SQL Basics Cheat Sheet

SQL FILTERING THE OUTPUT QUERYING MULTIPLE TABLES

SQL, or Structured Query Language, is a language to talk to COMPARISON OPERATORS INNER JOIN FULL JOIN
databases. It allows you to select specific data and to build
Fetch names of cities that have a rating above 3: JOIN (or explicitly INNER JOIN) returns rows that have FULL JOIN (or explicitly FULL OUTER JOIN) returns all rows
complex reports. Today, SQL is a universal language of data. It is
matching values in both tables. from both tables – if there's no matching row in the second
used in practically all technologies that process data. SELECT name table, NULL s are returned.
FROM city
WHERE rating > 3; SELECT city.name, country.name SELECT city.name, country.name
FROM city FROM city
SAMPLE DATA [INNER] JOIN country FULL [OUTER] JOIN country
COUNTRY ON city.country_id = country.id; ON city.country_id = country.id;
id name population area Fetch names of cities that are neither Berlin nor Madrid: CITY COUNTRY
1 France 66600000 640680
2 Germany 80700000 357000
SELECT name CITY COUNTRY id name country_id id name
FROM city id name country_id id name 1 Paris 1 1 France
... ... ... ...
1 Paris 1 1 France 2 Berlin 2 2 Germany
WHERE name != 'Berlin'
CITY 2 Berlin 2 2 Germany 3 Warsaw 4 NULL NULL
AND name != 'Madrid';
id name country_id population rating 3 Warsaw 4 3 Iceland NULL NULL NULL 3 Iceland
1 Paris 1 2243000 5
2 Berlin 2 3460000 3
... ... ... ... ...
TEXT OPERATORS
Fetch names of cities that start with a 'P' or end with an 's':

QUERYING SINGLE TABLE SELECT name

FROM city
LEFT JOIN CROSS JOIN
Fetch all columns from the country table: WHERE name LIKE 'P%' LEFT JOIN returns all rows from the left table with CROSS JOIN returns all possible combinations of rows from
OR name LIKE '%s'; corresponding rows from the right table. If there's no both tables. There are two syntaxes available.
SELECT *
matching row, NULL s are returned as values from the second SELECT city.name, country.name
FROM country;
table. FROM city
Fetch id and name columns from the city table: SELECT city.name, country.name CROSS JOIN country;
Fetch names of cities that start with any letter followed by FROM city
SELECT id, name 'ublin' (like Dublin in Ireland or Lublin in Poland): SELECT city.name, country.name
FROM city; LEFT JOIN country FROM city, country;
SELECT name ON city.country_id = country.id; CITY COUNTRY
Fetch city names sorted by the rating column FROM city CITY COUNTRY id name country_id id name
in the default ASCending order: WHERE name LIKE '_ublin'; id name country_id id name 1 Paris 1 1 France
1 Paris 1 1 France 1 Paris 1 2 Germany
SELECT name
2 Berlin 2 2 Germany 2 Berlin 2 1 France
FROM city
3 Warsaw 4 NULL NULL 2 Berlin 2 2 Germany
ORDER BY rating [ASC];
OTHER OPERATORS
Fetch city names sorted by the rating column Fetch names of cities that have a population between
in the DESCending order: 500K and 5M:
SELECT name SELECT name
FROM city FROM city
ORDER BY rating DESC; WHERE population BETWEEN 500000 AND 5000000; RIGHT JOIN NATURAL JOIN
NATURAL JOIN will join tables by all columns with the same
RIGHT JOIN returns all rows from the right table with
name.
corresponding rows from the left table. If there's no
ALIASES Fetch names of cities that don't miss a rating value: matching row, NULL s are returned as values from the left
table.
SELECT city.name, country.name
FROM city
COLUMNS SELECT name
NATURAL JOIN country;
FROM city SELECT city.name, country.name
SELECT name AS city_name WHERE rating IS NOT NULL; CITY COUNTRY
FROM city
FROM city; country_id id name name id
RIGHT JOIN country
6 6 San Marino San Marino 6
ON city.country_id = country.id;
TABLES 7 7 Vatican City Vatican City 7
5 9 Greece Greece 9
SELECT co.name, ci.name Fetch names of cities that are in countries with IDs 1, 4, 7, or 8: CITY COUNTRY
10 11 Monaco Monaco 10
id name country_id id name
FROM city AS ci SELECT name NATURAL JOIN used these columns to match rows:
1 Paris 1 1 France
JOIN country AS co FROM city 2 Berlin 2 2 Germany city.id, city.name, country.id, country.name
ON ci.country_id = co.id; WHERE country_id IN (1, 4, 7, 8); NULL NULL NULL 3 Iceland NATURAL JOIN is very rarely used in practice.

