The Islamic University of Gaza

Faculty of Engineering
Dept. of Computer Engineering
Database Lab (ECOM 4113)

Lab 4

SQL
Functions
(Single-Row, Aggregate)

Eng. Ibraheem Lubbad

Part one: Single-Row Functions:

Operators in that they manipulate data items and return a result

 Character Functions

 Case-conversion functions:
LOWER, UPPER, INITCAP
Function Result
LOWER('SQL Course') sql course

UPPER('SQL Course') SQL COURSE

INITCAP('SQL Course') Sql Course

Example: Find the id and student name for all student whose name contains the
begin with “s”.
Use Conversion function

If you don’t care about capital later will not get any records
  Character-manipulation functions:
CONCAT, SUBSTR, LENGTH, INSTR, (LPAD | RPAD), TRIM, REPLACE
Function Result

CONCAT('Hello', 'World') HelloWorld

SUBSTR('HelloWorld',1,5) Hello

LENGTH('HelloWorld') 10

INSTR ('HelloWorld',’o’) 5

LPAD(salary,10,'*') *****24000

RPAD(salary, 10, '*') 24000*****

REPLACE ('JACK and JUE','J','BL') BLACK and BLUE

TRIM('H' FROM 'HelloWorld') elloWorld

 Number Functions:
• ROUND: Rounds value to a specified decimal
• TRUNC: Truncates value to a specified decimal
• MOD: Returns remainder of division
Function Result
ROUND(45.926, 2) 45.93
TRUNC(45.926, 2) 45.92
MOD(1600, 300) 100
SELECT ROUND(45.923,2),ROUND(45.923,0),ROUND(45.923,-1)
FROM DUAL

SELECT TRUNC(45.923,2),TRUNC(45.923,0),TRUNC(45.923,-1)
FROM DUAL

 TO_CHAR Function with Numbers:

These are some of the format elements that you can use with the
TO_CHAR function to display a number value as a character

Element Result
9 Represents a number
0 Forces a zero to be displayed
$ Places a floating dollar sign
L Uses the floating local currency symbol
. Prints a decimal point
, Prints a comma as a thousand indicator
Example: Display Salary as the following pattern $##,###.00

SELECT NAME, TO_CHAR(SALARY, '$99,999.00') SALARY

FROM INSTRUCTOR;

 Nesting Functions:
 Single-row functions can be nested to any level.
 Nested functions are evaluated from the deepest level to the least deep
level

SELECT NAME, UPPER(CONCAT(NAME,'_CS'))

FROM STUDENT
where DEPT_NAME='Comp. Sci.’;
  General Functions:
The following functions work with any data type and pertain to using nulls:

NVL (expr1, expr2): Converts a null value to an actual value.

SELECT ID "STUDENT_ID",COURSE_ID, NVL(GRADE ,'W' ) "GRADE"

FROM TAKES;

NVL2 (expr1, expr2, expr3): Converts a null value or not null to an actual value.

SELECT ID "STUDENT_ID",COURSE_ID,NVL2(GRADE ,'T', 'W' )”GRADE"

FROM TAKES;
NULLIF (expr1, expr2): compares expr1 and expr2. If expr1 and expr2 are equal,
the NULLIF function returns NULL. Otherwise, it returns expr1.

SELECT S1.NAME, S2.NAME , LENGTH(S1.NAME) AS NAME1,

LENGTH(S2.NAME) AS NAME2,
NULLIF(LENGTH(S1.NAME),LENGTH(S2.NAME))
FROM STUDENT S1, STUDENT S2;

Example: Use NULLIF function to check if two student study in the same
department or not.

SELECT S1.NAME, S2.NAME, S1.DEPT_NAME, S2.DEPT_NAME,

NVL2(NULLIF(S1.DEPT_NAME, S2.DEPT_NAME),'DIFFERENT','SAME')
FROM STUDENT S1, STUDENT S2
WHERE S1.ID <> S2.ID ;
Part Two: Aggregate Functions:

Unlike single-row functions, group functions operate on sets of rows to give one
result per group. These sets may comprise the entire table or the table split into
groups.
The group function is placed after the SELECT keyword. You may have multiple
group functions separated by commas.

Syntax of Group Functions

SELECT group-function (column), ...

FROM table-name
[WHERE condition]
[ORDER BY column];

Guidelines for using the group functions:

 DISTINCT and UNIQU makes the function consider only no duplicate values
 ALL makes it consider every value, including duplicates. The default is ALL
and therefore does not need to be specified.
 The data types for the functions with an expr argument may be CHAR,
VARCHAR2, NUMBER, or DATE.
 All group functions ignore null values. To substitute a value for null values,
use the NVL or NVL2 functions.

Types of Group Functions:

 AVG
 COUNT
 MAX
 MIN
 SUM
 MEDIAN
 STDDEV
 VARIANCE
SELECT SUM(SALARY),MAX(SALARY),MIN(SALARY),MEDIAN(SALARY),AVG(SALARY)
FROM INSTRUCTOR;

Note: The AVG, SUM, VARIANCE, and STDDEV functions can be used only with
numeric data types.

