Section III - SELECT

3.1: Selecting all columns

SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER;

To limit the number of records returned, use a LIMIT. To limit the results to
just 2 records:
SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER LIMIT 2;

3.2: Selecting specific columns

SELECT CUSTOMER_ID, NAME FROM CUSTOMER;

3.3: Expressions

First, select everything from PRODUCT

SELECT * FROM PRODUCT;
You can use expressions by declaring a TAXED_PRICE. This is not a column, but
rather something that is calculated every time this query is executed.
SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
DESCRIPTION,
PRICE,
PRICE * 1.07 AS TAXED_PRICE
FROM PRODUCT;
In SQliteStudio, you can hit CTRL + SPACE on Windows and Linux
to show an autocomplete box with available fields. For Mac, you will
need to enable that configuration in preferences.
You can also use aliases to declare an UNTAXED_PRICE column off the PRICE,
without any expression.
SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
DESCRIPTION,
PRICE as UNTAXED_PRICE,
PRICE * 1.07 AS TAXED_PRICE
FROM PRODUCT;
SWITCH TO SLIDES FOR MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS

1
3.4: Using round() Function

SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
DESCRIPTION,
PRICE,
round(PRICE * 1.07, 2) AS TAXED_PRICE

FROM PRODUCT;

3.5: Text Concatenation

You can slap a dollar sign to our result using concatenation.

SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
DESCRIPTION,
PRICE AS UNTAXED_PRICE,
'$' || round(PRICE * 1.07, 2) AS TAXED_PRICE
FROM PRODUCT
You can merge text via concatenation. For instance, you can concatenate two
fields and put a comma and space , in between.
SELECT NAME,
CITY || ', ' || STATE AS LOCATION
FROM CUSTOMER;
You can concatenate several fields to create an address.
SELECT NAME,
STREET_ADDRESS || ' ' || CITY || ', ' || STATE || ' ' || ZIP AS SHIP_ADDRESS
FROM CUSTOMER;
This works with any data types, like numbers, texts, and dates. Also note that
some platforms use concat() function instead of double pipes ||
SWITCH TO SLIDES FOR EXERCISE

3.6: Comments

To make a comments in SQL, use commenting dashes or blocks:

-- this is a comment

/*
This is a
multiline comment
*/

2
Section IV- WHERE

4.1: Getting year 2010 records

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE year = 2010;

4.2: Getting non-2010 records

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE year != 2010;
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE year <> 2010;

4.3: Getting records between 2005 and 2010

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE year BETWEEN 2005 AND 2010

4.4: Using AND

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE year >= 2005 AND year <= 2010

4.5: Exclusive Range

This will get the years between 2005 and 2010, but exclude 2005 and 2010
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE year > 2005 AND year < 2010

4.6: Using OR

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE MONTH = 3
OR MONTH = 6
OR MONTH = 9
OR MONTH = 12

3
4.7: Using IN

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE MONTH IN (3,6,9,12);

4.8: Using NOT IN

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE MONTH NOT IN (3,6,9,12);

4.9: Using Modulus

The modulus will perform division but return the remainder. So a remainder of
0 means the two numbers divide evenly.
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE MONTH % 3 = 0;

4.10: Using WHERE on TEXT

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE report_code = '513A63'

4.11: Using IN with text

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE report_code IN ('513A63','1F8A7B','EF616A')

4.12: Using length() function

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE length(report_code) != 6

4.13A: Using LIKE for any characters

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE report_code LIKE 'A%';

4
4.13B: Using Regular Expressions

If you are familiar with regular expressions, you can use those to identify and
qualify text patterns.
SELECT * FROM STATION_DATA
WHERE report_code REGEXP '^A.*$'

4.14: Using LIKE for one character

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE report_code LIKE 'B_C%';
For LIKE, % is used in a different context than modulus %

4.15: True Booleans 1

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE tornado = 1 AND hail = 1;

4.16: True Booleans 2

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE tornado AND hail

4.17: False Booleans 1

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE tornado = 0 AND hail = 1;

