SQL - Overview

SQL tutorial gives unique learning on Structured Query Language and it helps to make practice on
SQL commands which provides immediate results. SQL is a language of database, it includes
database creation, deletion, fetching rows and modifying rows etc.
SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard but there are many different
versions of the SQL language.

What is SQL?
SQL is Structured Query Language, which is a computer language for storing, manipulating and
retrieving data stored in relational database.
SQL is the standard language for Relation Database System. All relational database management
systems like MySQL, MS Access, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, postgres and SQL Server use SQL as
standard database language.
Also, they are using different dialects, such as:

MS SQL Server using T-SQL,

Oracle using PL/SQL,

MS Access version of SQL is called JET SQL (native format) etc.

Why SQL?
Allows users to access data in relational database management systems.

Allows users to describe the data.

Allows users to define the data in database and manipulate that data.

Allows to embed within other languages using SQL modules, libraries & pre-compilers.

Allows users to create and drop databases and tables.

Allows users to create view, stored procedure, functions in a database.

Allows users to set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

History:

1970 -- Dr. Edgar F. "Ted" Codd of IBM is known as the father of relational databases. He
described a relational model for databases.

1974 -- Structured Query Language appeared.

1978 -- IBM worked to develop Codd's ideas and released a product named System/R.

1986 -- IBM developed the first prototype of relational database and standardized by ANSI.
The first relational database was released by Relational Software and its later becoming
Oracle.

SQL Process:
When you are executing an SQL command for any RDBMS, the system determines the best way to
carry out your request and SQL engine figures out how to interpret the task.
There are various components included in the process. These components are Query Dispatcher,
Optimization Engines, Classic Query Engine and SQL Query Engine, etc. Classic query engine handles
all non-SQL queries but SQL query engine won't handle logical files.
Following is a simple diagram showing SQL Architecture:

SQL Commands:
The

standard

SQL

commands to interact with

relational

databases

are

CREATE, SELECT, INSERT,

UPDATE,
DROP.
can

DELETE
These

be

groups

commands

classified
based

on

nature:

DDL - Data
Definition
Language:
Command

Description

CREATE

Creates a new table, a view of a table, or other object in

database

ALTER

Modifies an existing database object, such as a table.

DROP

Deletes an entire table, a view of a table or other object in the

database.

DML - Data Manipulation Language:

Command

Description

SELECT

Retrieves certain records from one or more tables

INSERT

Creates a record

UPDATE

Modifies records

DELETE

Deletes records

DCL - Data Control Language:

Command

Description

GRANT

Gives a privilege to user

REVOKE

Takes back privileges granted from user

and

into
their

What is RDBMS?
RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System. RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all
modern database systems like MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and Microsoft Access.
A Relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) that
is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd.

What is table?
The data in RDBMS is stored in database objects called tables. The table is a collection of related data
entries and it consists of columns and rows.
Remember, a table is the most common and simplest form of data storage in a relational database.
Following is the example of a CUSTOMERS table:
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME
| AGE | ADDRESS | SALARY

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh
| 2 | Khilan

| 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
| 25 | Delhi

| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai
| 5 | Hardik

| 27 | Bhopal

| 6 | Komal

| 22 | MP

| 7 | Muffy

| 24 | Indore

| 1500.00 |
| 2000.00 |
| 6500.00 |
| 8500.00 |
| 4500.00 |
| 10000.00 |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

What is field?
Every table is broken up into smaller entities called fields. The fields in the CUSTOMERS table consist
of ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS and SALARY.
A field is a column in a table that is designed to maintain specific information about every record in
the table.

What is record or row?

A record, also called a row of data, is each individual entry that exists in a table. For example there
are 7 records in the above CUSTOMERS table. Following is a single row of data or record in the
CUSTOMERS table:
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh | 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

A record is a horizontal entity in a table.

What is column?
A column is a vertical entity in a table that contains all information associated with a specific field in a
table.
For example, a column in the CUSTOMERS table is ADDRESS, which represents location description
and would consist of the following:

+-----------+
| ADDRESS |
+-----------+
| Ahmedabad |
| Delhi

| Kota

| Mumbai

| Bhopal
| MP
| Indore

|
|
|

+----+------+

What is NULL value?

