function, like this:
SELECT
ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+IFNULL(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products

or we can use the COALESCE() function, like this:

The NVL(), IFNULL(), and COALESCE() functions can also be used to

43

SELECT
ProductName,UnitPrice*(UnitsInStock+COALESCE(UnitsOnOrder,0))
FROM Products

Data types and ranges for Microsoft Access, MySQL and SQL Server.

Microsoft Access Data Types

SQL Data Types

Data type

Description

Text

Use for text or combinations of text and

numbers. 255 characters maximum

Memo

Memo is used for larger amounts of text.

Stores up to 65,536 characters. Note: You
cannot sort a memo field. However, they are
searchable

Byte

Allows whole numbers from 0 to 255

1 byte

Integer

Allows whole numbers between -32,768 and

32,767

2
bytes

Long

Allows whole numbers between

-2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647

4
bytes

Single

Single precision floating-point. Will handle

most decimals

4
bytes

Double

Double precision floating-point. Will handle

most decimals

8
bytes

Currency

Use for currency. Holds up to 15 digits of

8
whole dollars, plus 4 decimal places. Tip: You bytes
can choose which country's currency to use

AutoNumber AutoNumber fields automatically give each

record its own number, usually starting at 1

Stora
ge

4
bytes
44

Date/Time

Use for dates and times

8
bytes

Yes/No

A logical field can be displayed as Yes/No,

1 bit
True/False, or On/Off. In code, use the
constants True and False (equivalent to -1 and
0). Note: Null values are not allowed in Yes/No
fields

TINYTEXT

Holds a string with a maximum length of 255

characters

TEXT

Holds a string with a maximum length of 65,535

characters

Ole Object

Can store pictures, audio, video, or other

BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects)

BLOB

For BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects). Holds up to

65,535 bytes of data

Hyperlink

Contain links to other files, including web

pages

Lookup
Wizard

Let you type a list of options, which can then

be chosen from a drop-down list

up to
1GB

characters. Note: If you put a greater value than

255 it will be converted to a TEXT type

MEDIUMTEXT Holds a string with a maximum length of 16,777,215

characters
4
bytes

MySQL Data Types

In MySQL there are three main types : text, number, and Date/Time types.
Text types:

MEDIUMBLOB For BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects). Holds up to

16,777,215 bytes of data
LONGTEXT

Holds a string with a maximum length of

4,294,967,295 characters

LONGBLOB

For BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects). Holds up to

4,294,967,295 bytes of data

ENUM(x,y,z,e Let you enter a list of possible values. You can list up
tc.)
to 65535 values in an ENUM list. If a value is
inserted that is not in the list, a blank value will be
inserted.

Data type

Description

Note: The values are sorted in the order you enter them.

CHAR(size)

Holds a fixed length string (can contain letters,

numbers, and special characters). The fixed size is
specified in parenthesis. Can store up to 255
characters

You enter the possible values in this format:

ENUM('X','Y','Z')

VARCHAR(siz Holds a variable length string (can contain letters,

e)
numbers, and special characters). The maximum
size is specified in parenthesis. Can store up to 255

SET

Similar to ENUM except that SET may contain up to

64 list items and can store more than one choice

Number types:
45

Data type

Description

TINYINT(size) -128 to 127 normal. 0 to 255 UNSIGNED*. The

maximum number of digits may be specified in
parenthesis
SMALLINT(size -32768 to 32767 normal. 0 to 65535 UNSIGNED*.
)
The maximum number of digits may be specified in
parenthesis
MEDIUMINT(si -8388608 to 8388607 normal. 0 to 16777215
ze)
UNSIGNED*. The maximum number of digits may
be specified in parenthesis
INT(size)

-2147483648 to 2147483647 normal. 0 to

4294967295 UNSIGNED*. The maximum number of
digits may be specified in parenthesis

BIGINT(size)