4.18: False Booleans 2

SELECT * FROM station_data

WHERE NOT tornado AND hail;

4.19: Handling NULL

A NULL is an absent value. It is not zero, empty text ‘’, or any value. It is blank.
To check for a null value:
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE snow_depth IS NULL;

5
4.20: Handling NULL in conditions

Nulls will not qualify with any condition that doesn’t explicitly handle it.
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE precipitation <= 0.5;
If you want to include nulls, do this:
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE precipitation IS NULL OR precipitation <= 0.5;
You can also use a coalesce() function to turn a null value into a default value,
if it indeed is null.
This will treat all null values as a 0.
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE coalesce(precipitation, 0) <= 0.5;

4.21: Combining AND and OR

Querying for sleet or snow

Problematic. What belongs to the AND and what belongs to the OR?
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE rain = 1 AND temperature <= 32
OR snow_depth > 0;
You must group up the sleet condition in parenthesis so it is treated as one unit.
SELECT * FROM station_data
WHERE (rain = 1 AND temperature <= 32)
OR snow_depth > 0;

Section V- GROUP BY and ORDER BY

5.1: Getting a count of records

SELECT count(*) as record_count FROM station_data

5.2 Getting a count of records with a condition

SELECT count(*) as record_count FROM station_data

WHERE tornado = 1

6
5.3 Getting a count by year

SELECT year, count(*) as record_count

FROM station_data
WHERE tornado = 1
GROUP BY year

5.4 Getting a count by year, month

SELECT year, month, count(*) as record_count

FROM station_data
WHERE tornado = 1
GROUP BY year, month

5.5 Getting a count by year, month with ordinal index

SELECT year, month, count(*) as record_count

FROM station_data
WHERE tornado = 1
GROUP BY 1, 2

5.6 Using ORDER BY

SELECT year, month, count(*) as record_count

FROM station_data
WHERE tornado = 1
GROUP BY year, month
ORDER BY year, month

5.7 Using ORDER BY with DESC

SELECT year, month, count(*) as record_count

FROM station_data
WHERE tornado = 1
GROUP BY year, month
ORDER BY year DESC, month

5.8 Counting non-null values

SELECT COUNT(snow_depth) as recorded_snow_depth_count

FROM station_data

7
5.9 Average temperature by month since year 2000

SELECT month, AVG(temperature) as avg_temp

FROM station_data
WHERE year >= 2000
GROUP BY month

5.10 Average temperature (with rounding) by month since year 2000

SELECT month, round(AVG(temperature),2) as avg_temp

FROM station_data
WHERE year >= 2000
GROUP BY month

5.11 Sum of snow depth

SELECT year, SUM(snow_depth) as total_snow

FROM station_data
WHERE year >= 2005
GROUP BY year

5.12 Multiple aggregations

SELECT year,
SUM(snow_depth) as total_snow,
SUM(precipitation) as total_precipitation,
MAX(precipitation) as max_precipitation

FROM station_data
WHERE year >= 2005
GROUP BY year

EXERCISES

Flip to slides

5.13 Using HAVING

You cannot use WHERE on aggregations. This will result in an error.

SELECT year,
SUM(precipitation) as total_precipitation
FROM station_data

8
WHERE total_precipitation > 30
GROUP BY year
You can however, use HAVING.
SELECT year,
SUM(precipitation) as total_precipitation
FROM station_data
GROUP BY year
HAVING total_precipitation > 30
Note that some platforms like Oracle do not support aliasing in GROUP BY
and HAVING.
Therefore you have to rewrite the entire expression each time
SELECT year,
SUM(precipitation) as total_precipitation
FROM station_data
GROUP BY year
HAVING SUM(precipitation) > 30

5.14 Getting Distinct values

You can get DISTINCT values for one or more columns

SELECT DISTINCT station_number FROM station_data
You can also get distinct combinations of values for multiple columns
SELECT DISTINCT station_number, year FROM station_data

