Curso de

Desarrollo de Aplicaciones
Corporativas

3-1
 3
Single-Row Functions
 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

do the following:
• Describe various types of functions available
in SQL
• Use character, number, and date functions in
SELECT statements
• Describe the use of conversion functions

3-3
 SQL Functions

Input Output
Function

arg 1 Function
performs action
arg 2
Result
value

arg n

3-4
 Two Types of SQL Functions

Functions

Single-row Multiple-row
functions functions

3-5
 Single-Row Functions

Single row functions:

• Manipulate data items
• Accept arguments and return one value
• Act on each row returned
• Return one result per row
• May modify the data type
• Can be nested
• Accept arguments which can be a column or an
expression
function_name
function_name [(arg1,
[(arg1, arg2,...)]
arg2,...)]

3-6
 Single-Row Functions

Character

General Number
Single-row
functions

Conversion Date

3-7
 Character Functions

Character
functions

Case-manipulation Character-manipulation
functions functions
LOWER CONCAT
UPPER SUBSTR
INITCAP LENGTH
INSTR
LPAD | RPAD
TRIM
REPLACE

3-8
 Case Manipulation Functions

These functions convert case for character strings.

Function Result
LOWER('SQL Course') sql course
UPPER('SQL Course') SQL COURSE
INITCAP('SQL Course') Sql Course

3-10
 Using Case Manipulation Functions

Display the employee number, name, and department

number for employee Higgins:

SELECT
SELECT employee_id,
employee_id, last_name,
last_name, department_id
department_id
FROM
FROM employees
employees
WHERE
WHERE last_name
last_name == 'higgins';
'higgins';
no
no rows
rows selected
selected

SELECT employee_id, last_name, department_id

FROM employees
WHERE LOWER(last_name) = 'higgins';

3-11
 Character-Manipulation Functions

These functions manipulate character strings:

Function Result
CONCAT('Hello', 'World') HelloWorld
SUBSTR('HelloWorld',1,5) Hello
LENGTH('HelloWorld') 10
INSTR('HelloWorld', 'W') 6
LPAD(salary,10,'*') *****24000
RPAD(salary, 10, '*') 24000*****
TRIM('H' FROM 'HelloWorld') elloWorld

3-12
 Using the Character-Manipulation
Functions
1

SELECT employee_id, CONCAT(first_name, last_name) NAME,

job_id, LENGTH (last_name), 2
INSTR(last_name, 'a') "Contains 'a'?"
FROM employees
3
WHERE SUBSTR(job_id, 4) = 'REP';

1 2 3

3-13
 Number Functions

• ROUND: Rounds value to specified decimal

ROUND(45.926, 2) 45.93
• TRUNC: Truncates value to specified decimal
TRUNC(45.926, 2) 45.92
• MOD: Returns remainder of division
MOD(1600, 300) 100

3-14
 Using the ROUND Function

1 2

SELECT ROUND(45.923,2), ROUND(45.923,0),

ROUND(45.923,-1) 3
FROM DUAL;

1 2 3
DUAL is a dummy table you can use to view results
from functions and calculations.

3-15
 Using the TRUNC Function

1 2

SELECT TRUNC(45.923,2), TRUNC(45.923),

TRUNC(45.923,-2) 3
FROM DUAL;

1 2 3

3-16
 Using the MOD Function

Calculate the remainder of a salary after it is divided

by 5000 for all employees whose job title is sales
representative.

SELECT last_name, salary, MOD(salary, 5000)

FROM employees
WHERE job_id = 'SA_REP';

3-17
 Working with Dates

• Oracle database stores dates in an internal numeric

format: century, year, month, day, hours, minutes,
seconds.
• The default date display format is DD-MON-RR.
– Allows you to store 21st century dates in the 20th
century by specifying only the last two digits of the
year.
– Allows you to store 20th century dates in the 21st
century in the same way.
SELECT last_name, hire_date
FROM employees
WHERE last_name like 'G%';

3-18
 Working with Dates

SYSDATE is a function that returns:

• Date
• Time

3-19
 Arithmetic with Dates

• Add or subtract a number to or from a date for a

resultant date value.
• Subtract two dates to find the number of days
between those dates.
• Add hours to a date by dividing the number of
hours by 24.

