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Mastering SQL With 1 Simple Trick

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Shivam Math
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17 views

Mastering SQL With 1 Simple Trick

Uploaded by

Shivam Math
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 20

Become an SQL Master

With 1 Simple Trick


Use CTEs.

Jump to page 15 if you


are impatient to see the
final example.
A Common Table Expression, is a
temporary result set that you can reference
within another SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE,
or DELETE statement.

Think of it like creating a temporary table


which you can then query as part of your
overall SQL statement.

They are used to simplify complex queries,


breaking them down into simpler, more
readable components.

Let’s see an example!


Example #1
We’ll use the famous ‘employees’ table for
the example.

Each employee has an id, a name, a


manager_id and a salary.

(I didn’t use FKs or a sequence to simplify matters)


We’ll insert data to generate the
following org chart.

John
Smith

Sara Micha Emma Rob Don


Select * from employees

*You can follow along using sqliteonline.com!


Let’s start.

You need to select all the


employees in big teams
(>5 employees in the
team).

Try it out!
Option #1 - Using Subquery

Option #2 - Using CTE


3 main CTE advantages:
1. Readability and Maintainability: Instead
of having complex and nested subqueries,
you can create a CTE at the beginning of
your query. This makes the logic of your
query easier to understand.

2. Reusable within a Single Query: Once a


CTE is defined, it can be referred to
multiple times within the same query.

3. Recursive Queries: Unlike subqueries,


CTEs can be used to execute recursive
queries, which are queries that refer to
themselves. This is extremely useful for
dealing with hierarchical or
tree-structured data
Try solving this without CTE:

Find all managers of big & well paid


teams:

Managers who manage more than


five employees and whose teams
have an average salary that is greater
than the overall average salary.
Still not impressed?

We are getting to the BEST part.

For the final example, let’s create a table


with all England & Belgium Monarchs
(Kings and Queens).

Trust me, this serves a point.


Example #2 - Monarchs table

….
Solve this!

Who is the 3rd monarch in each


country?

This should be the result:

Take a minute to try it out!


Before I reveal the answer - it is
based on a real query we have.

As an AgTech company, we store


information about fields. Each field,
is planted multiple times (at least
once a year). Each such instance, is
called a cycle.

We need to select the latest cycle for


each field. The concept was the
same, I used ‘monarchs’ to simplify.
Behold The SQL

Magic
CTE + RANK + Partition
Explanation

● The RANK() function assigns a rank to each


monarch based on their ascending order of
ascending to the throne.

● The PARTITION BY clause groups the


monarchs based on their country, allowing
the ranking to be done separately for each
country.

Together, they determine the order and ranking


of the monarchs within each country, helping us
find the third monarch in both.
Elizabeth + Albert = <3
Let’s say you want the PREVIOUS monarch
in each country (Elizabeth and Albert).

What would you do?

Change the ORDER BY and WHERE.


That’s all!
Become an SQL Master

With CTEs
That’s it

Everyone knows basic SQL - Select,


DML, DDL. Not many people can use
CTEs…

It’s your chance to standout in an


interview, or improve your team’s
queries!

Follow me for more on software


development and team leadership!

@antonzaides

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