Section VI - CASE Statements

6.1 Categorizing Wind Speed

You can use a CASE statement to turn a column value into another value based
on conditions. For instance, we can turn different wind_speed ranges into HIGH,
MODERATE, and LOW categories.
SELECT report_code, year, month, day, wind_speed,

CASE
WHEN wind_speed >= 40 THEN 'HIGH'
WHEN wind_speed >= 30 AND wind_speed < 40 THEN 'MODERATE'
ELSE 'LOW' END
AS wind_severity

9
FROM station_data

6.2 More Efficient Way To Categorize Wind Speed

We can actually omit AND wind_speed < 40 from the previous example because
each WHEN/THEN is evaluated from top-to-bottom. The first one it finds to be
true is the one it will go with, and stop evaluating subsequent conditions.
SELECT report_code, year, month, day, wind_speed,

CASE
WHEN wind_speed >= 40 THEN 'HIGH'
WHEN wind_speed >= 30 THEN 'MODERATE'
ELSE 'LOW' END
as wind_severity

FROM station_data

6.3 Using CASE with GROUP BY

We can use GROUP BY in conjunction with a CASE statement to slice data in more
ways, such as getting the record count by wind_severity and year.
SELECT year,

CASE
WHEN wind_speed >= 40 THEN 'HIGH'
WHEN wind_speed >= 30 THEN 'MODERATE'
ELSE 'LOW' END
as wind_severity,

COUNT(*) as record_count

FROM station_data
GROUP BY 1,2

6.4 “Zero/Null” Case Trick

There is really no way to create multiple aggregations with different conditions

unless you know a trick with the CASE statement. If you want to find two total
precipitation, with and without tornado precipitations, for each year and month,
you have to do separate queries.
Tornado Precipitation

10
SELECT year, month,
SUM(precipitation) as tornado_precipitation
FROM station_data
WHERE tornado = 1
GROUP BY year, month
Non-Tornado Precipitation
SELECT year, month,
SUM(precipitation) as non_tornado_precipitation
FROM station_data
WHERE tornado = 0
GROUP BY year, month
But you can use a single query using a CASE statement that sets a value to 0 if
the condition is not met. That way it will not impact the sum.
SELECT year, month,
SUM(CASE WHEN tornado = 1 THEN precipitation ELSE 0 END) as tornado_precipitation,

SUM(CASE WHEN tornado = 0 THEN precipitation ELSE 0 END) as non_tornado_precipitation

FROM station_data GROUP BY year, month

6.5 Using Null in a CASE to conditionalize MIN/MAX

Since NULL is ignored in SUM, MIN, MAX, and other aggregate functions, you
can use it in a CASE statement to conditionally control whether or not a value
should be included in that aggregation.
For instance, we can split up max precipitation when a tornado was present vs
not present.
SELECT year,
MAX(CASE WHEN tornado = 0 THEN precipitation ELSE NULL END) as max_non_tornado_precipitation
MAX(CASE WHEN tornado = 1 THEN precipitation ELSE NULL END) as max_tornado_precipitation
FROM station_data
GROUP BY year
Switch to slides for exercise

Exercise 6.1

SELECT the report_code, year, quarter, and temperature, where a “quarter” is

“Q1”, “Q2”, “Q3”, or “Q4” reflecting months 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 respectively.
ANSWER:

11
SELECT

report_code,
year,

CASE
WHEN month BETWEEN 1 and 3 THEN 'Q1'
WHEN month BETWEEN 4 and 6 THEN 'Q2'
WHEN month BETWEEN 7 and 9 THEN 'Q3'
WHEN month BETWEEN 10 and 12 THEN 'Q4'
END as quarter,

temperature

FROM STATION_DATA

Exercise 6.2

Get the average temperature by quarter and month, where a “quarter” is “Q1”,
“Q2”, “Q3”, or “Q4” reflecting months 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 respectively.
ANSWER
SELECT
year,

CASE
WHEN month BETWEEN 1 and 3 THEN 'Q1'
WHEN month BETWEEN 4 and 6 THEN 'Q2'
WHEN month BETWEEN 7 and 9 THEN 'Q3'
WHEN month BETWEEN 10 and 12 THEN 'Q4'
END as quarter,