3-20
 Using Arithmetic Operators
with Dates

SELECT last_name, (SYSDATE-hire_date)/7 AS WEEKS

FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 90;

3-21
 Date Functions

Function Description

MONTHS_BETWEEN Number of months

between two dates
ADD_MONTHS Add calendar months to
date
NEXT_DAY Next day of the date
specified

LAST_DAY Last day of the month

ROUND Round date

TRUNC Truncate date

3-22
 Using Date Functions

• MONTHS_BETWEEN ('01-SEP-95','11-JAN-94')
19.6774194

• ADD_MONTHS ('11-JAN-94',6) '11-JUL-94'

• NEXT_DAY ('01-SEP-95','FRIDAY')
'08-SEP-95'

• LAST_DAY('01-FEB-95') '28-FEB-95'

3-23
 Using Date Functions

Assume SYSDATE = '25-JUL-95':

• ROUND(SYSDATE,'MONTH') 01-AUG-95

• ROUND(SYSDATE ,'YEAR') 01-JAN-96

• TRUNC(SYSDATE ,'MONTH') 01-JUL-95

• TRUNC(SYSDATE ,'YEAR') 01-JAN-95

3-24
 Practice 3, Part One: Overview

This practice covers the following topics:

• Writing a query that displays the current date
• Creating queries that require the use of numeric,
character, and date functions
• Performing calculations of years and months of
service for an employee

3-25
 Explicit Data Type Conversion

TO_NUMBER TO_DATE

NUMBER CHARACTER DATE

TO_CHAR TO_CHAR

3-26
 Explicit Data Type Conversion

TO_NUMBER TO_DATE

NUMBER CHARACTER DATE

TO_CHAR TO_CHAR

3-27
 Using the TO_CHAR Function with Dates

TO_CHAR(date,
TO_CHAR(date, 'format_model')
'format_model')
The format model:
• Must be enclosed in single quotation marks and is case
sensitive
• Can include any valid date format element
• Has an fm element to remove padded blanks or
suppress leading zeros
• Is separated from the date value by a comma

3-29
 Elements of the Date Format Model

YYYY Full year in numbers

YEAR Year spelled out

MM Two-digit value for month

MONTH Full name of the month
Three-letter abbreviation of the
MON
month
Three-letter abbreviation of the
DY
day of the week
DAY Full name of the day of the week
DD Numeric day of the month

3-30
 Elements of the Date Format Model

• Time elements format the time portion of the date.

HH24:MI:SS AM 15:45:32 PM
• Add character strings by enclosing them in double
quotation marks.

DD "of" MONTH 12 of OCTOBER

• Number suffixes spell out numbers.

ddspth fourteenth

3-32
 Using the TO_CHAR Function with Dates

SELECT last_name,
TO_CHAR(hire_date, 'fmDD Month YYYY')
AS HIREDATE
FROM employees;

3-34
 Using the TO_CHAR Function with
Numbers

TO_CHAR(number,
TO_CHAR(number, 'format_model')
'format_model')
These are some of the format elements you can use
with the TO_CHAR function to display a number value
as a character:
9 Represents a number
0 Forces a zero to be displayed
$ Places a floating dollar sign
L Uses the floating local currency symbol
. Prints a decimal point
, Prints a thousand indicator

3-35
 Using the TO_CHAR Function with Numbers

SELECT TO_CHAR(salary, '$99,999.00') SALARY

FROM employees
WHERE last_name = 'Ernst';

3-36
 Using the TO_NUMBER and TO_DATE
Functions

• Convert a character string to a number format

using the TO_NUMBER function:
TO_NUMBER(char[,
TO_NUMBER(char[, 'format_model'])
'format_model'])
• Convert a character string to a date format using
the TO_DATE function:

TO_DATE(char[,
TO_DATE(char[, 'format_model'])
'format_model'])

• These functions have an fx modifier. This modifier

specifies the exact matching for the character
argument and date format model of a TO_DATE
function

3-37
 Nesting Functions

• Single-row functions can be nested to any level.

• Nested functions are evaluated from deepest level
to the least deep level.

F3(F2(F1(col,arg1),arg2),arg3)

Step 1 = Result 1
Step 2 = Result 2
Step 3 = Result 3

3-38
 Nesting Functions

SELECT last_name,
NVL(TO_CHAR(manager_id), 'No Manager')
FROM employees
WHERE manager_id IS NULL;

3-39
 General Functions

These functions work with any data type and pertain

to using nulls.
• NVL (expr1, expr2)
• NVL2 (expr1, expr2, expr3)
• NULLIF (expr1, expr2)
• COALESCE (expr1, expr2, ..., exprn)

3-40
 NVL Function

Converts a null to an actual value.