-9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807
normal. 0 to 18446744073709551615 UNSIGNED*.
The maximum number of digits may be specified in
parenthesis

specified in the d parameter

*The integer types have an extra option called UNSIGNED. Normally, the
integer goes from an negative to positive value. Adding the UNSIGNED
attribute will move that range up so it starts at zero instead of a negative
number.
Date types:
Data type

Description

DATE()

A date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD

Note: The supported range is from '1000-01-01' to '9999-1231'

DATETIME() *A date and time combination. Format: YYYY-MM-DD
HH:MM:SS

Note: The supported range is from '1000-01-01 00:00:00' to

'9999-12-31 23:59:59'

FLOAT(size,d) A small number with a floating decimal point. The

maximum number of digits may be specified in the
size parameter. The maximum number of digits to
the right of the decimal point is specified in the d
parameter

TIMESTAMP() *A timestamp. TIMESTAMP values are stored as the

number of seconds since the Unix epoch ('1970-0101 00:00:00' UTC). Format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

DOUBLE(size, A large number with a floating decimal point. The

d)
maximum number of digits may be specified in the
size parameter. The maximum number of digits to
the right of the decimal point is specified in the d
parameter

TIME()

DECIMAL(size, A DOUBLE stored as a string , allowing for a fixed

d)
decimal point. The maximum number of digits may
be specified in the size parameter. The maximum
number of digits to the right of the decimal point is

Note: The supported range is from '1970-01-01 00:00:01'

UTC to '2038-01-09 03:14:07' UTC
A time. Format: HH:MM:SS

Note: The supported range is from '-838:59:59' to '838:59:59'

YEAR()

A year in two-digit or four-digit format.

Note: Values allowed in four-digit format: 1901 to 2155.

Values allowed in two-digit format: 70 to 69, representing
years from 1970 to 2069
46

*Even if DATETIME and TIMESTAMP return the same format, they work
very differently. In an INSERT or UPDATE query, the TIMESTAMP
automatically set itself to the current date and time. TIMESTAMP also
accepts various formats, like YYYYMMDDHHMMSS,
YYMMDDHHMMSS, YYYYMMDD, or YYMMDD.

characters
nvarchar(ma Variable-length Unicode data. Maximum
x)
536,870,912 characters
ntext

SQL Server Data Types

Binary types:

Character strings:
Data type

Description

Stora
ge

char(n)

Fixed-length character string. Maximum 8,000 n

characters

varchar(n)

Variable-length character string. Maximum

8,000 characters

nchar(n)

Fixed-length Unicode data. Maximum 4,000

characters

bit

Allows 0, 1, or NULL

binary(n)

Fixed-length binary data. Maximum 8,000

bytes

image

Stora
ge

Variable-length binary data. Maximum 2GB

Number types:

Unicode strings:
Description

Description

varbinary(m Variable-length binary data. Maximum 2GB

ax)

Variable-length character string. Maximum

2GB of text data

Data type

Data type

varbinary(n) Variable-length binary data. Maximum 8,000

bytes

varchar(max Variable-length character string. Maximum

)
1,073,741,824 characters
text

Variable-length Unicode data. Maximum 2GB

of text data

Stora
ge

Data type

Description

Stora
ge

tinyint

Allows whole numbers from 0 to 255

1 byte

smallint

Allows whole numbers between -32,768 and

nvarchar(n) Variable-length Unicode data. Maximum 4,000

47

int
bigint

32,767

bytes

Allows whole numbers between

-2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647

4
bytes

Allows whole numbers between

-9,223,372,036,854,775,808 and
9,223,372,036,854,775,807

8
bytes

decimal(p,s) Fixed precision and scale numbers.

5-17
bytes

Allows numbers from -10^38 +1 to 10^38 1.