AVG(temperature) as avg_temp

FROM STATION_DATA
GROUP BY 1,2

Section VII - JOIN

7.1A INNER JOIN

(Refer to slides Section VII)

12
View customer address information with each order by joining tables CUSTOMER
and CUSTOMER_ORDER.
SELECT ORDER_ID,
CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
ORDER_DATE,
SHIP_DATE,
NAME,
STREET_ADDRESS,
CITY,
STATE,
ZIP,
PRODUCT_ID,
ORDER_QTY

FROM CUSTOMER INNER JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID
Joins allow us to keep stored data normalized and simple, but we can get more
descriptive views of our data by using joins.
Notice how two customers are omitted since they don’t have any orders (refer to
slides).

7.2B A BAD APPROACH

You may come across a style of joining where commas are used to select the
needed tables, and a WHERE defines the join condition as shown below:
SELECT ORDER_ID,
CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
ORDER_DATE,
SHIP_DATE,
NAME,
STREET_ADDRESS,
CITY,
STATE,
ZIP,
PRODUCT_ID,
ORDER_QTY

FROM CUSTOMER, CUSTOMER_ORDER

WHERE CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID
Do not use this approach no matter how much your colleagues use it (and
educate them not to use it either). It is extremely inefficient as it will generate
a cartesian product across both tables (every possible combination of records

13
between both), and then filter it based on the WHERE. It does not work with
LEFT JOIN either, which we will look at shortly.
Using the INNER JOIN with an ON condition avoids the cartesian product and is
more efficient. Therefore, always use that approach.

7.2 LEFT OUTER JOIN

To include all customers, regardless of whether they have orders, you can use a
left outer join via LEFT JOIN (refer to slides).
If any customers do not have any orders, they will get one record where the
CUSTOMER_ORDER fields will be null.
SELECT CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
NAME,
STREET_ADDRESS,
CITY,
STATE,
ZIP,
ORDER_DATE,
SHIP_DATE,
ORDER_ID,
PRODUCT_ID,
ORDER_QTY

FROM CUSTOMER LEFT JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID

7.3 Finding Customers with No Orders

With a left outer join, you can filter for NULL values on the CUSTOMER_ORDER
table to find customers that have no orders.
SELECT CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
NAME AS CUSTOMER_NAME

FROM CUSTOMER LEFT JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID

WHERE ORDER_ID IS NULL

You can use a left outer join to find child records with no parent, or parent records
with no children (e.g. a CUSTOMER_ORDER with no CUSTOMER, or a CUSTOMER with
no CUSTOMER_ORDERs).

14
7.4 Joining Multiple Tables

Bring in PRODUCT to supply product information for each CUSTOMER_ORDER, on

top of CUSTOMER information.
SELECT ORDER_ID,
CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
NAME AS CUSTOMER_NAME,
STREET_ADDRESS,
CITY,
STATE,
ZIP,
ORDER_DATE,
PRODUCT.PRODUCT_ID,
DESCRIPTION,
ORDER_QTY

FROM CUSTOMER INNER JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID

INNER JOIN PRODUCT

ON CUSTOMER_ORDER.PRODUCT_ID = PRODUCT.PRODUCT_ID

7.7 Using Expressions with JOINs

You can use expressions combining any fields on any of the joined tables. For
instance, we can now get the total revenue for each customer.
SELECT ORDER_ID,
CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
NAME AS CUSTOMER_NAME,
STREET_ADDRESS,
CITY,
STATE,
ZIP,
ORDER_DATE,
PRODUCT.PRODUCT_ID,
DESCRIPTION,
ORDER_QTY,
ORDER_QTY * PRICE as REVENUE

FROM CUSTOMER INNER JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID

INNER JOIN PRODUCT

ON CUSTOMER_ORDER.PRODUCT_ID = PRODUCT.PRODUCT_ID

15
7.6 Using GROUP BY with JOINs

You can use GROUP BY with a join. For instance, you can find the total revenue
for each customer by leveraging all three joined tables, and aggregating the
REVENUE expression we created earlier.
SELECT
CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
NAME AS CUSTOMER_NAME,
sum(ORDER_QTY * PRICE) as TOTAL_REVENUE