• Data types that can be used are date, character,
and number.
• Data types must match:
– NVL(commission_pct,0)
– NVL(hire_date,'01-JAN-97')
– NVL(job_id,'No Job Yet')

3-41
 Using the NVL Function

SELECT last_name, salary, NVL(commission_pct, 0),

1
(salary*12) + (salary*12*NVL(commission_pct, 0)) AN_SAL 2
FROM employees;

1 2

3-42
 Using the NVL2 Function

SELECT last_name, salary, commission_pct, 1

NVL2(commission_pct, 2
'SAL+COMM', 'SAL') income
FROM employees WHERE department_id IN (50, 80);

1 2

3-43
 Using the NULLIF Function
1
SELECT first_name, LENGTH(first_name) "expr1",
last_name, LENGTH(last_name) "expr2",
2
NULLIF(LENGTH(first_name), LENGTH(last_name)) result 3
FROM employees;

1 2 3

3-44
 Using the COALESCE Function

• The advantage of the COALESCE function over the

NVL function is that the COALESCE function can
take multiple alternate values.
• If the first expression is not null, it returns that
expression; otherwise, it does a COALESCE of the
remaining expressions.

3-45
 Using the COALESCE Function

SELECT last_name,
COALESCE(commission_pct, salary, 10) comm
FROM employees
ORDER BY commission_pct;

3-46
 Conditional Expressions

• Provide the use of IF-THEN-ELSE logic within a

SQL statement
• Use two methods:
– CASE expression
– DECODE function

3-47
 The CASE Expression

Facilitates conditional inquiries by doing the work of

an IF-THEN-ELSE statement:

CASE
CASE expr
expr WHEN
WHEN comparison_expr1
comparison_expr1 THEN
THEN return_expr1
return_expr1
[WHEN
[WHEN comparison_expr2
comparison_expr2 THEN
THEN return_expr2
return_expr2
WHEN
WHEN comparison_exprn
comparison_exprn THEN
THEN return_exprn
return_exprn
ELSE
ELSE else_expr]
else_expr]
END
END

3-48
 Using the CASE Expression

Facilitates conditional inquiries by doing the work of

an IF-THEN-ELSE statement:
SELECT last_name, job_id, salary,
CASE job_id WHEN 'IT_PROG' THEN 1.10*salary
WHEN 'ST_CLERK' THEN 1.15*salary
WHEN 'SA_REP' THEN 1.20*salary
ELSE salary END "REVISED_SALARY"
FROM employees;

3-49
 The DECODE Function

Facilitates conditional inquiries by doing the work of

a CASE or IF-THEN-ELSE statement:

DECODE(col|expression,
DECODE(col|expression, search1,
search1, result1
result1
[,
[, search2,
search2, result2,...,]
result2,...,]
[,
[, default])
default])

3-50
 Using the DECODE Function

SELECT last_name, job_id, salary,

DECODE(job_id, 'IT_PROG', 1.10*salary,
'ST_CLERK', 1.15*salary,
'SA_REP', 1.20*salary,
salary)
REVISED_SALARY
FROM employees;

3-51
 Using the DECODE Function

Display the applicable tax rate for each employee in

department 80.
SELECT last_name, salary,
DECODE (TRUNC(salary/2000, 0),
0, 0.00,
1, 0.09,
2, 0.20,
3, 0.30,
4, 0.40,
5, 0.42,
6, 0.44,
0.45) TAX_RATE
FROM employees
WHERE department_id = 80;

3-52
 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Perform calculations on data using functions
• Modify individual data items using functions
• Manipulate output for groups of rows using
functions
• Alter date formats for display using functions
• Convert column data types using functions
• Use NVL functions
• Use IF-THEN-ELSE logic

3-53
 Practice 3, Part Two: Overview

This practice covers the following topics:

• Creating queries that require the use of numeric,
character, and date functions
• Using concatenation with functions
• Writing case-insensitive queries to test the
usefulness of character functions
• Performing calculations of years and months of
service for an employee
• Determining the review date for an employee

3-54
3-55
3-57