The p parameter indicates the maximum total number
of digits that can be stored (both to the left and to the
right of the decimal point). p must be a value from 1
to 38. Default is 18.

float(n)

Floating precision number data from -1.79E + 4 or 8

308 to 1.79E + 308.
bytes

The n parameter indicates whether the field should

hold 4 or 8 bytes. float(24) holds a 4-byte field and
float(53) holds an 8-byte field. Default value of n is
53.
real

Floating precision number data from -3.40E + 4

38 to 3.40E + 38
bytes

5-17
bytes

Data type

Description

Stora
ge

datetime

From January 1, 1753 to December 31, 9999

with an accuracy of 3.33 milliseconds

8
bytes

datetime2

From January 1, 0001 and December 31, 9999 6-8

with an accuracy of 100 nanoseconds
bytes

Allows numbers from -10^38 +1 to 10^38 1.

The p parameter indicates the maximum total number
of digits that can be stored (both to the left and to the
right of the decimal point). p must be a value from 1
to 38. Default is 18.
The s parameter indicates the maximum number of
digits stored to the right of the decimal point. s must
be a value from 0 to p. Default value is 0
smallmoney Monetary data from -214,748.3648 to
214,748.3647

4
bytes

money

Monetary data from

bytes

Date types:

The s parameter indicates the maximum number of

digits stored to the right of the decimal point. s must
be a value from 0 to p. Default value is 0
numeric(p,s) Fixed precision and scale numbers.

-922,337,203,685,477.5808 to
922,337,203,685,477.5807

smalldatetim From January 1, 1900 to June 6, 2079 with an

e
accuracy of 1 minute

4
bytes

date

Store a date only. From January 1, 0001 to

December 31, 9999

3
bytes

time

Store a time only to an accuracy of 100

nanoseconds

3-5
bytes

datetimeoffs The same as datetime2 with the addition of a 8-10

et
time zone offset
bytes

48

timestamp

Stores a unique number that gets updated

every time a row gets created or modified.
The timestamp value is based upon an
internal clock and does not correspond to real
time. Each table may have only one
timestamp variable

Other data types:

Data type

Description

sql_variant

Stores up to 8,000 bytes of data of various data

types, except text, ntext, and timestamp

uniqueidenti Stores a globally unique identifier (GUID)

fier
xml

Stores XML formatted data. Maximum 2GB

cursor

Stores a reference to a cursor used for database

operations

table

Stores a result-set for later processing

SQL Aggregate Functions

SQL aggregate functions return a single value, calculated from values in a
column.
Useful aggregate functions:

AVG() - Returns the average value

COUNT() - Returns the number of rows

FIRST() - Returns the first value

LAST() - Returns the last value

MAX() - Returns the largest value

MIN() - Returns the smallest value

SUM() - Returns the sum

SQL Scalar functions

SQL scalar functions return a single value, based on the input value.
Useful scalar functions:

SQL Functions

SQL has many built-in functions for performing calculations on data.

UCASE() - Converts a field to upper case

LCASE() - Converts a field to lower case

MID() - Extract characters from a text field

LEN() - Returns the length of a text field

ROUND() - Rounds a numeric field to the number of

decimals specified
49

NOW() - Returns the current system date and time

FORMAT() - Formats how a field is to be displayed

Tip: The aggregate functions and the scalar functions will be explained in
details in the next chapters.

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to find the average value of the "OrderPrice" fields.

SQL AVG() Function

We use the following SQL statement:

SELECT AVG(OrderPrice) AS OrderAverage FROM Orders

The AVG() Function

The result-set will look like this:

The AVG() function returns the average value of a numeric column.

OrderAverage

SQL AVG() Syntax

950

SELECT AVG(column_name) FROM table_name

Now we want to find the customers that have an OrderPrice value higher
then the average OrderPrice value.
We use the following SQL statement:

SQL AVG() Example

SELECT Customer FROM Orders

WHERE OrderPrice>(SELECT AVG(OrderPrice) FROM Orders)

We have the following "Orders" table:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

The result-set will look like this:

Customer
Hansen
50

Nilsen

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) FROM table_name

Jensen

Note: COUNT(DISTINCT) works with ORACLE and Microsoft SQL

Server, but not with Microsoft Access.

