SQL(Structured Query Language)

1. What is SQL

• SQL stands for Structured Query Language

• SQL lets you access and manipulate databases
• SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard

2. What can SQL can do?

• SQL can execute queries against a database

• SQL can retrieve data from a database
• SQL can insert records in a database
• SQL can update records in a database
• SQL can delete records from a database
• SQL can create new databases
• SQL can create new tables in a database
• SQL can create stored procedures in a database
• SQL can create views in a database
• SQL can set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

3. What is RDBMS

RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System.

RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like MS
SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and Microsoft Access.

The data in RDBMS is stored in database objects called tables.

A table is a collection of related data entries and it consists of columns and

rows.

4. SQL Syantax

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified
by a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows)
with data.
Below is an example of a table called "Persons":

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The table above contains three records (one for each person) and five
columns (P_Id, LastName, FirstName, Address, and City).

5. SQL Statements
Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL
statements.

The following SQL statement will select all the records in the "Persons" table:

Select * from persons

SQL Select Statements

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

The result is stored in a result table, called the result-set.

SQL SELECT Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

and

SELECT * FROM table_name

An SQL SELECT Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select the content of the columns named "LastName" and
"FirstName" from the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

LastName FirstName

Hansen Ola

Svendson Tove

Pettersen Kari

6. The SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

In a table, some of the columns may contain duplicate values. This is not a
problem, however, sometimes you will want to list only the different
(distinct) values in a table.

The DISTINCT keyword can be used to return only distinct (different) values.

SQL SELECT DISTINCT Syntax

SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
SELECT DISTINCT Example
The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select only the distinct values from the column named
"City" from the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT DISTINCT City FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

City

Sandnes

Stavanger

The WHERE clause is used to filter records.

7. The WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified
criterion.

SQL WHERE Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value

WHERE Clause Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select only the persons living in the city "Sandnes" from the
table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City='Sandnes'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

8. The AND & OR Operators

The AND operator displays a record if both the first condition and the second
condition is true.

The OR operator displays a record if either the first condition or the second
condition is true.
AND Operator Example
The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove"
AND the last name equal to "Svendson":

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName='Tove'
AND LastName='Svendson'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

OR Operator Example
Now we want to select only the persons with the first name equal to "Tove"
OR the first name equal to "Ola":

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName='Tove'
OR FirstName='Ola'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Combining AND & OR
You can also combine AND and OR (use parenthesis to form complex
expressions).

Now we want to select only the persons with the last name equal to
"Svendson" AND the first name equal to "Tove" OR to "Ola":

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE

LastName='Svendson'
AND (FirstName='Tove' OR FirstName='Ola')

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

9. The ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set by a specified column.

The ORDER BY keyword sort the records in ascending order by default.

If you want to sort the records in a descending order, you can use the DESC
keyword.

SQL ORDER BY Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name(s) ASC|DESC

ORDER BY Example
The "Persons" table:
P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we
want to sort the persons by their last name.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

ORDER BY LastName

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

ORDER BY DESC Example

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we
want to sort the persons descending by their last name.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

ORDER BY LastName DESC
The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

10. The INSERT INTO Statement

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert a new row in a table.

SQL INSERT INTO Syntax

It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two forms.

The first form doesn't specify the column names where the data will be
inserted, only their values:

INSERT INTO table_name

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)

The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be
inserted:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3,...)

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)

SQL INSERT INTO Example

We have the following "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to insert a new row in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

INSERT INTO Persons

VALUES (4,'Nilsen', 'Johan', 'Bakken 2', 'Stavanger')

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger

11. The UPDATE Statement

The UPDATE statement is used to update existing records in a table.

