CERN-IT/ADC

Oracle Tutorials

SQL
Structured Query Language
(1/2)

Giacomo Govi
IT/ADC

25 January 2005
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Overview

• Goal:
– Learn the basic for interacting with a RDBMS

• Outline
– SQL generalities
– Available statements
– Restricting, Sorting and Aggregating data
– Manipulating Data from different tables
– SQL Functions
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SQL Definition

Structured Query Language

• Non-procedural language to access a relational database
• Used to create, manipulate and maintain a relational
database
• Official ANSI Standard

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SQL as RDBMS interface
SQL provides statements for a variety of tasks, including:

Data Definition
• Creating, replacing, altering, and dropping objects
Data Manipulation
• Querying data
• Inserting, updating, and deleting rows in a table
Data Control
• Controlling access to the database and its objects
• Guaranteeing database consistency and integrity

SQL unifies all of the preceding tasks in one consistent language.

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Available statements
Statement Description
SELECT Data retrieval
INSERT
UPDATE Rows Data Manipulation Language (DML)
DELETE
CREATE
ALTER
Tables/Objects
DROP Data Definition Language (DDL)
RENAME
TRUNCATE
COMMIT
Manages
ROLLBACK DML Transaction Control
SAVEPOINT
GRANT
Data Control Language (DCL)
REVOKE

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SQL & Tools

• SQL statements can be submitted via:

– DB API’s for programming languages (C, C++,
Java, Python, PHP, …)
– GUI applications (Excel, Access)
– stored procedures (PL/SQL, Java)
– Oracle tools (Reports, Forms, Designer…)

• SQL*Plus (Oracle!) is the basic tool to submit

SQL commands (available on all CERN
platforms).
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To use SQL at CERN
• Direct connection to the database
i.e. from lxplus
sqlplus user@sid

• Benthic Software
to install it, refer to:
G:\Applications\Benthic\Benthic_license_CERN.html
http://www.benthicsoftware.com/

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Datatypes

Each value manipulated by a RDBMS has a datatype

that defines the domain of values that each column
can contain
• When you create a table, you must specify a datatype for
each of its columns.

ANSI defines a common set

• Oracle has its set of built-in types
• User-defined types

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Oracle Built-in Datatypes
CHAR (size) fixed-length char array
VARCHAR2(size) Variable-length char string

NUMBER (precision, scale) any numeric

DATE date
TIMESTAMP date+time
CLOB char large object
BLOB binary large object
BINARY_FLOAT 32 bit floating point
BINARY_DOUBLE 64 bit floating point
… + some others

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ANSI Data types translation
ANSI data type Oracle
integer NUMBER(38)
smallint NUMBER(38)
numeric(p,s) NUMBER(p,s)
varchar(n) VARCHAR2(n)
char(n) CHAR(n)
datetime DATE
float NUMBER
real NUMBER

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NULL value
NULL is a special value that means:
– unavailable
– unassigned
– unknown
– inapplicable
NULL value is not equivalent to
– zero
– blank space

Often used as default

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Schema

A schema is a collection of logical structures of

data, called schema objects.

• It is owned by a database user and has the same

name of the user.

• Schema objects can be created and manipulated

with SQL

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Schema objects
-Tables
-Indexes
-Constraints
… but also (in ORACLE)
-Links
-Views
-Triggers
-Operators
-Sequences
-Stored functions
-Stored procedures
-Synonyms

…and more
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Basic SQL
Aim: be able to perform the basic operation of the
RDBMS data model:

• Create, Modify the layout of a table

• Remove a table from the user schema
• Insert data into the table
• Retrieve data from one or more tables
• Update/ Delete data in a table

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Create a table

Define the table layout:

Table identifier
Column identifiers and data types
Integrity/Consistency:
- Column constraints, default values
- Relational constraints

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Create (and describe) a table
CREATE TABLE employees (
id NUMBER(4),
surname VARCHAR2(50),
name VARCHAR2(100),
hiredate DATE DEFAULT SYSDATE,
division VARCHAR2(20),
email VARCHAR2(20),
citizenship VARCHAR2(20)
);

Retrieve the table layout:

DESCRIBE employees;
Name Null? Type
--------- ------ ----------
ID NUMBER(4)
...
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Using relational model
What’s missing in the previous slide?
Syntax is correct, but we should impose a few more check to
some of the columns:
• id is used to fully identify an employee
- it must always have a value!
- each employee (row) must have a different id
• name and surname must always have a value
• division and citizenship are not expected to accept ANY value…
The application filling the table could check all that…
Actually this is what the RDBMS is supposed to DO!
CONSTRAINT
-> column property defining range of values, relationship with other
column inside the same or other tables