SQL COUNT() Function

SQL COUNT(column_name) Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

The COUNT() function returns the number of rows that matches a specified
criteria.

SQL COUNT(column_name) Syntax

The COUNT(column_name) function returns the number of values (NULL
values will not be counted) of the specified column:
SELECT COUNT(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL COUNT(*) Syntax

The COUNT(*) function returns the number of records in a table:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to count the number of orders from "Customer Nilsen".

We use the following SQL statement:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table_name

SQL COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) Syntax

The COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) function returns the number of
distinct values of the specified column:

SELECT COUNT(Customer) AS CustomerNilsen FROM Orders

WHERE Customer='Nilsen'

The result of the SQL statement above will be 2, because the customer
Nilsen has made 2 orders in total:
51

CustomerNilsen

The result-set will look like this:

NumberOfCustomers
3

SQL COUNT(*) Example

which is the number of unique customers (Hansen, Nilsen, and Jensen) in

the "Orders" table.

If we omit the WHERE clause, like this:

SELECT COUNT(*) AS NumberOfOrders FROM Orders

SQL FIRST() Function

The result-set will look like this:

NumberOfOrders
6

The FIRST() Function

The FIRST() function returns the first value of the selected column.

which is the total number of rows in the table.

SQL FIRST() Syntax

SELECT FIRST(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL COUNT(DISTINCT column_name)

Example
Now we want to count the number of unique customers in the "Orders"
table.
We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Customer) AS NumberOfCustomers FROM
Orders

SQL FIRST() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:
O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen
52

The LAST() function returns the last value of the selected column.
2

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

SQL LAST() Syntax

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

SELECT LAST(column_name) FROM table_name

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

SQL LAST() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

Now we want to find the first value of the "OrderPrice" column.

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

The result-set will look like this:

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

FirstOrderPrice

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

1000

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

We use the following SQL statement:

SELECT FIRST(OrderPrice) AS FirstOrderPrice FROM Orders

Now we want to find the last value of the "OrderPrice" column.

SQL LAST() Function

We use the following SQL statement:

SELECT LAST(OrderPrice) AS LastOrderPrice FROM Orders

The LAST() Function

The result-set will look like this:

53

LastOrderPrice

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

100

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

Now we want to find the largest value of the "OrderPrice" column.

SQL MAX() Function

We use the following SQL statement:

SELECT MAX(OrderPrice) AS LargestOrderPrice FROM Orders

The MAX() Function

The result-set will look like this:

The MAX() function returns the largest value of the selected column.

LargestOrderPrice

SQL MAX() Syntax

2000

SELECT MAX(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL MIN() Function

SQL MAX() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:
O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

The MIN() Function

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

The MIN() function returns the smallest value of the selected column.

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

SQL MIN() Syntax

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

SELECT MIN(column_name) FROM table_name

54

SQL SUM() Function

SQL MIN() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:
O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

The SUM() Function

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

The SUM() function returns the total sum of a numeric column.

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

SQL SUM() Syntax

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

SELECT SUM(column_name) FROM table_name

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

SQL SUM() Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

Now we want to find the smallest value of the "OrderPrice" column.

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

The result-set will look like this:

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

SmallestOrderPrice

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

100

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

We use the following SQL statement:

SELECT MIN(OrderPrice) AS SmallestOrderPrice FROM Orders

55

Now we want to find the sum of all "OrderPrice" fields".

We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT SUM(OrderPrice) AS OrderTotal FROM Orders

SQL GROUP BY Example

The result-set will look like this:

We have the following "Orders" table:

OrderTotal

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

5700

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

SQL GROUP BY Statement

Aggregate functions often need an added GROUP BY statement.

Now we want to find the total sum (total order) of each customer.

The GROUP BY Statement

The GROUP BY statement is used in conjunction with the aggregate
functions to group the result-set by one or more columns.

We will have to use the GROUP BY statement to group the customers.