AGGREGATION AND GROUPING SUBQUERIES SET OPERATIONS

GROUP BY groups together rows that have the same values in specified columns. A subquery is a query that is nested inside another query, or inside another subquery. Set operations are used to combine the results of two or more queries into a
It computes summaries (aggregates) for each unique combination of values. There are different types of subqueries. single result. The combined queries must return the same number of columns and
compatible data types. The names of the corresponding columns can be different.

CITY
id name country_id SINGLE VALUE
1 Paris 1 CYCLING SKATING
101 Marseille 1
CITY The simplest subquery returns exactly one column and exactly one row. It can be
country_id count id name country id name country
102 Lyon 1 used with comparison operators =, <, <=, >, or >=.
1 3 1 YK DE 1 YK DE
2 Berlin 2 This query finds cities with the same rating as Paris: 2 ZG DE 2 DF DE
2 3
103 Hamburg 2 3 WT PL 3 AK PL
104 Munich 2
4 2 SELECT name FROM city
... ... ... ... ... ...
3 Warsaw 4 WHERE rating = (
105 Cracow 4 SELECT rating
FROM city
WHERE name = 'Paris'
UNION
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS );
UNION combines the results of two result sets and removes duplicates.
•  
avg(expr) − average value for rows within the group
UNION ALL doesn't remove duplicate rows.
•  count(expr) − count of values for rows within the group
MULTIPLE VALUES This query displays German cyclists together with German skaters:
•  m ax(expr) − maximum value within the group
A subquery can also return multiple columns or multiple rows. Such subqueries can be SELECT name
•  min(expr) − minimum value within the group FROM cycling
used with operators IN, EXISTS, ALL, or ANY.
•  sum(expr) − sum of values within the group WHERE country = 'DE'
This query finds cities in countries that have a population above 20M: UNION / UNION ALL
SELECT name SELECT name
EXAMPLE QUERIES FROM city FROM skating
Find out the number of cities: WHERE country_id IN ( WHERE country = 'DE';
SELECT country_id
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM country
FROM city;
WHERE population > 20000000
); INTERSECT
Find out the number of cities with non-null ratings: INTERSECT returns only rows that appear in both result sets.
SELECT COUNT(rating) This query displays German cyclists who are also German skaters at the same time:
FROM city; CORRELATED SELECT name
A correlated subquery refers to the tables introduced in the outer query. A correlated FROM cycling
Find out the number of distinctive country values: subquery depends on the outer query. It cannot be run independently from the outer WHERE country = 'DE'
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT country_id) query. INTERSECT
FROM city; SELECT name
This query finds cities with a population greater than the average population in the
FROM skating
country:
WHERE country = 'DE';
Find out the smallest and the greatest country populations: SELECT *
FROM city main_city
SELECT MIN(population), MAX(population)
WHERE population > (
FROM country;
SELECT AVG(population) EXCEPT
FROM city average_city
EXCEPT returns only the rows that appear in the first result set but do not appear
Find out the total population of cities in respective countries: WHERE average_city.country_id = main_city.country_id
in the second result set.
SELECT country_id, SUM(population) );
This query displays German cyclists unless they are also German skaters at the
FROM city
This query finds countries that have at least one city: same time:
GROUP BY country_id;
SELECT name SELECT name
FROM country FROM cycling
Find out the average rating for cities in respective countries if the average is above 3.0: WHERE EXISTS ( WHERE country = 'DE'
SELECT country_id, AVG(rating) SELECT * EXCEPT / MINUS
FROM city FROM city SELECT name
GROUP BY country_id WHERE country_id = country.id FROM skating
HAVING AVG(rating) > 3.0; ); WHERE country = 'DE';

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