TOPIC 10 - STRUCTURE QUERY LANGUAGE (SQL)

Introduction to SQL
Structure Query Language (SQL) is a database query language used for storing and managing data in Relational
DBMS. SQL was the first commercial language introduced for E.F Codd's Relational model of database. Today
almost all RDBMS (MySql, Oracle, Infomix, Sybase, MS Access) use SQL as the standard database query
language. SQL is used to perform all types of data operations in RDBMS.
SQL Command
SQL defines following ways to manipulate data stored in an RDBMS.

DDL: Data Definition Language

This includes changes to the structure of the table like creation of table, altering table, deleting a table etc.
All DDL commands are auto-committed. That means it saves all the changes permanently in the database.

Command Description
create to create new table or database
alter for alteration
truncate delete data from table
drop to drop a table
rename to rename a table

DML: Data Manipulation Language

DML commands are used for manipulating the data stored in the table and not the table itself.
DML commands are not auto-committed. It means changes are not permanent to database, they can be rolled
back.

Command Description
insert to insert a new row
update to update existing row
delete to delete a row
merge merging two rows or two tables

DQL: Data Query Language

Data query language is used to fetch data from tables based on conditions that we can easily apply.
Command Description
select retrieve records from one or more table

TCL: Transaction Control Language

These commands are to keep a check on other commands and their effect on the database. These commands
can annul changes made by other commands by rolling the data back to its original state. It can also make any
temporary change permanent.
Command Description
commit to permanently save
rollback to undo change
savepoint to save temporarily

DCL: Data Control Language

Data control languages are the commands to grant and take back authority from any database user.

Command Description
grant grant permission of right
revoke take back permission.

SQL: create command

create is a DDL SQL command used to create a table or a database in relational database management system.

Creating a Database
To create a database in RDBMS, create command is used. Following is the syntax,
CREATE DATABASE <DB_NAME>;

Example for creating Database

CREATE DATABASE Test;
The above command will create a database named Test, which will be an empty schema without any table.
To create tables in this newly created database, we can again use the create command.

Creating a Table
create command can also be used to create tables. Now when we create a table, we have to specify the
details of the columns of the tables too. We can specify the names and datatypes of various columns in
the create command itself.
Following is the syntax,
CREATE TABLE <TABLE_NAME>
(
column_name1 datatype1,
column_name2 datatype2,
column_name3 datatype3,
column_name4 datatype4
);
create table command will tell the database system to create a new table with the given table name and
column information.
Example for creating Table
CREATE TABLE Student(
student_id INT,
name VARCHAR(100),
age INT);
The above command will create a new table with name Student in the current database with 3 columns,
namely student_id, name and age. Where the column student_id will only store integer, name will hold upto
100 characters and age will again store only integer value.

If you are currently not logged into your database in which you want to create the table then you can also add
the database name along with table name, using a dot operator .

For example, if we have a database with name Test and we want to create a table Student in it, then we can
do so using the following query:

CREATE TABLE Test.Student(

student_id INT,
name VARCHAR(100),
age INT);

Most commonly used datatypes for Table columns

Here we have listed some of the most commonly used datatypes used for columns in tables.
Datatype Use
INT used for columns which will store integer values.
FLOAT used for columns which will store float values with single precision.
DOUBLE used for columns which will store float values with double precision.
VARCHAR used for columns which will be used to store characters and integers, basically a string.
CHAR used for columns which will store char values(single character).
DATE used for columns which will store date values.
TEXT used for columns which will store text which is generally long in length. For example, if you
create a table for storing profile information of a social networking website, then for about
me section you can have a column of type TEXT.

SQL: ALTER command

alter command is used for altering the table structure, such as,

 to add a column to existing table

 to rename any existing column

 to change datatype of any column or to modify its size.

 to drop a column from the table.

ALTER Command: Add a new Column

Using ALTER command we can add a column to any existing table. Following is the syntax,

ALTER TABLE table_name ADD(

column_name datatype);

Here is an Example for this,

ALTER TABLE student ADD(
address VARCHAR(200)
);
The above command will add a new column address to the table student, which will hold data of
type varchar which is nothing but string, of length 200.