FROM CUSTOMER INNER JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID

INNER JOIN PRODUCT

ON CUSTOMER_ORDER.PRODUCT_ID = PRODUCT.PRODUCT_ID

GROUP BY 1,2
To see all customers even if they had no orders, use a LEFT JOIN
SELECT
CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
NAME AS CUSTOMER_NAME,
sum(ORDER_QTY * PRICE) as TOTAL_REVENUE

FROM CUSTOMER LEFT JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID

LEFT JOIN PRODUCT

ON CUSTOMER_ORDER.PRODUCT_ID = PRODUCT.PRODUCT_ID

GROUP BY 1,2
You can also use a coalesce() function to turn null sums into zeros.
SELECT
CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID,
NAME AS CUSTOMER_NAME,
coalesce(sum(ORDER_QTY * PRICE), 0) as TOTAL_REVENUE

FROM CUSTOMER LEFT JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER

ON CUSTOMER.CUSTOMER_ID = CUSTOMER_ORDER.CUSTOMER_ID

LEFT JOIN PRODUCT

ON CUSTOMER_ORDER.PRODUCT_ID = PRODUCT.PRODUCT_ID

GROUP BY 1,2

16
Section VIII - Database Design
Refer to slides for database design concepts
To view source code for SQL Injection Demo, here is the GitHub page:
https://github.com/thomasnield/sql-injection-demo
To read about normalized forms (which we do not cover in favor of a more
intuitive approach), you can read this article:
http://www.dummies.com/programming/sql/sql-first-second-and-third-
normal-forms/

7.1 - Creating a Table

In SQLiteStudio, navigate to Database -> Add a Database and click the

green plus icon to create a new database. Choose a location and name it
surgetech_conference.db.
Create the COMPANY table. To create a new table, use the SQLiteStudio wizard
by right-clicking the surgetech_conference database and selecting Create a
table. You can also just execute the following SQL.
CREATE TABLE COMPANY (
COMPANY_ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
NAME VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
DESCRIPTION VARCHAR(60),
PRIMARY_CONTACT_ATTENDEE_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
FOREIGN KEY (PRIMARY_CONTACT_ATTENDEE_ID) REFERENCES ATTENDEE(ATTENDEE_ID)
);
After each field declaration, we create “rules” for that field. For example,
COMPANY_ID must be an INTEGER, it is a PRIMARY KEY, and it will AUTOINCREMENT
to automatically generate a consecutive integer ID for each new record. The
NAME field holds text because it is VARCHAR (a variable number of characters),
and it is limited to 30 characters and cannot be NULL.
Lastly, we declare any FOREIGN KEY constraints, specifying which field
is a FOREIGN KEY and what PRIMARY KEY it references. In this example,
PRIMARY_CONTACT_ATTENDEE_ID “references” the ATTENDEE_ID in the ATTENDEE
table, and it can only be those values.

7.2 - Creating the other tables

Create the other tables using the SQLiteStudio New table wizard, or just execut-
ing the following SQL code.

17
CREATE TABLE ROOM (
ROOM_ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
FLOOR_NUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
SEAT_CAPACITY INTEGER NOT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE PRESENTATION (

PRESENTATION_ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
BOOKED_COMPANY_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
BOOKED_ROOM_ID INTEGER NOT NULL,
START_TIME TIME,
END_TIME TIME,
FOREIGN KEY (BOOKED_COMPANY_ID) REFERENCES COMPANY(COMPANY_ID)
FOREIGN KEY (BOOKED_ROOM_ID) REFERENCES ROOM(ROOM_ID)
);

CREATE TABLE ATTENDEE (

ATTENDEE_ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
FIRST_NAME VARCHAR (30) NOT NULL,
LAST_NAME VARCHAR (30) NOT NULL,
PHONE INTEGER,
EMAIL VARCHAR (30),
VIP BOOLEAN DEFAULT (0)
);