A NULL value in a table is a value in a field that appears to be blank, which means a field with a NULL
value is a field with no value.It is very important to understand that a NULL value is different than a

zero value or a field that contains spaces. A field with a NULL value is one that has been left blank
during record creation.

SQL Constraints:
Constraints are the rules enforced on data columns on table. These are used to limit the type of data
that can go into a table. This ensures the accuracy and reliability of the data in the database.
Constraints could be column level or table level. Column level constraints are applied only to one
column where as table level constraints are applied to the whole table.
Following are commonly used constraints available in SQL:

NOT NULL Constraint: Ensures that a column cannot have NULL value.

DEFAULT Constraint: Provides a default value for a column when none is specified.

UNIQUE Constraint: Ensures that all values in a column are different.

PRIMARY Key: Uniquely identified each rows/records in a database table.

FOREIGN Key: Uniquely identified a rows/records in any another database table.

CHECK Constraint: The CHECK constraint ensures that all values in a column satisfy certain
conditions.

INDEX: Use to create and retrieve data from the database very quickly.

Data Integrity:
The following categories of the data integrity exist with each RDBMS:

Entity Integrity: There are no duplicate rows in a table.

Domain Integrity: Enforces valid entries for a given column by restricting the type, the format,
or the range of values.

Referential integrity: Rows cannot be deleted, which are used by other records.

User-Defined Integrity: Enforces some specific business rules that do not fall into entity,
domain or referential integrity.

Database Normalization
Database normalization is the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are two
reasons of the normalization process:

Eliminating redundant data, for example, storing the same data in more than one tables.

Ensuring data dependencies make sense.

Both of these are worthy goals as they reduce the amount of space a database consumes and ensure
that data is logically stored. Normalization consists of a series of guidelines that help guide you in
creating a good database structure.
Normalization guidelines are divided into normal forms; think of form as the format or the way a
database structure is laid out. The aim of normal forms is to organize the database structure so that
it complies with the rules of first normal form, then second normal form, and finally third normal
form.
It's your choice to take it further and go to fourth normal form, fifth normal form, and so on, but
generally speaking, third normal form is enough.

First Normal Form (1NF)

Second Normal Form (2NF)

Third Normal Form (3NF)

There are many popular RDBMS available to work with. This tutorial gives a
brief overview of few most popular RDBMS. This would help you to compare
their basic features.

MySQL
MySQL is an open source SQL database, which is developed by Swedish
company MySQL AB. MySQL is pronounced "my ess-que-ell," in contrast
with SQL, pronounced "sequel."
MySQL is supporting many different platforms including Microsoft Windows,
the major Linux distributions, UNIX, and Mac OS X.
MySQL has free and paid versions, depending on its usage (noncommercial/commercial) and features. MySQL comes with a very fast,
multi-threaded, multi-user, and robust SQL database server.

History:

Development of MySQL by Michael Widenius & David Axmark beginning in 1994.

First internal release on 23 May 1995.

Windows version was released on 8 January 1998 for Windows 95 and NT.

Version 3.23: beta from June 2000, production release January 2001.

Version 4.0: beta from August 2002, production release March 2003 (unions).

Version 4.01: beta from August 2003, Jyoti adopts MySQL for database tracking.

Version 4.1: beta from June 2004, production release October 2004.

Version 5.0: beta from March 2005, production release October 2005.

Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL AB on 26 February 2008.

Version 5.1: production release 27 November 2008.

Features:

High Performance.

High Availability.

Scalability and Flexibility Run anything.

Robust Transactional Support.

Web and Data Warehouse Strengths.

Strong Data Protection.

Comprehensive Application Development.

Management Ease.

Open Source Freedom and 24 x 7 Support.

Lowest Total Cost of Ownership.

MS SQL Server
MS SQL Server is a Relational Database Management System developed by
Microsoft Inc. Its primary query languages are:

T-SQL.

ANSI SQL.