ALTER Command: Add multiple new Columns

Using ALTER command we can even add multiple new columns to any existing table. Following is the syntax,
ALTER TABLE table_name ADD(
column_name1 datatype1,
column-name2 datatype2,
column-name3 datatype3);

Here is an Example for this,

ALTER TABLE student ADD(
father_name VARCHAR(60),
mother_name VARCHAR(60),
dob DATE);
The above command will add three new columns to the student table

ALTER Command: Add Column with default value

ALTER command can add a new column to an existing table with a default value too. The default value is used
when no value is inserted in the column. Following is the syntax,

ALTER TABLE table_name ADD(

column-name1 datatype1 DEFAULT some_value
);
Here is an Example for this,

ALTER TABLE student ADD(

dob DATE DEFAULT '01-Jan-99'
);
The above command will add a new column with a preset default value to the table student.

ALTER Command: Modify an existing Column

ALTER command can also be used to modify data type of any existing column. Following is the syntax,

ALTER TABLE table_name modify(

column_name datatype
);
Here is an Example for this,

ALTER TABLE student MODIFY(

address varchar(300));
Remember we added a new column address in the beginning? The above command will modify
the address column of the student table, to now hold upto 300 characters.

ALTER Command: Rename a Column

Using ALTER command you can rename an existing column. Following is the syntax,

ALTER TABLE table_name RENAME

old_column_name TO new_column_name;
Here is an example for this,

ALTER TABLE student RENAME

address TO location;
The above command will rename address column to location.

ALTER Command: Drop a Column

ALTER command can also be used to drop or remove columns. Following is the syntax,

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP(

column_name);

Here is an example for this,

ALTER TABLE student DROP(
address);
The above command will drop the address column from the table student.

SQL Truncate, Drop or Rename a Table

Let us now learn about the various DDL commands which are used to re-define the tables.

TRUNCATE command
TRUNCATE command removes all the records from a table. But this command will not destroy the table's
structure. When we use TRUNCATE command on a table its (auto-increment) primary key is also initialized.
Following is its syntax,
TRUNCATE TABLE table_name
Here is an example explaining it,
TRUNCATE TABLE student;
The above query will delete all the records from the table student.

In DML commands, we will study about the DELETE command which is also more or less same as
the TRUNCATE command. We will also learn about the difference between the two in that tutorial.

DROP command
DROP command completely removes a table from the database. This command will also destroy the table
structure and the data stored in it. Following is its syntax,
DROP TABLE table_name
Here is an example explaining it,
DROP TABLE student;
The above query will delete the Student table completely. It can also be used on Databases, to delete the
complete database. For example, to drop a database,
DROP DATABASE Test;
The above query will drop the database with name Test from the system.

RENAME query
RENAME command is used to set a new name for any existing table. Following is the syntax,
RENAME TABLE old_table_name to new_table_name

Here is an example explaining it.

RENAME TABLE student to students_info;
The above query will rename the table student to students_info.

Using INSERT SQL command

Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements are used for managing data in database. DML commands are
not auto-committed. It means changes made by DML command are not permanent to database, it can be
rolled back.

Talking about the Insert command, whenever we post a Tweet on Twitter, the text is stored in some table, and
as we post a new tweet, a new record gets inserted in that table.

INSERT command
Insert command is used to insert data into a table. Following is its general syntax,
INSERT INTO table_name VALUES(data1, data2, ...)
Consider a table student with the following fields.
s_id name age

INSERT INTO student VALUES(101, 'Adam', 15);

The above command will insert a new record into student table.
s_id name age
101 Adam 15

Insert value into only specific columns

We can use the INSERT command to insert values for only some specific columns of a row. We can specify the
column names along with the values to be inserted like this,
INSERT INTO student(id, name) values(102, 'Alex');
The above SQL query will only insert id and name values in the newly inserted record.
Insert NULL value to a column
Both the statements below will insert NULL value into age column of the student table.
INSERT INTO student(id, name) values(102, 'Alex');
Or,
INSERT INTO Student VALUES(102,'Alex', null);
The above command will insert only two column values and the other column is set to null.