CREATE TABLE PRESENTATION_ATTENDANCE (

TICKET_ID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
PRESENTATION_ID INTEGER,
ATTENDEE_ID INTEGER,
FOREIGN KEY (PRESENTATION_ID) REFERENCES PRESENTATION(PRESENTATION_ID)
FOREIGN KEY (ATTENDEE_ID) REFERENCES ATTENDEE(ATTENDEE_ID)
);

Creating Views

It is not uncommon to save SELECT queries that are used frequently into a
database. These are known as Views and act very similarly to tables. You can
essentially save a SELECT query and work with it just like a table.
For instance, say we wanted to save this SQL query that includes ROOM and
COMPANY info with each PRESENTATION record.
SELECT COMPANY.NAME as BOOKED_COMPANY,
ROOM.ROOM_ID as ROOM_NUMBER,
ROOM.FLOOR_NUMBER as FLOOR,
ROOM.SEAT_CAPACITY as SEATS,

18
START_TIME, END_TIME

FROM PRESENTATION

INNER JOIN COMPANY

ON PRESENTATION.BOOKED_COMPANY_ID = COMPANY.COMPANY_ID

INNER JOIN ROOM

ON PRESENTATION.BOOKED_ROOM_ID = ROOM.ROOM_ID
You can save this as a view by right-clicking Views in the database navigator,
and then Create a view. You can then paste the SQL as the body and give the
view a name, such as PRESENTATION_VW (where “VW” means “View”).
You can also just execute the following SQL syntax: CREATE [view name] AS
[a SELECT query]. For this example, this is what it would look like.
CREATE VIEW PRESENTATION_VW AS

SELECT COMPANY.NAME as BOOKED_COMPANY,

ROOM.ROOM_ID as ROOM_NUMBER,
ROOM.FLOOR_NUMBER as FLOOR,
ROOM.SEAT_CAPACITY as SEATS,
START_TIME, END_TIME

FROM PRESENTATION

INNER JOIN COMPANY

ON PRESENTATION.BOOKED_COMPANY_ID = COMPANY.COMPANY_ID

INNER JOIN ROOM

ON PRESENTATION.BOOKED_ROOM_ID = ROOM.ROOM_ID
You will then see the PRESENTATION_VW in your database navigator, and you
can query it just like a table.
SELECT * FROM PRESENTATION_VW
WHERE SEATS >= 30
Obviously, there is no data yet so you will not get any results. But there will be
once you populate data into this database.

Section IX - Writing Data

In this section, we will learn how to write, modify, and delete data in a database.

19
9.1 Using INSERT

To create a new record in a table, use the INSERT command and supply the
values for the needed columns.
Put yourself into the ATTENDEE table.
INSERT INTO ATTENDEE (FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME)
VALUES ('Thomas','Nield')
Notice above that we declare the table we are writing to, which is ATTENDEE. Then
we declare the columns we are supplying values for (FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME),
followed by the values for this new record ('Thomas','Nield').
Notice we did not have to supply a value for ATTENDEE_ID as we have set it in
the previous section to generate its own value. PHONE, EMAIL, and VIP fields
have default values or are nullable, and therefore optional.

9.2 Multiple INSERT records

You can insert multiple rows in an INSERT. This will add three people to the
ATTENDEE table.
INSERT INTO ATTENDEE (FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, PHONE, EMAIL, VIP)
VALUES ('Jon', 'Skeeter', 4802185842,'[email protected]', 1),
('Sam','Scala', 2156783401,'[email protected]', 0),
('Brittany','Fisher', 5932857296,'[email protected]', 0)