SQL UPDATE Syntax

UPDATE table_name
SET column1=value, column2=value2,...
WHERE some_column=some_value

Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE clause
specifies which record or records that should be updated. If you omit the
WHERE clause, all records will be updated!
SQL UPDATE Example
The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger

5 Tjessem Jakob

Now we want to update the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'
WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger

5 Tjessem Jakob Nissestien 67 Sandnes

SQL UPDATE Warning

Be careful when updating records. If we had omitted the WHERE clause in
the example above, like this:

UPDATE Persons
SET Address='Nissestien 67', City='Sandnes'

The "Persons" table would have looked like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Nissestien 67 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Nissestien 67 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Nissestien 67 Sandnes

4 Nilsen Johan Nissestien 67 Sandnes

5 Tjessem Jakob Nissestien 67 Sandnes

12. The DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement is used to delete rows in a table.

SQL DELETE Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name
WHERE some_column=some_value

Note: Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE syntax. The WHERE clause
specifies which record or records that should be deleted. If you omit the
WHERE clause, all records will be deleted!

SQL DELETE Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger

5 Tjessem Jakob Nissestien 67 Sandnes

Now we want to delete the person "Tjessem, Jakob" in the "Persons" table.

We use the following SQL statement:

DELETE FROM Persons

WHERE LastName='Tjessem' AND FirstName='Jakob'

The "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Johan Bakken 2 Stavanger

Delete All Rows

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This
means that the table structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:

DELETE FROM table_name

or

DELETE * FROM table_name

Note: Be very careful when deleting records. You cannot undo this
statement!
 13. The TOP Clause
The TOP clause is used to specify the number of records to return.

The TOP clause can be very useful on large tables with thousands of records.
Returning a large number of records can impact on performance.

Note: Not all database systems support the TOP clause.

SQL Server Syntax

SELECT TOP number|percent column_name(s)
FROM table_name

SQL SELECT TOP Equivalent in MySQL and Oracle

MySQL Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
LIMIT number

Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
LIMIT 5

Oracle Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE ROWNUM <= number

Example
SELECT *
FROM Persons
WHERE ROWNUM <=5
SQL TOP Example
The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger

Now we want to select only the two first records in the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT TOP 2 * FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

SQL TOP PERCENT Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

4 Nilsen Tom Vingvn 23 Stavanger

Now we want to select only 50% of the records in the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT * FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

14. The LIKE Operator

The LIKE operator is used to search for a specified pattern in a column.

SQL LIKE Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name LIKE pattern

LIKE Operator Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "s" from
the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE 's%'

The "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the
pattern) both before and after the pattern.

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that ends with an "s"
from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE '%s'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern
"tav" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE City LIKE '%tav%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

It is also possible to select the persons living in a city that NOT contains the
pattern "tav" from the "Persons" table, by using the NOT keyword.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City NOT LIKE '%tav%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

15. SQL Wildcards

SQL wildcards can substitute for one or more characters when searching for
data in a database.

SQL wildcards must be used with the SQL LIKE operator.

With SQL, the following wildcards can be used:

Wildcard Description
% A substitute for zero or more characters
_ A substitute for exactly one character
[charlist] Any single character in charlist
[^charlist] Any single character not in charlist
or

[!charlist]

SQL Wildcard Examples

We have the following "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Using the % Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons living in a city that starts with "sa" from
the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE 'sa%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Next, we want to select the persons living in a city that contains the pattern
"nes" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE City LIKE '%nes%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City
1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Using the _ Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons with a first name that starts with any
character, followed by "la" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName LIKE '_la'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "S",
followed by any character, followed by "end", followed by any character,
followed by "on" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName LIKE 'S_end_on'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

Using the [charlist] Wildcard

Now we want to select the persons with a last name that starts with "b" or
"s" or "p" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName LIKE '[bsp]%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Next, we want to select the persons with a last name that do not start with
"b" or "s" or "p" from the "Persons" table.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName LIKE '[!bsp]%'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

16. The IN Operator

The IN operator allows you to specify multiple values in a WHERE clause.

SQL IN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,...)