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Create a relational table
CREATE TABLE employees (
id NUMBER(4) NOT NULL,
surname VARCHAR2(50) NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR2(100) NOT NULL,
hiredate DATE DEFAULT SYSDATE,
div_id NUMBER(2),
email VARCHAR2(20) UNIQUE,
cit_id NUMBER(3),
CONSTRAINT emp_pk PRIMARY KEY (id),
CONSTRAINT emp_div_fk FOREIGN KEY(div_id)
REFERENCES divisions(id),
CONSTRAINT emp_email_un UNIQUE(email)
);

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Object identifiers

Oracle cares about case sensitivity for quoted

identifiers:
employees
"employees“
"Employees"
"EMPLOYEES"
Can reference different objects in the same schema!
employees
EMPLOYEES
"EMPLOYEES"
Reference the same object!

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Coding Conventions

• SQL instructions are not case sensitive

• Careful with reserved words!

• Good practice for tables and column names is to

prefix column names with a label from the table
name:
CREATE TABLE divisions(
div_id NUMBER(4) NOT NULL,
div_name VARCHAR2(50) NOT NULL
);

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Alter table
Modify the name:
ALTER TABLE employees RENAME TO newemployees;
Modify the layout:
ALTER TABLE employees ADD (salary NUMBER(7));
ALTER TABLE employees RENAME COLUMN div_id TO
dep_id;
ALTER TABLE employees DROP (hiredate);

But also:
• Add/modify/drop constraints
• Enable/Disable constraints
• Modify more advanced properties…

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Drop table
Remove the table from the user schema (recoverable in
Oracle10g):
DROP TABLE employees;
->effects: the table is removed (or moved in the recycle bin) with
all its data, and dependencies (indexes, etc…)

Remove the table from the database entirely (Oracle10g):

DROP TABLE employees PURGE;
Remove a table with referential constraints:
DROP TABLE employees CASCADE CONSTRAINTS;

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Insert data in a table
Data are added in a table as new rows

Insertion following the table defined layout:

INSERT INTO employees VALUES(1369,‘SMITH’,
TO_DATE(’17-DEC-1980’,‘DD-MON-YYYY`),20,NULL);

Insertion using a DEFAULT value

INSERT INTO employees VALUES (1369, ‘SMITH’,
DEFAULT,20,’[email protected]’);

Insertion specifying the column list:

INSERT INTO employees (id, name, div_id, email )
VALUES(1369, ‘SMITH’, 20, ’[email protected]’);

Insertion in a table outside the current working schema:

INSERT INTO <schemaname>.employees …
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Retrieve the table data (I)
How to query data from one or more tables
Retrieve all data available:
SELECT * FROM employees;

Full table id is needed outside the working schema:

SELECT * FROM <schemaname>.employees …
Retrieve a subset of the available columns:
SELECT id, name FROM employees;
Retrieve the distinguished column values:
SELECT DISTINCT div_id FROM employees;
Retrieve from more tables:
SELECT employees.name,visitors.name FROM
employees, visitors;
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Retrieve the table data (II)
Assign pseudonyms to the columns to retrieve:
SELECT name AS emp_name FROM employees;
SELECT id “emp_id”, name “emp_name” FROM
employees;
Columns concatenation:
SELECT name || email AS name_email FROM
employees;
SELECT ‘employee ‘ || name || email FROM
employees;
Treatment of NULL values (NVL operator):
SELECT NVL(email,’-’) FROM employees;
SELECT NVL(salary,0) FROM employees;

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Aggregating data

• Data can be grouped and some summary values

can be computed

• Functions and clauses:

– AVG, COUNT, MAX, MIN, STDDEV, SUM,
VARIANCE
– group by clause is used to define the grouping
parameter
– having clause can be used to limit the output of
the statement

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Group functions

Data can be grouped and some summary values can

be computed
Retrieve the number of rows:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM employees;
Retrieve the number of non-null values for a column:
SELECT COUNT(email) FROM employees;
Restrict to distinguished values:
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT div_id) FROM employees;
Sum/Max/Min/Avg
SELECT SUM(salary) FROM employees;

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Set operators
Combine multiple queries
Union without duplicates:
SELECT name, email FROM employees UNION
SELECT name, email FROM visitors;
Union with the whole row set:
SELECT cit_id FROM employees UNION ALL
SELECT cit_id FROM visitors;
Intersect:
SELECT name FROM visitors INTERSECT
SELECT name FROM former_employees;
Minus:
SELECT name FROM visitors MINUS
SELECT name FROM former_employees;
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Restricting and sorting data
• Need to restrict and filter the rows of data that are
displayed and/or specify the order in which these rows
are displayed