We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT Customer,SUM(OrderPrice) FROM Orders
GROUP BY Customer

SQL GROUP BY Syntax

The result-set will look like this:
SELECT column_name, aggregate_function(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value
GROUP BY column_name

Customer SUM(OrderPrice)

56

Hansen

2000

Nilsen

1700

Jensen

2000

Nice! Isn't it? :)

Let's see what happens if we omit the GROUP BY statement:
SELECT Customer,SUM(OrderPrice) FROM Orders

us the correct result. However, you have seen that the GROUP BY statement
solves this problem.

GROUP BY More Than One Column

We can also use the GROUP BY statement on more than one column, like
this:
SELECT Customer,OrderDate,SUM(OrderPrice) FROM Orders
GROUP BY Customer,OrderDate

The result-set will look like this:

Customer SUM(OrderPrice)

SQL HAVING Clause

Hansen

5700

Nilsen

5700

Hansen

5700

Hansen

5700

Jensen

5700

The HAVING clause was added to SQL because the WHERE keyword
could not be used with aggregate functions.

Nilsen

5700

SQL HAVING Syntax

The result-set above is not what we wanted.

Explanation of why the above SELECT statement cannot be used: The
SELECT statement above has two columns specified (Customer and
SUM(OrderPrice). The "SUM(OrderPrice)" returns a single value (that is the
total sum of the "OrderPrice" column), while "Customer" returns 6 values
(one value for each row in the "Orders" table). This will therefore not give

The HAVING Clause

SELECT column_name, aggregate_function(column_name)

FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value
GROUP BY column_name
HAVING aggregate_function(column_name) operator value

57

Now we want to find if the customers "Hansen" or "Jensen" have a total

order of more than 1500.

SQL HAVING Example

We have the following "Orders" table:

We add an ordinary WHERE clause to the SQL statement:

O_Id

OrderDate

OrderPrice

Customer

2008/11/12

1000

Hansen

2008/10/23

1600

Nilsen

2008/09/02

700

Hansen

2008/09/03

300

Hansen

2008/08/30

2000

Jensen

2008/10/04

100

Nilsen

SELECT Customer,SUM(OrderPrice) FROM Orders

WHERE Customer='Hansen' OR Customer='Jensen'
GROUP BY Customer
HAVING SUM(OrderPrice)>1500

The result-set will look like this:

Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Hansen

2000

Jensen

2000

Now we want to find if any of the customers have a total order of less than
2000.
We use the following SQL statement:
SELECT Customer,SUM(OrderPrice) FROM Orders
GROUP BY Customer
HAVING SUM(OrderPrice)<2000

The result-set will look like this:

SQL UCASE() Function

The UCASE() Function

The UCASE() function converts the value of a field to uppercase.

Customer SUM(OrderPrice)
Nilsen

1700

SQL UCASE() Syntax

SELECT UCASE(column_name) FROM table_name

58

SQL LCASE() Function

SQL UCASE() Example

We have the following "Persons" table:

The LCASE() Function

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

Now we want to select the content of the "LastName" and "FirstName"

columns above, and convert the "LastName" column to uppercase.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT UCASE(LastName) as LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

The LCASE() function converts the value of a field to lowercase.

SQL LCASE() Syntax

SELECT LCASE(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL LCASE() Example

We have the following "Persons" table:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

The result-set will look like this:

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

LastName

FirstName

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

HANSEN

Ola

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

SVENDSON

Tove

PETTERSEN

Kari

Now we want to select the content of the "LastName" and "FirstName"

columns above, and convert the "LastName" column to lowercase.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT LCASE(LastName) as LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

59

The result-set will look like this:

LastName

FirstName

Hansen

Ola

Svendson

Tove

Pettersen

Kari

Length

Optional. The number of characters to return. If

omitted, the MID() function returns the rest of the
text.

SQL MID() Example

We have the following "Persons" table:

SQL MID() Function

The MID() Function

P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

The MID() function is used to extract characters from a text field.