IN Operator Example
The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons with a last name equal to "Hansen" or
"Pettersen" from the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName IN ('Hansen','Pettersen')

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

17. The BETWEEN Operator

The BETWEEN operator selects a range of data between two values. The
values can be numbers, text, or dates.

SQL BETWEEN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE column_name
BETWEEN value1 AND value2

BETWEEN Operator Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Now we want to select the persons with a last name alphabetically between
"Hansen" and "Pettersen" from the table above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE LastName
BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

Note: The BETWEEN operator is treated differently in different databases!

In some databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen"

will not be listed, because the BETWEEN operator only selects fields that are
between and excluding the test values.

In other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen"

will be listed, because the BETWEEN operator selects fields that are between
and including the test values.

And in other databases, persons with the LastName of "Hansen" will be

listed, but "Pettersen" will not be listed (like the example above), because
the BETWEEN operator selects fields between the test values, including the
first test value and excluding the last test value.

Therefore: Check how your database treats the BETWEEN operator.

Example 2
To display the persons outside the range in the previous example, use NOT
BETWEEN:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE LastName
NOT BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

The result-set will look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

18. SQL Alias

You can give a table or a column another name by using an alias. This can
be a good thing to do if you have very long or complex table names or
column names.

An alias name could be anything, but usually it is short.

SQL Alias Syntax for Tables

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
AS alias_name

SQL Alias Syntax for Columns

SELECT column_name AS alias_name
FROM table_name

Alias Example
Assume we have a table called "Persons" and another table called
"Product_Orders". We will give the table aliases of "p" and "po" respectively.

Now we want to list all the orders that "Ola Hansen" is responsible for.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT po.OrderID, p.LastName, p.FirstName
FROM Persons AS p,
Product_Orders AS po
WHERE p.LastName='Hansen' AND p.FirstName='Ola'

The same SELECT statement without aliases:

SELECT Product_Orders.OrderID, Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName

FROM Persons,
Product_Orders
WHERE Persons.LastName='Hansen' AND Persons.FirstName='Ola'

As you'll see from the two SELECT statements above; aliases can make
queries easier to both write and to read.

19. SQL JOIN

The JOIN keyword is used in an SQL statement to query data from two or
more tables, based on a relationship between certain columns in these
tables.

Tables in a database are often related to each other with keys.

A primary key is a column (or a combination of columns) with a unique value

for each row. Each primary key value must be unique within the table. The
purpose is to bind data together, across tables, without repeating all of the
data in every table.

Look at the "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

Note that the "P_Id" column is the primary key in the "Persons" table. This
means that no two rows can have the same P_Id. The P_Id distinguishes
two persons even if they have the same name.
Next, we have the "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 1
4 24562 1
5 34764 15

Note that the "O_Id" column is the primary key in the "Orders" table and
that the "P_Id" column refers to the persons in the "Persons" table without
using their names.

Notice that the relationship between the two tables above is the "P_Id"
column.

Different SQL JOINs

Before we continue with examples, we will list the types of JOIN you can
use, and the differences between them.

• JOIN: Return rows when there is at least one match in both tables
• LEFT JOIN: Return all rows from the left table, even if there are no
matches in the right table
• RIGHT JOIN: Return all rows from the right table, even if there are
no matches in the left table
• FULL JOIN: Return rows when there is a match in one of the tables

SQL INNER JOIN Keyword

The INNER JOIN keyword return rows when there is at least one match in
both tables.

SQL INNER JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
INNER JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

PS: INNER JOIN is the same as JOIN.

SQL INNER JOIN Example
The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3

2 44678 3

3 22456 1

4 24562 1

5 34764 15

Now we want to list all the persons with any orders.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo

FROM Persons
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

LastName FirstName OrderNo

Hansen Ola 22456

Hansen Ola 24562

Pettersen Kari 77895

Pettersen Kari 44678

The INNER JOIN keyword return rows when there is at least one match in
both tables. If there are rows in "Persons" that do not have matches in
"Orders", those rows will NOT be listed.

