Cheatsheets / SQL for Interview Prep

SQL Interview Prep

MAX() Aggregate Function

The MAX() aggregate function takes the name of a SELECT MAX(amount)

column as an argument and returns the largest value in
FROM transactions;
a column. The given query will return the largest value
from the amount column.

SELECT Statement

The SELECT * statement returns all columns from the SELECT *

provided table in the result set. The given query will
FROM movies;
fetch all columns and records (rows) from the movies
table.

ORDER BY Clause

The ORDER BY clause can be used to sort the result set SELECT *
by a particular column either alphabetically or
FROM contacts
numerically. It can be ordered in two ways:
ORDER BY birth_date DESC;
DESC is a keyword used to sort the results in
descending order.

ASC is a keyword used to sort the results in

ascending order (default).
 COUNT() Aggregate Function

The COUNT() aggregate function returns the total SELECT COUNT(*)

number of rows that match the specified criteria. For
FROM employees
instance, to find the total number of employees who
have less than 5 years of experience, the given query WHERE experience < 5;
can be used.
Note: A column name of the table can also be used
instead of * . Unlike COUNT(*) , this variation
COUNT(column) will not count NULL values in that
column.

DISTINCT Clause

Unique values of a column can be selected using a SELECT DISTINCT city

DISTINCT query. For a table contact_details having
FROM contact_details;
five rows in which the city column contains Chicago,
Madison, Boston, Madison, and Denver, the given query
would return:

Chicago

Madison

Boston

Denver

LIMIT Clause

The LIMIT clause is used to narrow, or limit, a result SELECT *

set to the specified number of rows. The given query
FROM movies
will limit the result set to 5 rows.
LIMIT 5;
 GROUP BY Clause

The GROUP BY clause will group records in a result set SELECT rating,
by identical values in one or more columns. It is often
COUNT(*)
used in combination with aggregate functions to query
information of similar records. The GROUP BY clause FROM movies
can come after FROM or WHERE but must come before GROUP BY rating;
any ORDER BY or LIMIT clause.
The given query will count the number of movies per
rating.

MIN() Aggregate Function

The MIN() aggregate function returns the smallest SELECT MIN(amount)

value in a column. For instance, to find the smallest
FROM transactions;
value of the amount column from the table named
transactions , the given query can be used.

CASE statement in SQL

The SQL CASE statement enables control flow in SQL. SELECT name,
It allows for one or more conditions ( WHEN condition
CASE
THEN result) and an optional default case ( ELSE ). The
query above will provide each rating a value for the WHEN rating > 8 THEN "Excellent"
specified ranges within the result set. WHEN rating > 5 THEN "Good"
WHEN rating > 3 THEN "Okay"
ELSE "Bad"
END
FROM movies;

HAVING Clause

The HAVING clause is used to further filter the result SELECT year,
set groups provided by the GROUP BY clause. HAVING is
COUNT(*)
often used with aggregate functions to filter the result
set groups based on an aggregate property. The given
FROM movies
query will select only the records (rows) from only years GROUP BY year
where more than 5 movies were released per year. HAVING COUNT(*) > 5;
The HAVING clause must always come after a GROUP BY
clause but must come before any ORDER BY or LIMIT
clause.
 WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is used to filter records (rows) that SELECT title
match a certain condition. The given query will select
FROM library
all records where the pub_year equals 2017 .
WHERE pub_year = 2017;

ROUND() Function

The ROUND() function will round a number value to a SELECT year,

specified number of places. It takes two arguments: a
ROUND(AVG(rating), 2)
number, and a number of decimal places. It can be
combined with other aggregate functions, as shown in
FROM movies
the given query. This query will calculate the average WHERE year = 2015;
rating of movies from 2015, rounding to 2 decimal
places.

Outer Join

An outer join will combine rows from different tables SELECT column_name(s)
even if the join condition is not met. In a LEFT JOIN ,
FROM table1
every row in the left table is returned in the result set,
and if the join condition is not met, then NULL values
LEFT JOIN table2
are used to fill in the columns from the right table. ON table1.column_name =
table2.column_name;

Inner Join

The JOIN clause allows for the return of results from SELECT *
more than one table by joining them together with
FROM books
other results based on common column values
specified using an ON clause. INNER JOIN is the default JOIN authors
JOIN and it will only return results matching the ON books.author_id = authors.id;
condition specified by ON .
Column Constraints

Column constraints are the rules applied to the values CREATE TABLE student (
of individual columns:
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
PRIMARY KEY constraint can be used to uniquely name TEXT UNIQUE,
identify the row. grade INTEGER NOT NULL,
UNIQUE columns have a different value for every age INTEGER DEFAULT 10
row. );
NOT NULL columns must have a value.

DEFAULT assigns a default value for the column

when no value is specified.

There can be only one PRIMARY KEY column per table

and multiple UNIQUE columns.

ALTER TABLE Statement

The ALTER TABLE statement is used to modify the ALTER TABLE table_name
columns of an existing table. When combined with the
ADD column_name datatype;
ADD COLUMN clause, it is used to add a new column.

Primary Key

A primary key column in a SQL table is used to uniquely

identify each record in that table. A primary key cannot
be NULL . In the example, customer_id is the primary
key. The same value cannot re-occur in a primary key
column. Primary keys are often used in JOIN
operations.

UPDATE Statement

The UPDATE statement is used to edit records (rows) in UPDATE table_name

a table. It includes a SET clause that indicates the
SET column1 = value1, column2 = value2
column to edit and a WHERE clause for specifying the
record(s).
WHERE some_column = some_value;
Data Types As Constraints

Columns of a PostgreSQL database table must have a CREATE TABLE tablename (

data type, which constrains the type of information that
myNum integer,
can be entered into that column. This is important in
order to ensure data integrity and consistency over
myString varchar(50)
time. Some common PostgreSQL types are integer , );
decimal , varchar , and boolean . Data types are
defined in a CREATE TABLE statement by indicating the
data type after each column name.

NOT NULL

In PostgreSQL, NOT NULL constraints can be used to CREATE TABLE table_name (

ensure that particular columns of a database table do
column_1 integer NOT NULL,
not contain missing data. This is important for ensuring
database integrity and consistency over time. NOT NULL column_2 text NOT NULL,
constraints can be enforced within a CREATE TABLE column_3 numeric
statement using NOT NULL . );

UNIQUE

In PostgreSQL, UNIQUE constraints can be used to CREATE TABLE table_name (

ensure that elements of a particular column (or group
column_1 integer UNIQUE,
of columns) are unique (i.e., no two rows have the same
value or combination of values). This is important for column_2 text UNIQUE,
ensuring database integrity and consistency over time. column_3 numeric,
UNIQUE constraints can be enforced within a CREATE column_4 text,
TABLE statement using the UNIQUE keyword.
UNIQUE(column_3, column_4)
);

Primary Keys

The primary key of a database table is a column or

group of columns that can be used to uniquely identify
every row of the table. For example, a table of students
might have a primary key named student_id , which
contains unique ID numbers for each student.
One-to-One Database Relationships

In a relational database, two tables have a one-to-one

relationship if each row in one table links to exactly one
row in the other table, and vice versa. For example, a
table of employees and a table of
employee_contact_info might have a one-to-one
relationship if every employee listed in the employees
table has contact information listed in the
employee_contact_info table and vice versa.

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