• Clauses and Operators:

– WHERE
– Comparisons Operators (=, >, < …..)
– BETWEEN, IN
– LIKE
– Logical Operators (AND,OR,NOT)

– ORDER BY
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Restricting data selection (I)
Filter the rows according to specified condition
Simple selections:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE id = 30;
SELECT name FROM employees WHERE NOT div_id =
2;
SELECT name FROM employees WHERE salary > 0;
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE hiredate <
TO_DATE(‘01-01-2000', ‘DD-MM-YYYY');
SELECT name FROM employees WHERE email IS
NULL;
More Conditions (AND/OR):
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE div_id = 20 AND
hiredate > TO_DATE(‘01-01-2000',
‘DD-MM-YYYY');

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Restricting data selection (II)
More selection operators
Use of wildcards
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE name LIKE ‘C%’;
Ranges
SELECT count(*) FROM employees WHERE salary
BETWEEN 1000 and 2000;
Selection from a list
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE div_id IN
(4,9,12);
List from an other selection
SELECT name FROM divisions WHERE id IN (SELECT
div_id FROM employees WHERE salary > 2000);

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Sorting selected data

Set the order of the rows in the result set:

SELECT name, div_id, salary FROM employees ORDER
BY hiredate;
Ascending/Descending
SELECT name, div_id, salary FROM employees ORDER
BY hiredate ASC;
SELECT name, div_id, salary FROM employees ORDER
BY salary DESC, name;
NAME DIV_ID SALARY
-------------- ------ ---------
Zzz 2 4000
Aaa 1 3000
Bbb 3 3000

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Aggregating Clauses
Divide rows in a table into smaller groups:
SELECT column, group_function(column) FROM table
[WHERE condition] GROUP BY group_by_expression;
Example:
SELECT div_id, MIN(salary), MAX (salary) FROM
employees GROUP BY div_id;
• All columns in the SELECT that are not in the group function must be
included in the GROUP BY clause
• GROUP BY column does not have to be in the SELECT
Restrict the groups:
SELECT div_id, MIN(salary), MAX (salary) FROM
employees GROUP BY division HAVING MIN(salary)
< 5000;

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Update data in a table
Aim: change existing values in a table
With no clause all the rows will be updated:
UPDATE employees SET salary=1000;
A single result select can be used for update:
UPDATE employees SET salary=(SELECT MAX(salary));
The previous value can be used for the update:
UPDATE employees SET salary=salary+1000;
In order to update a specific row(s), a WHERE clause can be provided:
UPDATE employees SET salary=5000 WHERE
name=smith;
UPDATE employees SET salary=5000 WHERE div_id=3;
The syntax for the WHERE clause is the same as for the SELECT
statements…

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Delete data from a table

Aim: remove existing data from a table

With no clause all the rows will be deleted:
DELETE FROM employees;
In order to delete a specific row(s), a WHERE clause can be
provided:
DELETE FROM employees WHERE name=smith;
DELETE FROM employees WHERE div_id=3;
The syntax for the WHERE clause is the same as for the
SELECT statements…

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Manipulating data from more tables

In RDBMS data model, to ensure consistency:

Row idenfication -> Primary Key
Constrained relationship with other table row->
Foreign Key
In general, entries for a given table column might be related
to other table columns…
JOIN:
Retrieve data from more tables defining a condition for the
row association
- Natural usage on foreign key constrained columns

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Types of join

Values in the two corresponding columns of the different

Equijoin tables must be equal

The relationship between the columns of the different

Non-Equijoin tables must be other than equal

Outerjoin It returns also the rows that does not satisfy the join
condition

SelfJoin Joining data in a table to itself

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Equijoin
Foreign Key
EMP.NAME EMP.DIV_ID
KING 10 Primary Key
BLAKE 30 DIV.ID DIV.NAME
10 ACCOUNTING
CLARK 10
30 SALES
20 OPERATIONS

EMP.NAME EMP.DIV_ID DIV.NAME

KING 10 ACCOUNTING
BLAKE 30 SALES
CLARK 10 ACCOUNTING

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Outerjoin
Foreign Key
EMP.NAME EMP.DIV_ID Primary Key
KING 10 DIV.ID DIV.NAME