SQL LEFT JOIN Keyword

The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all rows from the left table (table_name1),
even if there are no matches in the right table (table_name2).

SQL LEFT JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
LEFT JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

PS: In some databases LEFT JOIN is called LEFT OUTER JOIN.

SQL LEFT JOIN Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3
2 44678 3

3 22456 1

4 24562 1

5 34764 15

Now we want to list all the persons and their orders - if any, from the tables
above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo

FROM Persons
LEFT JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

LastName FirstName OrderNo

Hansen Ola 22456

Hansen Ola 24562

Pettersen Kari 77895

Pettersen Kari 44678

Svendson Tove

The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons),
even if there are no matches in the right table (Orders).

SQL RIGHT JOIN Keyword

The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the right table
(table_name2), even if there are no matches in the left table (table_name1).
SQL RIGHT JOIN Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
RIGHT JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

PS: In some databases RIGHT JOIN is called RIGHT OUTER JOIN.

SQL RIGHT JOIN Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3

2 44678 3

3 22456 1

4 24562 1

5 34764 15

Now we want to list all the orders with containing persons - if any, from the
tables above.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo

FROM Persons
RIGHT JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

LastName FirstName OrderNo

Hansen Ola 22456

Hansen Ola 24562

Pettersen Kari 77895

Pettersen Kari 44678

34764

The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the right table (Orders),
even if there are no matches in the left table (Persons).

SQL FULL JOIN Keyword

The FULL JOIN keyword return rows when there is a match in one of the
tables.

SQL FULL JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name1
FULL JOIN table_name2
ON table_name1.column_name=table_name2.column_name

SQL FULL JOIN Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes

3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3

2 44678 3

3 22456 1

4 24562 1

5 34764 15

Now we want to list all the persons and their orders, and all the orders with
their persons.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName, Orders.OrderNo

FROM Persons
FULL JOIN Orders
ON Persons.P_Id=Orders.P_Id
ORDER BY Persons.LastName

The result-set will look like this:

LastName FirstName OrderNo

Hansen Ola 22456

Hansen Ola 24562

Pettersen Kari 77895

Pettersen Kari 44678

Svendson Tove

34764

The FULL JOIN keyword returns all the rows from the left table (Persons),
and all the rows from the right table (Orders). If there are rows in "Persons"
that do not have matches in "Orders", or if there are rows in "Orders" that
do not have matches in "Persons", those rows will be listed as well.

20. The SQL UNION Operator

The UNION operator is used to combine the result-set of two or more
SELECT statements.

Notice that each SELECT statement within the UNION must have the same
number of columns. The columns must also have similar data types. Also,
the columns in each SELECT statement must be in the same order.

SQL UNION Syntax

SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1
UNION
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2

Note: The UNION operator selects only distinct values by default. To allow
duplicate values, use UNION ALL.

SQL UNION ALL Syntax

SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name1
UNION ALL
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name2

PS: The column names in the result-set of a UNION are always equal to the
column names in the first SELECT statement in the UNION.

SQL UNION Example

Look at the following tables:

"Employees_Norway":
E_ID E_Name

01 Hansen, Ola

02 Svendson, Tove

03 Svendson, Stephen

04 Pettersen, Kari

"Employees_USA":

E_ID E_Name

01 Turner, Sally

02 Kent, Clark

03 Svendson, Stephen

04 Scott, Stephen

Now we want to list all the different employees in Norway and USA.

We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway

UNION
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

The result-set will look like this:

E_Name

Hansen, Ola

Svendson, Tove

Svendson, Stephen

Pettersen, Kari

Turner, Sally
Kent, Clark

Scott, Stephen

Note: This command cannot be used to list all employees in Norway and
USA. In the example above we have two employees with equal names, and
only one of them will be listed. The UNION command selects only distinct
values.