9.3 Testing the foreign keys

Let’s test our design and make sure our primary/foreign keys are working.
Try to INSERT a COMPANY with a PRIMARY_CONTACT_ATTENDEE_ID that does not
exist in the ATTENDEE table.
INSERT INTO COMPANY (NAME, DESCRIPTION, PRIMARY_CONTACT_ATTENDEE_ID)
VALUES ('RexApp Solutions','A mobile app delivery service', 5)
Currently, there is no ATTENDEE with an ATTENDEE_ID of 5, this should error out
which is good. It means we kept bad data out.
If you use an ATTENDEE_ID value that does exist and supply it as a
PRIMARY_CONTACT_ATTENDEE_ID, we should be good to go.
INSERT INTO COMPANY (NAME, DESCRIPTION, PRIMARY_CONTACT_ATTENDEE_ID)
VALUES ('RexApp Solutions', 'A mobile app delivery service', 3)

20
9.3 DELETE records

The DELETE command is dangerously simple. To delete records from both the
COMPANY and ATTENDEE tables, execute the following SQL commands.
DELETE FROM COMPANY;
DELETE FROM ATTENDEE;
Note that the COMPANY table has a foreign key relationship with the ATTENDEE
table. Therefore we will have to delete records from COMPANY first before it
allows us to delete data from ATTENDEE. Otherwise we will get a “FOREIGN
KEY constraint failed effort” due to the COMPANY record we just added which is
tied to the ATTENDEE with the ATTENDEE_ID of 3.
You can also use a WHERE to only delete records that meet a conditional. To
delete all ATTENDEE records with no PHONE or EMAIL, you can run this command.
DELETE FROM ATTENDEE
WHERE PHONE IS NULL AND EMAIL IS NULL
A good practice is to use a SELECT * in place of the DELETE first. That way you
can get a preview of what records will be deleted with that WHERE condition.
SELECT * FROM ATTENDEE
WHERE PHONE IS NULL AND EMAIL IS NULL

UPDATE records

Say we wanted to change the phone number for the ATTENDEE with the
ATTENDEE_ID value of 3, which is Sam Scala. We can do this with an UPDATE
statement.
UPDATE ATTENDEE SET PHONE = 4802735872
WHERE ATTENDEE_ID = 3
Using a WHERE is important, otherwise it will update all records with the specified
SET assignment. This can be handy if you wanted to say, make all EMAIL values
uppercase.
UPDATE ATTENDEE SET EMAIL = UPPER(EMAIL)

9.4 Dropping Tables

If you want to delete a table, it also is dangerously simple. Be very careful and
sure before you delete any table, because it will remove it permanently.
DROP TABLE MY_UNWANTED_TABLE

21
9.5 Transactions

Transactions are helpful when you want a series of writes to succeed.

Below, we execute two successful write operations within a transaction.
BEGIN TRANSACTION;

INSERT INTO ROOM (FLOOR_NUMBER, SEAT_CAPACITY) VALUES (9, 80);

INSERT INTO ROOM (FLOOR_NUMBER, SEAT_CAPACITY) VALUES (10, 110);

END TRANSACTION;
But if we ever encountered a failure with our write operations, we can call
ROLLBACK instead of END TRANSACTION to go back to the database state when
BEGIN TRANSACTION was called.
Below, we have a failed operation due to a broken INSERT.
BEGIN TRANSACTION;

INSERT INTO ROOM (FLOOR_NUMBER, SEAT_CAPACITY) VALUES (12, 210);

INSERT INTO ROOM (FLOOR_NUMBER, SEAT_CAPACITY) VALUES (13); --failure
So we can call ROLLBACK to “rewind” to the database state when BEGIN
TRANSACTION was called.
ROLLBACK;

9.6 Creating Indexes

You can create an index on a certain column to speed up SELECT performance,

such as the price column on the PRODUCT table.
CREATE INDEX price_index ON PRODUCT(price);
You can also create an index for a column that has unique values, and it will
make a special optimization for that case.
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX name_index ON CUSTOMER(name);
To remove an index, use the DROP command.
DROP INDEX price_index;

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Section X - Moving Forward
SQL Resources

Getting Started with SQL (O’Reilly) by Thomas Nield

Learning SQL (O’Reilly) by Alan Beaulieu
Using SQLite (O’Reilly) by Jay A. Kreibich
SQL Practice Problems by Sylvia Moestl Vasilik

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