History:

1987 - Sybase releases SQL Server for UNIX.

1988 - Microsoft, Sybase, and Aston-Tate port SQL Server to OS/2.

1989 - Microsoft, Sybase, and Aston-Tate release SQL Server 1.0 for OS/2.

1990 - SQL Server 1.1 is released with support for Windows 3.0 clients.

Aston - Tate drops out of SQL Server development.

2000 - Microsoft releases SQL Server 2000.

2001 - Microsoft releases XML for SQL Server Web Release 1 (download).

2002 - Microsoft releases SQLXML 2.0 (renamed from XML for SQL Server).

2002 - Microsoft releases SQLXML 3.0.

2005 - Microsoft releases SQL Server 2005 on November 7th, 2005.

Features:

High Performance.

High Availability.

Database mirroring.

Database snapshots.

CLR integration.

Service Broker.

DDL triggers.

Ranking functions.

Row version-based isolation levels.

XML integration.

TRY...CATCH.

Database Mail.

ORACLE
It is a very large and multi-user database management system. Oracle is a
relational database management system developed by 'Oracle Corporation'.
Oracle works to efficiently manage its resource, a database of information,
among the multiple clients requesting and sending data in the network.
It is an excellent database server choice for client/server computing. Oracle
supports all major operating systems for both clients and servers, including
MSDOS, NetWare, UnixWare, OS/2 and most UNIX flavors.

History:
Oracle began in 1977 and celebrating its 32 wonderful years in the industry
(from 1977 to 2009).

1977 - Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates founded Software Development
Laboratories to undertake development work.

1979 - Version 2.0 of Oracle was released and it became first commercial
relational database and first SQL database. The company changed its name to
Relational Software Inc. (RSI).

1981 - RSI started developing tools for Oracle.

1982 - RSI was renamed to Oracle Corporation.

1983 - Oracle released version 3.0, rewritten in C language and ran on multiple
platforms.

1984 - Oracle version 4.0 was released. It contained features like concurrency
control - multi-version read consistency, etc.

1985 - Oracle version 4.0 was released. It contained features like concurrency
control - multi-version read consistency, etc.

2007 - Oracle has released Oracle11g. The new version focused on better
partitioning, easy migration etc.

Features:

Concurrency

Read Consistency

Locking Mechanisms

Quiesce Database

Portability

Self-managing database

SQL*Plus

ASM

Scheduler

Resource Manager

Data Warehousing

Materialized views

Bitmap indexes

Table compression

Parallel Execution

Analytic SQL

Data mining

Partitioning

MS ACCESS
This is one of the most popular Microsoft products. Microsoft Access is an
entry-level database management software. MS Access database is not only
an inexpensive but also powerful database for small-scale projects.
MS Access uses the Jet database engine, which utilizes a specific SQL
language dialect (sometimes referred to as Jet SQL).
MS Access comes with the professional edition of MS Office package. MS
Access has easy-to-use intuitive graphical interface.

1992 - Access version 1.0 was released.

1993 - Access 1.1 released to improve compatibility with inclusion the Access
Basic programming language.

The most significant transition was from Access 97 to Access 2000

2007 - Access 2007, a new database format was introduced ACCDB which
supports complex data types such as multi valued and attachment fields.

Features:

Users can create tables, queries, forms and reports and connect them together
with macros.

The import and export of data to many formats including Excel, Outlook, ASCII,
dBase, Paradox, FoxPro, SQL Server, Oracle, ODBC, etc.

There is also the Jet Database format (MDB or ACCDB in Access 2007), which
can contain the application and data in one file. This makes it very convenient to
distribute the entire application to another user, who can run it in disconnected
environments.

Microsoft Access offers parameterized queries. These queries and Access tables
can be referenced from other programs like VB6 and .NET through DAO or ADO.

The desktop editions of Microsoft SQL Server can be used with Access as an
alternative to the Jet Database Engine.

Microsoft Access is a file server-based database. Unlike client-server relational

database management systems (RDBMS), Microsoft Access does not implement
database triggers, stored procedures, or transaction logging.