Now we want to extract the first four characters of the "City" column above.

SQL MID() Syntax

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT MID(column_name,start[,length]) FROM table_name

SELECT MID(City,1,4) as SmallCity FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

Parameter Description
column_nam Required. The field to extract characters from.
e
Start

Required. Specifies the starting position (starts at 1).

SmallCity
Sand
Sand
Stav
60

Now we want to select the length of the values in the "Address" column
above.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT LEN(Address) as LengthOfAddress FROM Persons

SQL LEN() Function

The result-set will look like this:

LengthOfAddress

The LEN() Function

12

The LEN() function returns the length of the value in a text field.

SQL LEN() Syntax

SELECT LEN(column_name) FROM table_name

SQL ROUND() Function

SQL LEN() Example

We have the following "Persons" table:
P_Id

LastName

FirstName

Address

City

Hansen

Ola

Timoteivn 10

Sandnes

Svendson

Tove

Borgvn 23

Sandnes

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

The ROUND() Function

The ROUND() function is used to round a numeric field to the number of
decimals specified.

SQL ROUND() Syntax

SELECT ROUND(column_name,decimals) FROM table_name

61

Parameter Description
column_nam Required. The field to round.
e
Decimals

Required. Specifies the number of decimals to be

returned.

SQL ROUND() Example

Jarlsberg

10

Mascarpone

33

Gorgonzola

16

SQL NOW() Function

We have the following "Products" table:

Prod_Id

ProductName

Unit

UnitPrice

Jarlsberg

1000 g

10.45

Mascarpone

1000 g

32.56

Gorgonzola

1000 g

15.67

The NOW() Function

The NOW() function returns the current system date and time.

SQL NOW() Syntax

SELECT NOW() FROM table_name

Now we want to display the product name and the price rounded to the
nearest integer.
We use the following SELECT statement:

SQL NOW() Example

SELECT ProductName, ROUND(UnitPrice,0) as UnitPrice FROM

Products

We have the following "Products" table:

The result-set will look like this:

ProductName

UnitPrice

Prod_Id

ProductName

Unit

UnitPrice

Jarlsberg

1000 g

10.45
62

Mascarpone

1000 g

32.56

Gorgonzola

1000 g

15.67

SELECT FORMAT(column_name,format) FROM table_name

Parameter Description

Now we want to display the products and prices per today's date.
We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT ProductName, UnitPrice, Now() as PerDate FROM Products

column_nam Required. The field to be formatted.

e
Format

Required. Specifies the format.

The result-set will look like this:

ProductName

UnitPrice

PerDate

Jarlsberg

10.45

10/7/2008 11:25:02 AM

Mascarpone

32.56

10/7/2008 11:25:02 AM

Gorgonzola

15.67

10/7/2008 11:25:02 AM

SQL FORMAT() Example

We have the following "Products" table:
Prod_Id

ProductName

Unit

UnitPrice

Jarlsberg

1000 g

10.45

Mascarpone

1000 g

32.56

Gorgonzola

1000 g

15.67

SQL FORMAT() Function

Now we want to display the products and prices per today's date (with
today's date displayed in the following format "YYYY-MM-DD").

The FORMAT() Function

We use the following SELECT statement:

The FORMAT() function is used to format how a field is to be displayed.

SELECT ProductName, UnitPrice, FORMAT(Now(),'YYYY-MM-DD') as

PerDate
FROM Products

SQL FORMAT() Syntax

63

The result-set will look like this:

ProductName

UnitPrice

PerDate

Jarlsberg

10.45

2008-10-07

Mascarpone

32.56

2008-10-07

Gorgonzola

15.67

2008-10-07

or
SELECT column_name
FROM table_name AS table_alias
BETWEEN

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
BETWEEN value1 AND value2

CREATE
DATABASE

CREATE DATABASE database_name

CREATE TABLE

CREATE TABLE table_name

(
column_name1 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
...
)

