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Database Systems Lecture 7

Munawar, PhD
 In this Lecture
• More SQL
• DROP TABLE
• ALTER TABLE
• INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
• Data dictionary
• Sequences
• For more information
• Connolly and Begg chapters 5 and 6

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 Creating Tables
• From last lecture… CREATE TABLE
• CREATE TABLE <name> (
• Columns <col-def-1>,
• Data types <col-def-2>,
• [NOT] NULL, :
DEFAULT values <col-def-n>,
• Constraints <constraint-1>,
• Primary keys :
• Unique columns
<constraint-k>)
• Foreign keys

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 Deleting Tables
• To delete a table use • BE CAREFUL with
any SQL statement
• DROP TABLE with DROP in it
• [IF EXISTS] • You will delete any
• <name> information in the
table as well
• Example: • You won’t normally be
asked to confirm
• DROP TABLE Module • There is no easy way
to undo the changes

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 Changing Tables
• Sometimes you want • ALTER TABLE can
to change the • Add a new column
structure of an • Remove an existing
existing table column
• One way is to DROP it • Add a new constraint
then rebuild it • Remove an existing
• This is dangerous, so constraint
there is the ALTER
TABLE command
instead

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 ALTERing Columns
To add or remove Examples
columns use
ALTER TABLE Student
ALTER TABLE <table>
ADD COLUMN
ADD COLUMN <col>
Degree VARCHAR(50)
ALTER TABLE <table>
DROP COLUMN <name> ALTER TABLE Student
DROP COLUMN Degree

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 ALTERing Constraints
To add or remove Examples
columns use
ALTER TABLE Module
ALTER TABLE <table>
ADD CONSTRAINT
ADD CONSTRAINT
ck UNIQUE (title)
<definition>

ALTER TABLE <table> ALTER TABLE Module

DROP CONSTRAINT DROP CONSTRAINT ck
<name>
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 INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
• INSERT - add a row • UPDATE and DELETE
to a table use ‘WHERE clauses’
to specify which
• UPDATE - change rows to change or
row(s) in a table remove
• BE CAREFUL with
these - an incorrect
• DELETE - remove WHERE clause can
row(s) from a table destroy lots of data

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 INSERT
INSERT INTO • The number of
columns and values
<table>
must be the same
(col1, col2, …) • If you are adding a
VALUES value to every
column, you don’t
(val1, val2, …) have to list them
• SQL doesn’t require
that all rows are
different (unless a
constraint says so)

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 INSERT
Student
INSERT INTO Student ID Name Year
(ID, Name, Year) 1 John 1
VALUES (2, ‘Mary’, 3) 2 Mary 3

Student
Student
INSERT INTO Student ID Name Year
ID Name Year
(Name, ID) 1 John 1
1 John 1 VALUES (‘Mary’, 2) 2 Mary
Student
INSERT INTO Student ID Name Year
VALUES (2, ‘Mary’, 3) 1 John 1
2 Mary 3

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 UPDATE
• All rows where the
condition is true have
UPDATE <table>
the columns set to the
SET col1 = val1 given values
[,col2 = val2…] • If no condition is
given all rows are
[WHERE changed so BE
<condition>] CAREFUL
• Values are constants
or can be computed
from columns

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 UPDATE
Student
ID Name Year
UPDATE Student 1 John 1
SET Year = 1, 2 Mark 3
Student Name = ‘Jane’ 3 Anne 2
WHERE ID = 4 4 Jane 1
ID Name Year
1 John 1
2 Mark 3
3 Anne 2 Student
4 Mary 2 ID Name Year
UPDATE Student 1 John 2
SET Year = Year + 1 2 Mark 4
3 Anne 3
4 Mary 3
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 DELETE
• Removes all rows • If no condition is
which satisfy the given then ALL rows
are deleted - BE
condition CAREFUL
• Some versions of SQL
DELETE FROM also have TRUNCATE
TABLE <T> which is
<table> like DELETE FROM <T>
[WHERE but it is quicker as it
doesn’t record its
<condition>] actions

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 DELETE
Student
DELETE FROM ID Name Year
Student 1 John 1
Student WHERE Year = 2 2 Mark 3
ID Name Year
1 John 1
2 Mark 3
3 Anne 2
4 Mary 2
Student
DELETE FROM Student
or ID Name Year
TRUNCATE TABLE Student

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 SELECT
• The SQL command • SQL’s SELECT is
you will use most different from the
often relational algebra’s
• Queries a set of tables selection 
and returns results as • SELECT in SQL does
a table all of the relational
• Lots of options, we algebra
will look at many of • But it is a bit different
them because SQL differs
• Usually more than from the relational
one way to do any model
given query
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 SQL SELECT Overview
SELECT
[DISTINCT | ALL] <column-list>
FROM <table-names>
[WHERE <condition>]
[ORDER BY <column-list>]
[GROUP BY <column-list>]
[HAVING <condition>]
• ([]- optional, | - or)
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 Simple SELECT
SELECT <columns> • Given a table
FROM <table> Student with
columns
<columns> can be • stuID
• stuName
• A single column
• stuAddress
• A comma-separated
list of columns • stuYear
• * for ‘all columns’