S_id S_Name age

101 Adam 15
102 Alex
Insert Default value to a column

INSERT INTO Student VALUES(103,'Chris', default)

S_id S_Name age

101 Adam 15
102 Alex
103 chris 14
Suppose the column age in our table has a default value of 14.
Also, if you run the below query, it will insert default value into the age column, whatever the default value
may be.
INSERT INTO Student VALUES(103,'Chris')

Using UPDATE SQL command

Let's take an example of a real-world problem. These days, Facebook provides an option for Editing your
status update, how do you think it works? Yes, using the Update SQL command.
Let's learn about the syntax and usage of the UPDATE command.

UPDATE command
UPDATE command is used to update any record of data in a table. Following is its general syntax,
UPDATE table_name SET column_name = new_value WHERE some_condition;

WHERE is used to add a condition to any SQL query, we will soon study about it in detail.
Let’s take a sample table student,
student_id name age
101 Adam 15
102 Alex
103 chris 14
UPDATE student SET age=18 WHERE student_id=102;

S_id S_Name age

101 Adam 15
102 Alex 18
103 chris 14
In the above statement, if we do not use the WHERE clause, then our update query will update age for all the
columns of the table to 18.
Updating Multiple Columns
We can also update values of multiple columns using a single UPDATE statement.
UPDATE student SET name='Abhi', age=17 where s_id=103;
The above command will update two columns of the record which has s_id 103.
s_id name age
101 Adam 15
102 Alex 18
103 Abhi 17
UPDATE Command: Incrementing Integer Value
When we have to update any integer value in a table, then we can fetch and update the value in the table in a
single statement.
For example, if we have to update the age column of student table every year for every student, then we can
simply run the following UPDATE statement to perform the following operation:
UPDATE student SET age = age+1;
As you can see, we have used age = age + 1 to increment the value of age by 1.

NOTE: This style only works for integer values.

Using DELETE SQL command

When you make a post on Twitter or Facebook it gets saved into a table. And using the Delete option, you can
even delete the post. How do you think that works? Yes, using the Delete DML command.
Let's study about the syntax and the usage of the Delete command.

DELETE command
DELETE command is used to delete data from a table.
Following is its general syntax,
DELETE FROM table_name;Let's take a sample table student:
s_id name age
101 Adam 15
102 Alex 18
103 Abhi 17
Delete all Records from a Table
DELETE FROM student;The above command will delete all the records from the table student.
Delete a particular Record from a Table
In our student table if we want to delete a single record, we can use the WHERE clause to provide a condition
in our DELETE statement.
DELETE FROM student WHERE s_id=103;
The above command will delete the record where s_id is 103 from the table student.

S_id S_Name age

101 Adam 15
102 Alex 18

Isn't DELETE same as TRUNCATE

TRUNCATE command is different from DELETE command. The delete command will delete all the rows from a
table whereas truncate command not only deletes all the records stored in the table, but it also re-initializes
the table (like a newly created table).
For example: If you have a table with 10 rows and an auto increment primary key, and if you
use DELETE command to delete all the rows, it will delete all the rows, but will not re-initialize the primary key,
hence if you will insert any row after using the DELETE command, the auto increment primary key will start
from 11. But in case of TRUNCATE command, primary key is re-initialized, and it will again start from 1.

Using the WHERE SQL clause

WHERE clause is used to specify/apply any condition while retrieving, updating or deleting data from a table.
This clause is used mostly with SELECT, UPDATE and DELETE query.