CREATE INDEX

CREATE INDEX index_name

ON table_name (column_name)

SQL Quick Reference From W3Schools

SQL Statement Syntax

AND / OR

ALTER TABLE

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
AND|OR condition

or
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name
ON table_name (column_name)

ALTER TABLE table_name

ADD column_name datatype
CREATE VIEW

CREATE VIEW view_name AS

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition

DELETE

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE some_column=some_value

or
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP COLUMN column_name
AS (alias)

SELECT column_name AS column_alias

FROM table_name

64

IN (value1,value2,..)

or

INSERT INTO

DELETE FROM table_name

(Note: Deletes the entire table!!)

or

DELETE * FROM table_name

(Note: Deletes the entire table!!)

INSERT INTO table_name

(column1, column2, column3,...)
VALUES (value1, value2, value3,....)

DROP DATABASE DROP DATABASE database_name

DROP INDEX

DROP INDEX table_name.index_name (SQL

Server)
DROP INDEX index_name ON table_name (MS
Access)
DROP INDEX index_name (DB2/Oracle)
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP INDEX index_name (MySQL)

DROP TABLE

DROP TABLE table_name

GROUP BY

SELECT column_name,
aggregate_function(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value
GROUP BY column_name

HAVING

IN

SELECT column_name,
aggregate_function(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value
GROUP BY column_name
HAVING aggregate_function(column_name)
operator value
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name

INSERT INTO table_name

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,....)

INNER JOIN

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
INNER JOIN table_name2
ON
table_name1.column_name=table_name2.colum
n_name

LEFT JOIN

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
LEFT JOIN table_name2
ON
table_name1.column_name=table_name2.colum
n_name

RIGHT JOIN

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
RIGHT JOIN table_name2
ON
table_name1.column_name=table_name2.colum
n_name

FULL JOIN

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
FULL JOIN table_name2
ON
table_name1.column_name=table_name2.colum
n_name
65

LIKE

ORDER BY

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name LIKE pattern

UPDATE

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name [ASC|DESC]

UPDATE table_name
SET column1=value, column2=value,...
WHERE some_column=some_value

WHERE

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value

SELECT

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

SELECT *

SELECT *
FROM table_name

SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2

SQL Hosting

SELECT DISTINCT SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s)

FROM table_name
SELECT INTO

SELECT TOP

SELECT *
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_table_name

or

If you want your web site to be able to store and display data from a
database, your web server should have access to a database system that uses
the SQL language.

SELECT column_name(s)
INTO new_table_name [IN externaldatabase]
FROM old_table_name

If your web server will be hosted by an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you
will have to look for SQL hosting plans.

SELECT TOP number|percent column_name(s)

FROM table_name

The most common SQL hosting databases are MySQL, MS SQL Server, and
MS Access.

TRUNCATE TABLE TRUNCATE TABLE table_name

UNION

UNION ALL

SQL Hosting

SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1

UNION
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1
UNION ALL

You can have SQL databases on both Windows and Linux/UNIX operating
systems.
Below is an overview of which database system that runs on which OS.
MS SQL Server
Runs only on Windows OS.
66

MySQL

If you want to learn more about MySQL, please visit our PHP tutorial.

Runs on both Windows and Linux/UNIX operating systems.

MS Access (recommended only for small websites)
Runs only on Windows OS.
To learn more about web hosting, please visit our Hosting tutorial.

SQL Summary
This SQL tutorial has taught you the standard computer language for
accessing and manipulating database systems.
You have learned how to execute queries, retrieve data, insert new records,
delete records and update records in a database with SQL.
You have also learned how to create databases, tables, and indexes with
SQL, and how to drop them.
You have learned the most important aggregate functions in SQL.
You now know that SQL is the standard language that works with all the
well-known database systems like MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle,
MySQL, and MS Access.

Now You Know SQL, What's Next?

Our recommendation is to learn about ADO or PHP MySQL.
If you want to learn more about ADO, please visit our ADO tutorial.
67