SQL Notes 27/01/23

What is a database?
Any collection of related information (exp of DB: phone book, shopping list, Facebook’s user base, etc.)

Can be stored in different ways ( on paper, own mind, computer, comments section, etc.)

Database Management Systems?

A special software program that helps users create and maintain a database (handling security, backups,
importing/exporting data, interacts with software applications, etc.)

In charge of Creating, Reading, Updating, & deleting information.

C.R.U.D (Main operations of a database)?

• Create
• Read (Retrieve)
• Update
• Delete

Relational Vs Non-relational Databases ?

Relational Databases (SQL) Non-Relational Databases (noSQL)

-Organize data into tables (with column & rows) -Organize data in anything but a traditional table.

-Existence of unique key (identifier of each row)

-managed by relational Database management systems

(RDBMS).
Exp : MySQL, Oracle, MariaDB, etc.

- use a Structured Query Language (SQL) to perform CRUD

operations and other administrative tasks (user
management, security, backup, etc.) -Managed by non-relational Database management
systems (NRDBMS).
-RDBMS implement SQL a little bit different→ not all SQL Exp : MongoDB, Dynamo DB, apache Cassandra, etc.
codes used on one RDMS will port over to another one -No set language standard.
without slight modification. For more insights…

What are queries?

Requests made to DBMS for specific information (to get certain data with certain specification).
 SQL Notes 27/01/23

Tables and Keys?

Primary keys: an attribute that uniquely
defines a row in a database.

- Surrogate keys: random number,

has no mapping to anything in
the real world.
- natural keys: has a meaning/
purpose in the real world. Exp:
Surrogate primary key passport number.

Natural primary key

Foreign keys: an attribute that will link us

to another database table.

A foreign key that links table

A foreign key that links table Employee to itself → it
Employee to table Branch → identifies every employee’s
it identifies every employee’s supervisor.
branch.

A foreign key that links table Branch to table

Employee to → it identifies every branch’s manager.

A foreign key that links table Client to table Branch A composite primary Key. Only together, they can identify each
→ it identifies every client’s branch they buy from. row.

→emp-id and client-id are foreign keys that relates to employee

and client tables. Together they are primary key.
Basics of SQL:
-SQL is a hybrid language, it is 4 in 1:

• Data query language (DQL)→ to get information already stored there.

• Data definition language (DDL)→ to define database schemas (what tables, types of data, columns, etc.)
• Data control language (DCL)→ manage & control access to data in the database (who can do changes in the
database and where exactly (which tables)).
• Data manipulation language (DML)→ to insert, update, and delete data from databases.

Common Data types:

INT → integers

DECIMAL (M, N) → Decimal numbers – M: total number of digits in that number / N: number of digits after comma

VARCHAR (l) → String of text of length l

BLOB →Binary large Object, Stores large data.

DATE → ‘YYYY-MM-DD’

TIMESTAMP → ‘YYYY-MM-DD HH: MM: SS’ – used for creating tables.

SQL Notes 26/03/2023

Data Definition Language (DDL) Queries:

• CREATE DATABASE - creates a new database

• ALTER DATABASE - modifies an existing database

• CREATE TABLE - creates a new table

• ALTER TABLE - modifies an existing table

• DROP TABLE - deletes an existing table

Data Manipulation Language (DML) Queries:

• SELECT - extracts data from an existing table

• UPDATE - updates data in an existing table

• DELETE - deletes data from an existing table

• INSERT INTO - inserts new data into the table

SQL Constraints:
➔ Are rules enforced on data columns or tables.
➔ Are used to limit type of data that can go into a table.
➔ Column constraints are applied only to one column while table constraints are applied to the whole table.
• NOT NULL Constraint: Ensures that a column cannot have NULL value.

• DEFAULT Constraint: Provides a default value for a column when none is specified.

• UNIQUE Constraint: Ensures that all values in a column are different.

• AUTO_INCREMENT Constraint: automatically increments values of the column.

• PRIMARY Key: Unique identifier of each row/record in a database table. (NOT NULL & UNIQUE)

• FOREIGN Key: Unique identifier of a row/record in any another database table.

Deep View on DDL:
1. Database statements.
2. Table Creation & deletion.
3. Adding, Removing, and Modifying Attributes.