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 Sample SELECTs
SELECT * FROM Student
stuID stuName stuAddress stuYear
1 Anderson 15 High St 1
2 Brooks 27 Queen’s Rd 3
3 Chen Lenton Hall 1
4 D’Angelo Derby Hall 1
5 Evans Lenton Hall 2
6 Franklin 13 Elm St 3
7 Gandhi Lenton Hall 1
8 Harrison Derby Hall 1

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 Sample SELECTs
SELECT stuName FROM Student
stuName
Anderson
Brooks
Chen
D’Angelo
Evans
Franklin
Gandhi
Harrison

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 Sample SELECTs
SELECT stuName, stuAddress
FROM Student
stuName stuAddress
Anderson 15 High St
Brooks 27 Queen’s Rd
Chen Lenton Hall
D’Angelo Derby Hall
Evans Lenton Hall
Franklin 13 Elm St
Gandhi Lenton Hall
Harrison Derby Hall

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 Being Careful
• When using DELETE Before running
and UPDATE
• You need to be careful
DELETE FROM Student
to have the right WHERE Year = 3
WHERE clause
• You can check it by run
running a SELECT
statement with the SELECT * FROM Student
same WHERE clause
first WHERE Year = 3

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 Sequences
• Often we want to • In most versions of
assign each row a SQL we can use
unique number autoincrementing
• These are useful as fields to do this
primary keys • Details differ between
• Using integers to versions
reference rows is • Usually the first entry
more efficient is assigned 1, the
• We would like the next 2, and so on, but
DBMS to do this Oracle lets you
change this

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 Sequences
• In Oracle we use a Sequence
• A sequence is a source of numbers
• We can declare several sequences, giving
each a name, a start point, and a step size
• We can then generate unique numbers by
asking for the next element from a
sequence

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 Sequences in Oracle
• To declare a sequence:
CREATE SEQUENCE <name>
[START WITH <value>]
[INCREMENT BY <value>]
• If no START WITH or INCREMENT BY values
are given they default to 1
• To get the next value from a sequence
<sequence name>.nextVal

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 Sequence Example
• Creating a sequence
CREATE SEQUENCE mySeq START WITH 1
• Using a sequence
SELECT mySeq.nextVal FROM DUAL;
INSERT INTO Student
(stuID, stuName, stuAddress)
VALUES
(mySeq.nextVal, 'Steve Mills',
'13 Elm Street')
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SQL and the Data Dictionary
• The data dictionary • Some DBMSs let you
or catalogue stores query the catalogue
• Information about • In Oracle you can
database tables access the metadata
• Information about the in several ways
columns of tables • There are ‘system
• Other information - tables’ with metadata
users, locks, indexes, in them
and more • You can also
• This is ‘metadata’ DESCRIBE tables

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 Oracle Data Dictionary
• To find out what tables and sequences
you have defined use
SELECT table_name
FROM user_tables
• The user_tables table is maintained by
Oracle
• It has lots of columns, so don’t use
SELECT * FROM user_tables

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 Oracle Data Dictionary
• To find the details of a table use
DESCRIBE <table name>
• Example:
SQL> DESCRIBE Student;
Name Null? Type
------------ -------- ----------
STUID NOT NULL NUMBER(38)
STUNAME NOT NULL VARCHAR2(50)
STUADDRESS VARCHAR2(50)
STUYEAR NUMBER(38)
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 This Lecture in Exams
Track CD
cID Num Title Time aID cID Title Price
1 1 Violent 239 1 1 Mix 9.99
1 2 Every Girl 410 1 2 Compilation 12.99
1 3 Breather 217 1
1 4 Part of Me 279 1 Artist
2 1 Star 362 1
2 2 Teaboy 417 2 aID Name
1 Stellar
2 Cloudboy

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 This Lecture in Exams
Add $2.50 to the price of all CDs that cost more than $10.00.
(2 marks)
Add a new column, Genre, to the CD table. This column should
hold a string of up to 100 characters, and if no genre is provided
then it should default to the value “Unknown”.
(3 marks)
Add a track titled “Runnin” by the artist “Fat Freddy’s Drop”
which is 12 minutes and 27 second long to the CD titled
“Compilation”. For this part only, you may assume that the
tables contain exactly the information shown above.
(3 marks)

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 Next Lecture
• SQL SELECT
• WHERE clauses
• SELECT from multiple tables
• JOINs
• For more information
• Connolly and Begg Chapter 5
• Ullman and Widom, Chapter 6.5,6.1.

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