Database Programming with

SQL
1-2
Relational Database Technology

Copyright © 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

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Purpose
• Databases are part of our everyday lives even though
most of the time we don't even think about them
• If you have ever made an airline reservation, used an
ATM machine, or made a mobile-phone call, you've
used a database
• In fact, many cities use intelligent traffic guiding
system databases to control stoplights
• So the next time you're waiting at a red light, it may be
a database that is responsible for your delay!
• In this lesson, you will learn more about databases and
how they're organized and created

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Relational Databases
• A relational database allows tables to be related by
means of a common field
• As few as two tables can be considered a relational
database if they share a common field
COUNTRY_ID COUNTRY_NAME REGION_ID

CA Canada 2

DE Germany 1

UK United Kingdom 1

US United States of America 2

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Relational Databases
• Realistically, databases used in business have many
tables, each table sharing a common field with
another table
• The "countries" table shown is one of several tables
in the Employees database and just one example of
the many tables that will be used in this course
COUNTRY_ID COUNTRY_NAME REGION_ID

CA Canada 2

DE Germany 1

UK United Kingdom 1

US United States of America 2

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Relational Databases
• To understand how important databases have become
in today's world, consider the following statistics:
−Currently 20% of the world's data resides in RDBMSs
−In the next two years, databases are expected to grow larger
than 100 terabytes
−A database this big would be able to store 100,000 copies of
the Encyclopedia Britannica or 200,000 hours of music or
about 10 billion web pages

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Relational Databases
• Some of the top 10 world's largest databases using the
Oracle RDBMS are:
−France Telecom, 29.2TB -- a communications company (a TB is
a terabyte equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes)
−Amazon.com with, 13 TB -- selling books and merchandise
−The Claria Corporation,12TB -- Internet behavioral marketing
company tracking Internet user behavior

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Review Key Terms
• Let's review the following key terms:
−table -- basic storage structure
−column -- one kind of data in a table
−row -- data for one table instance
−field -- the one value found at the intersection of a row and a
column
−primary key -- unique identifier for each row
−foreign key -- column that refers to a primary-key column in
another table

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Properties of Tables
• There are six properties of tables in a relational
database:
−Property 1: Entries in columns are single-valued
−Property 2: Entries in columns are of the same kind
−Property 3: Each row is unique
−Property 4: Sequence of columns is insignificant
−Property 5: Sequence of rows is insignificant
−Property 6: Each column has a unique name

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Accessing Data in an RDBMS
• A relational database-management system (RDBMS)
organizes data into related rows and columns
• To access the data in a database, you do not need to
know where the data is located physically, nor do you
need to specify an access route to the tables
• You simply use structured query language (SQL)
statements and operators

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Communicating with Databases
• Working with the database is very similar to calling up
and talking to a friend on the phone
−First, you must choose a method to communicate (the phone)
−Once connected, you ask your friend a question (a query)
−In response to your question, your friend answers (return of
data)
• Pretty simple, and most of us are experts at this
• In this class, our method of communication with the
database will be through Oracle Application Express
• When you ask a question using SQL, the application
will return an answer

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Communicating With Databases
• As shown in the diagram, communicating with an
RDBMS is accomplished by entering a SQL statement in
Oracle Application Express

SQL statement is entered Statement is sent to the Oracle Server

Oracle
server

Data is returned from the Oracle Server

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Communicating With Databases
• The request is then sent to the Oracle Server (a
database running on a computer), the request is
processed and the data returned is displayed

SQL statement is entered Statement is sent to the Oracle Server

Oracle
server

Data is returned from the Oracle Server

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Communicating With Databases
• In very large database systems, many users, servers,
and tables make up the RDBMS

SQL statement is entered Statement is sent to the Oracle Server

Oracle
server

Data is returned from the Oracle Server

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Categories of SQL Statements
• SQL statements are grouped into several categories
depending on the functions they perform
• During this course, you will learn how to use SQL to
execute these statements
• The data retrieval statement retrieves data from the
database using the keyword SELECT

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Categories of SQL Statements
• There are four main categories of SQL statements:
−Data manipulation language (DML)
−Data definition language (DDL)
−Transaction control language (TCL)
−Data control language (DCL)

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Categories of SQL Statements
• Data manipulation language (DML)
−DML statements begin with INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or
MERGE and are used to modify the table data by entering
new rows, changing existing rows, or removing existing rows
• Data definition language (DDL)
−DDL statements create, change, and remove data structures
from the database
−The keywords CREATE, ALTER, DROP, RENAME, and TRUNCATE
begin DDL statements

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Categories of SQL Statements
• Transaction control language (TCL)
−TCL statements are used to manage the changes made by
DML statements
−Changes to the data are executed using COMMIT, ROLLBACK,
and SAVEPOINT
−TCL changes can be grouped together into logical transactions
• Data control language (DCL)
−DCL keywords GRANT and REVOKE are used to give or remove
access rights to the database and the structures within it

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Terminology
Key terms used in this lesson included:
−Data control language (DCL)
−Data definition language (DDL)
−Data manipulation language (DML)
−Field
−Foreign key
−RDBMS

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Terminology
Key terms used in this lesson included:
−Primary key
−Relational database
−Row
−Table
−Transaction control (TCL)

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Summary
In this lesson, you should have learned how to:
−Define and give an example of a relational database
−Identify table-key terms, including row, column, field, primary
key, and foreign key
−Relate the importance of databases to everyday life

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