1.DATABASE STATEMENTS:

To create a database: CREATE DATABASE database_name;

To delete a database: DROP DATABASE database_name;

2.TABLE STATEMENTS:

➔ To create a table, need to specify table name, list of attributes with their names and types.
Exp: CREATE TABLE employee (empl_id int (11) AUTO_INCREMENT,

first_name varchar (20) NOT NULL,

last_name varchar (20),

birth_date date DEFAULT NULL,

salary int (8) DEFAULT 3500,

PRIMARY KEY (empl_id) );

➔ To describe a table DECRIBE table_name;

➔ Defining a foreign key

we create foreign key with a references clause.
1. Through table creation:
CREATE TABLE employee (empl_id int (11) AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,

first_name varchar (20) NOT NULL,

last_name varchar (20),

birth_date date DEFAULT NULL,

salary int (8) DEFAULT 3500,

FOREIGN KEY (branch_id) REFERENCES branch (branch_id));

You can rename the foreign key (branch_id) or you can keep it as it’s.
 SQL Notes 27/03/2023

2. Through alter query:

ALTER TABLE table_name1 ADD key_name

ALTER TABLE table_name1 ADD FOREIGN_KEY (key_name) REFERENCES table_name2 (PRIM_KEY_ table_name2);

➔ Adding, Removing, and Modifying Attributes

To add an extra column to an existing table: ALTER TABLE table_name ADD column_name datatype

To remove an existing column: ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN column_name

To change the data type of an existing column:

ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY column_name datatype

➔ To remove a table from a dataset

DROP TABLE table_name

Deep View on DML:

1. INSERT STATEMENT:

It is possible to write it the INSERT INTO statement in two ways:

→ By specifying both column names and the values to be inserted:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3, …) VALUES (value1, value2, value3, …) ;

→ If adding values to all columns, no need to specify the column names in SQL query:

INSERT INTO table_name VALUES (value1, value2, value3, …) ;

2. UPDATE STATEMENT:
➔ It allows to change one or more rows of an existing table.

UPDATE table_name

SET column1= value1, column2= value2, …

WHERE condition ;
 Exp: we’re changing the salary of employees with ids 101 & 102 to 80,000 instead of 78,000 and 75,000.

UPDATE employee SET salary= 80000 WHERE emp_id=102 AND emp_id=101;

The table to be updated One/more assignements to specify which Which rows to change
attributes to change and their new values (in this case only one)

➔ If where is to be deleted from the query, then all rows are to be affected
Exp: UPDATE employee SET salary= 80000 → all employees will get a salary of 80,000

3. DELETE STATEMENTS
➔ It deletes row(s) from a table.

DELETE FROM table_name

WHERE condition ;

Exp: DELETE FROM employee WHERE first_name= ‘Jan’; → It deletes first row.

➔ DELETE FROM table_name; →deletes all the rows in the table.

4. SELECT STATEMENT:

➔ It gets information from the database.

SELECT column_name(s)/ Function (column_name)

FROM table_name

[WHERE condition]

[ORDER BY column_name]

[GROUP BY column_name] ;

SELECT * FROM table_name ; → It selects all columns.

SELECT colum_name(i) →It selects the ith column.

Exp: Select first_name from employee;→ it only lists the column
FROM table_name ; first_name

SELECT DISTINCT colum_name(i)

→It selects the ith column without repetition.
FROM table_name ;
 SQL Notes 28/03/2023

➔ WHERE clause:
Used to extract only the records that specify certain conditions.

It may use AND / OR operator to filter records based on more than one condition.

• AND → displays record if both 1st & 2nd conditions are true.
• OR→ displays record if either 1st or 2nd condition is true.

We can also use these operators with WHERE clause: Exp : The IN operator :

It will display rows nb 1, 2, & 5

Operator Description

= Equal

<> Not Equal

> Greater than

< Lesser than

>= Greater than or equal

Exp : The BETWEEN operator :
<= Lesser than or equal

BETWEEN Between an inclusive range

LIKE Search for pattern
With it we can use
NOT LIKE
IN To specify multiple possible values for a
column
 SQL Notes 24/10/2023

➔ BUILT IN FUNCTIONS:
COUNT : is a built-in database function that retrieves the number of rows that match the query criteria.

SELECT COUNT (*) FROM table_name ; → Gives total number of rows in the table.

SELECT COUNT (column_name)

FROM table_name → Return the number of rows that matches the specified condition
WHERE condition;

AVG : built-in function, returns the average value of a numeric column.

SELECT AVG (column_name) FROM table_name WHERE condition;

SUM : built-in function, returns the total sum of a numeric column.

SELECT SUM (column_name) FROM table_name WHERE condition;

DISTINCT: built-in function, returns unique values in specified columns.

SELECT DISTINCT column_name FROM table_name WHERE condition;

➔ Using COUNT & DISTINT together:

SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT column_name) FROM table_name ;

➔ Difference between two codes:

SELECT DISTINCT column1, column2, ... FROM table_name;
→ Returns distinct combinations. (total row is unique)

SELECT DISTINCT column1, DISTINCT column2, ... FROM table_name; → Retrieve unique values from each individual
column

LIMIT : Clause, used to specify the maximum number of rows the result set must have.

SELECT * FROM table_name LIMIT nb_rows_retrieved;

Within a certain range (exp from col 5 to col 25)

SELECT * FROM table_name LIMIT 20 OFFSET 4;

RESOURCES:

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