When we specify a condition using the WHERE clause then the query executes only for those records for which
the condition specified by the WHERE clause is true.
Syntax for WHERE clause
Here is how you can use the WHERE clause with a DELETE statement, or any other statement,

DELETE FROM table_name WHERE [condition];

The WHERE clause is used at the end of any SQL query, to specify a condition for execution.
Consider a table student,
s_id name age address
101 Adam 15 Chennai
102 Alex 18 Delhi
103 Abhi 17 Banglore
104 Ankit 22 Mumbai
Now we will use the SELECT statement to display data of the table, based on a condition, which we will add to
our SELECT query using WHERE clause.
Let's write a simple SQL query to display the record for student with s_id as 101.
SELECT s_id,
name,
age,
address
FROM student WHERE s_id = 101;
Following will be the result of the above query.

s_id name age address

101 Adam 15 Noida

Applying condition on Text Fields

In the above example we have applied a condition to an integer value field, but what if we want to apply the
condition on name field. In that case we must enclose the value in single quote ' '. Some databases even
accept double quotes, but a single quote is accepted by all.

SELECT s_id,
name,
age,
address
FROM student WHERE name = 'Adam';
Following will be the result of the above query.

s_id name age address

101 Adam 15 Noida

Operators for WHERE clause condition

Following is a list of operators that can be used while specifying the WHERE clause condition.
Operator Description
= Equal to
!= Not Equal to
< Less than
> Greater than
<= Less than or Equal to
>= Greater than or Equal to
BETWEEN Between a specified range of values
LIKE This is used to search for a pattern in value.
IN In a given set of values

SQL LIKE clause

LIKE clause is used in the condition in SQL query with the WHERE clause. LIKE clause compares data with an
expression using wildcard operators to match pattern given in the condition.

Wildcard operators
There are two wildcard operators that are used in LIKE clause.
 Percent sign %: represents zero, one or more than one character.
 Underscore sign _: represents only a single character.

Example of LIKE clause

Consider the following Student table.
s_id s_Name age
101 Adam 15
102 Alex 18
103 Abhi 17

SELECT * FROM Student WHERE s_name LIKE 'A%';

The above query will return all records where s_name starts with character 'A'.

s_id s_Name age

101 Adam 15
102 Alex 18
103 Abhi 17
Using _ and %
SELECT * FROM Student WHERE s_name LIKE '_d%';Thabove query will return all records from Student table
where s_name contain 'd' as second character.
s_id s_Name age
101 Adam 15

Using % only
SELECT * FROM Student WHERE s_name LIKE '%x';

The above query will return all records from Student

s_id s_Name age

102 Alex 18
SQL ORDER BY Clause
Order by clause is used with SELECT statement for arranging retrieved data in sorted order. The Order
by clause by default sorts the retrieved data in ascending order. To sort the data in descending
order DESC keyword is used with Order by clause.

Syntax of Order By
SELECT column-list|* FROM table-name ORDER BY ASC | DESC;
Using default Order by
Consider the following Emp table,
eid name age salary
401 Anu 22 9000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 6000
404 Scott 44 10000
405 Tiger 35 8000
SELECT * FROM Emp ORDER BY salary;

The above query will return the resultant data in ascending order of the salary.

eid name age salary

403 Rohan 34 6000
402 Shane 29 8000
405 Tiger 35 8000
401 Anu 22 9000
404 Scott 44 10000

Using Order by DESC

Consider the Emp table described above,
SELECT * FROM Emp ORDER BY salary DESC;

The above query will return the resultant data in descending order of the salary.
eid name age salary
404 Scott 44 10000
401 Anu 22 9000
405 Tiger 35 8000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 6000

SQL Group By Clause

Group by clause is used to group the results of a SELECT query based on one or more columns. It is also used
with SQL functions to group the result from one or more tables.
Below is the Syntax for using Group by in a statement.
SELECT column_name, function(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
GROUP BY column_name

Consider the following Emp table.

eid name age salary

401 Anu 22 9000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 6000
404 Scott 44 9000
405 Tiger 35 8000

Here we want to find name and age of employees grouped by their salaries or in other words, we will be
grouping employees based on their salaries, hence, as a result, we will get a data set, with unique salaries
listed, alongside the first employee's name and age to have that salary. Hope you are getting the point here!
group by is used to group different row of data together based on any one column.