 Count Function:

Syntax of Group Functions

SELECT group-function (column), ...
FROM table-name
[WHERE condition]
[ORDER BY column];

The COUNT function has three formats:

 COUNT(*):
Returns the number of rows in a table that satisfy the criteria( where
condition ) of the SELECT statement, including all the rows of the table even if
there is any NULL value , Returns 0 if there were no matching row.
 COUNT (expr) :
Returns the number of non-null values that are in the column identified by
expr.
 COUNT (DISTINCT expr) :
Returns the number of unique, non-null values that are in the column
identified by expr.
Example: Find the number of instructor in department Computer Science.

SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM INSTRUCTOR

where DEPT_NAME='Comp. Sci.'

Using the DISTINCT Keyword

Use the DISTINCT keyword to suppress the counting of any duplicate values in a
column.
Example: Find the number of department, which students belong to it.
Incorrect

SELECT COUNT(DEPT_NAME)
FROM STUDENT;

This is incorrect way to count department, since there is a duplicate.

Correct way

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT DEPT_NAME)

FROM STUDENT;
Group Functions and Null Values:
All group functions ignore null values in the column. However, the NVL
function forces group functions to include null values by using actual value to null
value.
Example: the average is calculated based on only those rows in the table in which
a valid value is stored in the salary column. The average is calculated as the total
salary that is paid to all instructor divided by the number of instructors receiving a
salary

SELECT AVG(SALARY )
FROM INSTRUCTOR;

By using NVL function, the average is calculated based on all rows in the table,
regardless of whether null values are stored

SELECT AVG(NVL(SALARY,0) )
FROM INSTRUCTOR;
  Grouping of Data:
You can use the GROUP BY clause to divide the rows in a table into groups.
You can then use the group functions to return summary information for each
group.

SELECT column, group_function(column)

FROM table-name
[WHERE condition]
[GROUP BY columns]
[ORDER BY column-names || aliases || column-numbers];

You should be aware of some notes you deal with group functions:
 If you include a group function in a SELECT clause, you cannot select
individual results as well, unless the individual column appears in the
GROUP BY clause.
 Using a WHERE clause, you can exclude rows before dividing
them into groups.
 You cannot use a column alias in the GROUP BY clause.

 Using the GROUP BY Clause

When using the GROUP BY clause, make sure that all columns in the SELECT
list that are not group functions are included in the GROUP BY clause
Example: Find the average salary in each department.

SELECT DEPT_NAME, AVG (SALARY) AS AVG_SALARY

FROM INSTRUCTOR
GROUP BY DEPT_NAME;

. You can also use the group function in the ORDER BY clause:

SELECT DEPT_NAME, AVG (SALARY) AS AVG_SALARY

FROM INSTRUCTOR
GROUP BY DEPT_NAME
ORDER BY AVG_SALARY DESC;
Apply group by on multiple columns:
When add more one column that’s mean put the same values for all
columns participant in grouping in the one group.
Example: Find the total number of students enrolled in each course section.

SELECT COURSE_ID ,SEC_ID,SEMESTER,YEAR,count(id)

FROM TAKES
GROUP BY COURSE_ID, SEC_ID, SEMESTER, YEAR

Note: To express about each course section we need add course_id ,sec_id, semester and year
in grouping ,but ,if we need count number of student enrolled in course which taken in every
semester, regardless about section number, we need add just course_id, semester and year in
grouping.

SELECT COURSE_ID ,SEC_ID,SEMESTER,YEAR,count(id)

FROM TAKES
GROUP BY COURSE_ID, SEC_ID, SEMESTER, YEAR
Note: That any attribute that is not present in the group by clause must appear
only inside an aggregate function, otherwise the query is treated as erroneous.

SELECT DEPT NAME, ID, AVG (SALARY)

FROM INSTRUCTOR
GROUP BY DEPT NAME;

 Restricting Group Results with the HAVING Clause:

You use the HAVING clause to apply condition to groups rather than to rows
Groups are formed and group functions are calculated before the HAVING clause
is applied to the groups in the SELECT list.

Example: Find the average salary of instructors in those departments where the
average salary is more than $50,000

SELECT DEPT_NAME, AVG (SALARY) AS AVG_SALARY

FROM INSTRUCTOR
WHERE AVG (SALARY) > 50000
GROUP BY DEPT_NAME

Note that you cannot use group functions in the WHERE clause: Instead, use them
in HAVING clause

SELECT DEPT_NAME, AVG (SALARY) AS AVG_SALARY

FROM INSTRUCTOR
GROUP BY DEPT_NAME
HAVING AVG (SALARY) > 50000;
Subqueries with grouping:
Example: Find the departments that have the highest average salary:

SELECT DEPT_NAME
FROM INSTRUCTOR
GROUP BY DEPT_NAME
HAVING AVG (SALARY) =( SELECT MAX(AVG (SALARY))
FROM INSTRUCTOR
GROUP BY DEPT_NAME );

Example: Find the average instructors’ salaries of those departments where the
average salary is greater than $50,000.” We wrote this query in above, We can
now rewrite this query, without using the having clause, by using a subquery in
the from clause, as follows:

SELECT DEPT_NAME, AVG_SALARY

FROM (SELECT DEPT_NAME,AVG(SALARY) AVG_SALARY
FROM INSTRUCTOR
GROUP BY DEPT_NAME Subquery return a new table
with new columns, so we can
)
use it to apply our condition
WHERE AVG_SALARY >= 50000

Note: Select attributes, its new table columns

END