SQL UNION ALL Example

Now we want to list all employees in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway

UNION ALL
SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result

E_Name

Hansen, Ola

Svendson, Tove

Svendson, Stephen

Pettersen, Kari

Turner, Sally

Kent, Clark

Svendson, Stephen

Scott, Stephen

21. The CREATE TABLE Statement

The CREATE TABLE statement is used to create a table in a database.
SQL CREATE TABLE Syntax
CREATE TABLE table_name
(
column_name1 data_type,
column_name2 data_type,
column_name3 data_type,
....
)

The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. For a
complete reference of all the data types available in MS Access, MySQL, and
SQL Server, go to our complete Data Types reference.

CREATE TABLE Example

Now we want to create a table called "Persons" that contains five columns:
P_Id, LastName, FirstName, Address, and City.

We use the following CREATE TABLE statement:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int,
LastName varchar(255),
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

The P_Id column is of type int and will hold a number. The LastName,
FirstName, Address, and City columns are of type varchar with a maximum
length of 255 characters.

The empty "Persons" table will now look like this:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

The empty table can be filled with data with the INSERT INTO statement.
 22. SQL Constraints
Constraints are used to limit the type of data that can go into a table.

Constraints can be specified when a table is created (with the CREATE TABLE
statement) or after the table is created (with the ALTER TABLE statement).

We will focus on the following constraints:

• NOT NULL
• UNIQUE
• PRIMARY KEY
• FOREIGN KEY
• CHECK
• DEFAULT

SQL NOT NULL Constraint

The NOT NULL constraint enforces a column to NOT accept NULL values.

The NOT NULL constraint enforces a field to always contain a value. This
means that you cannot insert a new record, or update a record without
adding a value to this field.

The following SQL enforces the "P_Id" column and the "LastName" column to
not accept NULL values:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

SQL UNIQUE Constraint

The UNIQUE constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database table.

The UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints both provide a guarantee for
uniqueness for a column or set of columns.

A PRIMARY KEY constraint automatically has a UNIQUE constraint defined on

it.

Note that you can have many UNIQUE constraints per table, but only one
PRIMARY KEY constraint per table.

SQL UNIQUE Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column when
the "Persons" table is created:

MySQL:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
UNIQUE (P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL UNIQUE,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)

To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE

constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons
(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID UNIQUE (P_Id,LastName)
)

SQL UNIQUE Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a UNIQUE constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD UNIQUE (P_Id)

To allow naming of a UNIQUE constraint, and for defining a UNIQUE

constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID UNIQUE (P_Id,LastName)

To DROP a UNIQUE Constraint

To drop a UNIQUE constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP INDEX uc_PersonID

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP CONSTRAINT uc_PersonID
SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint
The PRIMARY KEY constraint uniquely identifies each record in a database
table.

Primary keys must contain unique values.

A primary key column cannot contain NULL values.

Each table should have a primary key, and each table can have only ONE
primary key.

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on CREATE

TABLE
The following SQL creates a PRIMARY KEY on the "P_Id" column when the
"Persons" table is created:

MySQL:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)
To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY
KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName)
)

Note: In the example above there is only ONE PRIMARY KEY (pk_PersonID).
However, the value of the pk_PersonID is made up of two columns (P_Id
and LastName).

SQL PRIMARY KEY Constraint on ALTER

TABLE
To create a PRIMARY KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD PRIMARY KEY (P_Id)

To allow naming of a PRIMARY KEY constraint, and for defining a PRIMARY

KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID PRIMARY KEY (P_Id,LastName)

Note: If you use the ALTER TABLE statement to add a primary key, the
primary key column(s) must already have been declared to not contain NULL
values (when the table was first created).
To DROP a PRIMARY KEY Constraint
To drop a PRIMARY KEY constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP PRIMARY KEY

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP CONSTRAINT pk_PersonID

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint

A FOREIGN KEY in one table points to a PRIMARY KEY in another table.