SQL query for the above requirement will be,

SELECT name, age

FROM Emp GROUP BY salary
Result will be,

name age
Rohan 34
Shane 29
Anu 22
Example of Group by in a Statement with WHERE clause
Consider the following Emp table
eid name age salary
401 Anu 22 9000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 6000
404 Scott 44 9000
405 Tiger 35 8000
SQL query will be,

SELECT name, salary

FROM Emp
WHERE age > 25
GROUP BY salary
Result will be.

name salary
Rohan 6000
Shane 8000
Scott 9000

You must remember that Group By clause will always come at the end of the SQL query, just like the Order
by clause.

SQL HAVING Clause

Having clause is used with SQL Queries to give more precise condition for a statement. It is used to mention
condition in Group by based SQL queries, just like WHERE clause is used with SELECT query.
Syntax for HAVING clause is,
SELECT column_name, function(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name condition
GROUP BY column_name
HAVING function(column_name) condition
Example of SQL Statement using HAVING
Consider the following Sale table.
oid order_name previous_balance customer
11 ord1 2000 Alex
12 ord2 1000 Adam
13 ord3 2000 Abhi
14 ord4 1000 Adam
15 ord5 2000 Alex
Suppose we want to find the customer whose previous_balance sum is more than 3000.

We will use the below SQL query,

SELECT *
FROM sale GROUP BY customer
HAVING sum(previous_balance) > 3000
Result will be,

oid order_name previous_balance customer

11 ord1 2000 Alex

The main objective of the above SQL query was to find out the name of the customer who has had
a previous_balance more than 3000, based on all the previous sales made to the customer, hence we get the
first row in the table for customer Alex.

DISTINCT keyword
The distinct keyword is used with SELECT statement to retrieve unique values from the table. Distinct removes
all the duplicate records while retrieving records from any table in the database.
Syntax for DISTINCT Keyword
SELECT DISTINCT column-name FROM table-name;

Example using DISTINCT Keyword

Consider the following Emp table. As you can see in the table below, there is employee name, along with
employee salary and age.
In the table below, multiple employees have the same salary, so we will be using DISTINCT keyword to list
down distinct salary amount, which is currently being paid to the employees.
eid name age salary
401 Anu 22 5000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 10000
404 Scott 44 10000
405 Tiger 35 8000
SELECT DISTINCT salary FROM Emp;
The above query will return only the unique salary from Emp table.

salary
5000
8000
10000

SQL AND & OR operator

The AND and OR operators are used with the WHERE clause to make more precise conditions for fetching data
from database by combining more than one condition together.
AND operator
AND operator is used to set multiple conditions with the WHERE clause,
alongside, SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE SQL queries.
Consider the following Emp table

eid name age salary

401 Anu 22 5000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 12000
404 Scott 44 10000
405 Tiger 35 9000
eid name age salary
401 Anu 22 5000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 12000
404 Scott 44 10000
405 Tiger 35 9000

SELECT * FROM Emp WHERE salary < 10000 AND age > 25
The above query will return records where salary is less than 10000 and age greater than 25. Hope you get the
concept here. We have used the AND operator to specify two conditions with WHERE clause.

eid name age salary

402 Shane 29 8000
405 Tiger 35 9000

OR operator
OR operator is also used to combine multiple conditions with WHERE clause. The only difference
between AND and OR is their behavior.
When we use AND to combine two or more than two conditions, records satisfying all the specified conditions
will be there in the result.
But in case of OR operator, atleast one condition from the conditions specified must be satisfied by any record
to be in the resultset.
Consider the following Emp table
eid name age salary
401 Anu 22 5000
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 12000
404 Scott 44 10000
405 Tiger 35 9000

SELECT * FROM Emp WHERE salary > 10000 OR age > 25

The above query will return records where either salary is greater than 10000 or age is greater than 25.
402 Shane 29 8000
403 Rohan 34 12000
404 Scott 44 10000
405 Tiger 35 9000