SQL Cheat Sheet
Starter guide for standard SQL syntax used in
The most important coding language to learn for data analysis.
Some might argue Python and R are equally important, but when
it comes to the most common tool an Analyst must have it is SQL.
According to Dataquest.io almost all of the biggest names in tech
use SQL. Uber, Netflix, Airbnb — the list goes on. Even within
companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, which have built
their own high-performance database systems, data teams use
SQL to query data and perform analysis.
Like every language, you need to keep practicing to understand
and grasp keep concepts. In my opinion, SQL is one of the easier
languages to use once you understand the basic structure of the
code. In this article, I share the necessary steps to getting started
with SQL querying.
Standard SQL Structure
This is Part 1 to a series of PostgreSQL cheat sheets and will
cover SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP
BY, HAVING, ORDER BY and LIMIT.
The basic structure of a query pulling results from a single table is
as follows.
SELECT
COLUMN_NAME(S)
FROM
TABLE_NAME
WHERE
CONDITION
GROUP BY
COLUMN_NAME(S)
HAVING
AGGREGATE_CONDITION
ORDER BY
COLUMN_NAME
LIMIT
What is SQL?
SQL (pronounced “ess-que-el”) stands for Structured Query
Language. SQL is used to communicate with a database. It is the
standard language for relational database management systems.
SQL statements are used to perform tasks such as update data on a
database or retrieve data from a database.
What is Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)?
An RDBMS organizes data into tables with rows and columns.
The term relational means that values within each table have a
relationship with each other.
Rows — also known as records
Columns — also known as fields, have a
descriptive name and specific data type.
What is PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL is a general-purpose and relational database
management system, the most advanced open-source database
system.
Other common database management systems are MySQL,
Oracle, IBM Db2, and MS Access.
Let’s begin!
SELECT
The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database. The
data returned is stored in a result table, called the result-set.
Specific columns
SELECT
COLUMN_1,
COLUMN_2
FROM
TABLE_NAME
All columns
Using the * you can query every column in your table
SELECT *
FROM
TABLE_NAME
DISTINCT Columns
Finding all the unique records in a column
SELECT
DISTINCT(COLUMN_NAME)
FROM
TABLE_NAME
COUNT all rows
If you want to know all the values in the entire table
use COUNT(*) you will get a single number.
SELECT
COUNT(*)
FROM
TABLE_NAME
COUNT DISTINCT values
If you want the number of distinct values in a column
using COUNT with DISTINCT and you will get a number
representing the total unique values of a column
SELECT
COUNT (DISTINCT COLUMN_NAME)
FROM
TABLE_NAME
WHERE
Using the WHERE the clause, you can create conditions to filter
out values you want or don't want.
NOTE — WHERE is always used before a GROUP BY (More on
this later)
SELECT *
FROM
TABLE_NAME
WHERE
CONDITION
Conditions
There are a variety of conditions that can be used in SQL. Below
are some examples of a table that consists of students’ grades in
school. You only need to specify WHERE once, for the sake of
the example, I have included WHERE in each step.
WHERE FIRSTNAME = 'BOB' -- exact match
WHERE FIRSTNAME != 'BOB' -- everything excluding BOB
WHERE NOT FIRSTNAME ='BOB' -- everything excluding
BOBWHERE FIRSTNAME IN ('BOB', 'JASON') -- either
condition is met
WHERE FIRSTNAME NOT IN ('BOB', 'JASON') -- excludes
both valuesWHERE FIRSTNAME = 'BOB' AND LASTNAME =
'SMITH' -- both conditions
WHERE FIRSTNAME = 'BOB' OR FIRSTNAME = 'JASON' --
either conditionWHERE GRADES > 90 -- greater than 90
WHERE GRADES < 90 -- less than 90
WHERE GRADES >= 90 -- greater than or equal to 90
WHERE GRADES <= 90 -- less than or equal to 90WHERE
SUBJECT IS NULL -- returns values with missing values
WHERE SUBJECT NOT NULL -- returns values with no
missing values
Conditions — Wildcards
LIKE operator is used in a WHERE clause to search for a
specified pattern in a column. When you pass the LIKE operator
in the '' upper and lower case matters.
There are two wildcards often used in conjunction with
the LIKE operator:
% - The percent sign represents zero, one, or
multiple characters
_ - The underscore represents a single character
WHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘B%’ -- finds values starting
uppercase BWHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘%b’ -- finds values
ending lowercase bWHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘%an%’ -- find
values that have “an” in any positionWHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE
‘_n%’ -- find values that have “n” in the second positionWHERE
FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘B__%’ -- find values that start with “B” and
have at least 3 characters in lengthWHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘B
%b’ -- find values that start with “B” and end with “b”WHERE
FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘[BFL]’ -- find all values that start with ‘B’, ‘F’
OR ‘L’WHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘[B-D]’ -- find all values that
start with ‘B’, ‘C’, OR ‘D’WHERE FIRSTNAME LIKE ‘[!BFL]%’
-- find everything exlcusing values that start with ‘B’, ‘F’ OR
‘L’WHERE FIRSTNAME NOT LIKE ‘[BFL]%’ -- same as above.
excludes values starting with ‘B’, ‘F’, OR ‘L’WHERE GRADES
BETWEEN 80 and 90 -- find grades between 80 and 90
GROUP BY
The GROUP BY function helps calculate summary values by the
chosen column. It is often used with aggregate functions
(COUNT, SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN).
SELECT
SUBJECT,
AVG(GRADES)
FROM
STUDENTS
GROUP BY
SUBJECT
The query above will group each subject and calculate
the average grades.
SELECT
SUBJECT,
COUNT(*)
FROM
STUDENTS
GROUP BY
SUBJECT
The above query will calculate the number (count) of students in
each subject.
HAVING
The HAVING clause is similar to WHERE but is catered
for filtering aggregate functions. The HAVING function comes
after the GROUP BY, in comparison the WHERE comes before
the GROUP BY.
If we wanted to find which subject had an average grade of 90 or
more, we could use the following.
SELECT
SUBJECT,
AVG(GRADES)
FROM
STUDENTS
GROUP BY
SUBJECT
HAVING
AVG(GRADES) >= 90
ORDER BY
Using the ORDER BY function, you can specify how you want
your values sorted. Continuing with the Student tables from
earlier.
SELECT
FROM
STUDENTS
ORDER BY
GRADES DESC
When using the ORDER BY by default, the sort will be
in ascending order. If you want to descend, you need to
specify DESC after the column name.
LIMIT
In Postgres, we can use the LIMIT function to control how many
rows are outputted in the query. For example, if we wanted to find
the top 3 students with the highest grades.
SELECT
FROM
STUDENTS
ORDER BY
GRADES DESC
LIMIT
Since we use ORDER BY DESC we have the order of students
with the highest grades on top - now limiting it to 3 values, we see
the top 3.
Overview
Hopefully, you can use this starter guide for standard SQL syntax
used when querying data from a single table. There is a lot more
you can do in SQL, and I will be sharing more SQL cheat
sheets that will expand advanced syntax.
If you want to learn specific techniques, check out my other
tutorials.