Let's illustrate the foreign key with an example. Look at the following two
tables:

The "Persons" table:

P_Id LastName FirstName Address City

1 Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
2 Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
3 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger

The "Orders" table:

O_Id OrderNo P_Id

1 77895 3
2 44678 3
3 22456 2
4 24562 1

Note that the "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table points to the "P_Id"
column in the "Persons" table.

The "P_Id" column in the "Persons" table is the PRIMARY KEY in the
"Persons" table.
The "P_Id" column in the "Orders" table is a FOREIGN KEY in the "Orders"
table.

The FOREIGN KEY constraint is used to prevent actions that would destroy
links between tables.

The FOREIGN KEY constraint also prevents that invalid data form being
inserted into the foreign key column, because it has to be one of the values
contained in the table it points to.

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint on CREATE

TABLE
The following SQL creates a FOREIGN KEY on the "P_Id" column when the
"Orders" table is created:

MySQL:

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
FOREIGN KEY (P_Id) REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN

KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
PRIMARY KEY (O_Id),
CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)
)

SQL FOREIGN KEY Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a FOREIGN KEY constraint on the "P_Id" column when the
"Orders" table is already created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders

ADD FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)

To allow naming of a FOREIGN KEY constraint, and for defining a FOREIGN

KEY constraint on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders

ADD CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders
FOREIGN KEY (P_Id)
REFERENCES Persons(P_Id)

To DROP a FOREIGN KEY Constraint

To drop a FOREIGN KEY constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Orders

DROP FOREIGN KEY fk_PerOrders

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Orders

DROP CONSTRAINT fk_PerOrders

SQL CHECK Constraint

The CHECK constraint is used to limit the value range that can be placed in a
column.

If you define a CHECK constraint on a single column it allows only certain

values for this column.

If you define a CHECK constraint on a table it can limit the values in certain
columns based on values in other columns in the row.

SQL CHECK Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a CHECK constraint on the "P_Id" column when
the "Persons" table is created. The CHECK constraint specifies that the
column "P_Id" must only include integers greater than 0.

My SQL:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CHECK (P_Id>0)
)

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL CHECK (P_Id>0),
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255)
)
To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint
on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255),
CONSTRAINT chk_Person CHECK (P_Id>0 AND City='Sandnes')
)

SQL CHECK Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a CHECK constraint on the "P_Id" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CHECK (P_Id>0)

To allow naming of a CHECK constraint, and for defining a CHECK constraint

on multiple columns, use the following SQL syntax:

MySQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ADD CONSTRAINT chk_Person CHECK (P_Id>0 AND City='Sandnes')

To DROP a CHECK Constraint

To drop a CHECK constraint, use the following SQL:

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

DROP CONSTRAINT chk_Person
SQL DEFAULT Constraint
The DEFAULT constraint is used to insert a default value into a column.

The default value will be added to all new records, if no other value is
specified.

SQL DEFAULT Constraint on CREATE TABLE

The following SQL creates a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column when
the "Persons" table is created:

My SQL / SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

CREATE TABLE Persons

(
P_Id int NOT NULL,
LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
FirstName varchar(255),
Address varchar(255),
City varchar(255) DEFAULT 'Sandnes'
)

The DEFAULT constraint can also be used to insert system values, by using
functions like GETDATE():

CREATE TABLE Orders

(
O_Id int NOT NULL,
OrderNo int NOT NULL,
P_Id int,
OrderDate date DEFAULT GETDATE()
)

SQL DEFAULT Constraint on ALTER TABLE

To create a DEFAULT constraint on the "City" column when the table is
already created, use the following SQL:

MySQL:
ALTER TABLE Persons
ALTER City SET DEFAULT 'SANDNES'

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER COLUMN City SET DEFAULT 'SANDNES'

To DROP a DEFAULT Constraint

To drop a DEFAULT constraint, use the following SQL:

MySQL:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER City DROP DEFAULT

SQL Server / Oracle / MS Access:

ALTER TABLE Persons

ALTER COLUMN City DROP DEFAULT