BLAKE NULL 10 ACCOUNTING

CLARK 10 30 SALES

MARTIN 20 20 OPERATIONS

TURNER 10
JONES NULL
EMP.NAME EMP.DIV_ID DIV.NAME
KING 10 ACCOUNTING

BLAKE NULL NULL

CLARK 10 ACCOUNTING

MARTIN 20 OPERATIONS
TURNER 10 ACCOUNTING
JONES NULL NULL

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Join Examples Syntax
Equijoins:
ANSI syntax:
SELECT employees.name, divisions.name FROM employees INNER
JOIN divisions ON employees.div_id=divisions.id;
Oracle:
SELECT employees.name, divisions.name FROM employees,
divisions WHERE employees.div_id=divisions.id;
Outerjoins:
ANSI syntax (LEFT,RIGHT,FULL)
SELECT employees.name, divisions.name FROM employees
FULL OUTER JOIN divisions
ON employees=division.id;
Oracle:
SELECT employees.name, divisions.name FROM employees,
divisions WHERE employees.div_id(+)=divisions.id;

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SQL Functions
Oracle provides a set of SQL functions for
manipulation of column and constant values

– Use the functions as much as possible in the where clauses

instead of making the selection in the host program (it may
invalidate the use of an index)

Type Functions
CHAR concat, length, lower, upper, trim, substr

NUMBER trunc, mod, round, logical comparison, arithmetic

DATE to_date, to_char, -, +, trunc, months_between

…others to_char, to_number, decode, greatest, least, vsize

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Character manipulation Functions
String concatenation:
SELECT CONCAT(CONCAT(name, ‘ email is '), email)
FROM employees WHERE id = 152;
String length:
SELECT LENGTH(email) FROM employees WHERE
citizenship = 5;
Set the Case (LOWER/UPPER):
SELECT CONCAT(LOWER(name),’@cern.ch’) FROM
employees;
More operators:
TRIM,LTRIM,RTRIM Remove characters from the string start/end
SUBSTR Extract a specific portion of the string

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Numeric functions (I)
SQL Function for numeric types (column value or expression):
ABS(p)
• Returns the absolute value of the column or the expression
CEIL(p)
• Returns the smalles integer greater then or equal to the parameter value
FLOOR(p)
• Returns largest integer equal to or less than the parameter value
MOD(m, n)
• Returns the remainder of m divided by n (or m if n is 0)
POWER(p, n)
• Returns p raised to the nth power

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Numeric functions (II)
ROUND(p,n)
• Returns p rounded to n places to the right of the decimal point (default
n=0)
SIGN(p)
• Returns the sign of p
SQRT(p)
• Returns the square root of p.
TRUNC(m, n)
• Returns n truncated to m decimal places
POWER(m, n)
• Returns m raised to the nth power (default n=0)

More Math functions:

ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, ATAN2, COS,
COSH, EXP, LN, LOG, SIN, SINH, TAN, TANH
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Date operation
Functions to form or manipulate a Date datatype:
SYSDATE
• Returns the current operating system date and time
NLS_DATE_FORMAT
• Session Parameter for the default Date format model
ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'yy.mm.dd';
TO_DATE(s [,format [,'nlsparams']])
• Converts the character string s (CHAR, VARCHAR2) to a value of
DATE datatype. format is a datetime model format.
ROUND(date,format)
• Returns date rounded to the unit specified by the format model format
TRUNC(date,format)
• Returns date with the time portion of the day truncated to the unit
specified by the format model format
Other functions:
NEXT_DAY(date,day),LAST_DAY(date)
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Other functions
Conversion functions:
TO_CHAR(p,[format])
• Converts p to a value of VARCHAR2 datatype
• p can be character, numeric, Date datatype
• format can be provided for numeric and Date.
TO_NUMBER(expr,[format]))
• Converts expr to a value of NUMBER datatype.
• expr can be BINARY_FLOAT, BINARY_DOUBLE or CHAR,
VARCHAR2 in the format specified by format

More useful functions:

DECODE
VSIZE
GREATEST
LEAST

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The DUAL table
Table automatically created by Oracle Database in the
schema of SYS user.
• Accessible (read-only) to all users.
By selecting from the DUAL table one can:
• Compute constant expressions with functions:
SELECT ABS(-15) FROM DUAL;
ABS(-15)
----------
15
• Retrieve some Environment parameters:
SELECT UID, USER FROM DUAL;
UID USER
--------- -------------
578 GOVI

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Summary
• What is SQL, for what and how do we use it
• ANSI and Oracle-specific SQL Datatypes
• User’s schema
• Basic SQL for :
- Create, Modify, Delete a table
- Insert data into a table
- Select data from one or more tables with/without conditions
- Update or delete data from a table
• SQL functions
• The Oracle DUAL table

• Hints on SQL good practice

• Examples to be used as a starting point
• Refer to the documentation for further details

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Documentation
• Oracle SQL: The essential reference
David Kreines, Ken Jacobs
O'Reilly & Associates; ISBN: 1565926978; (October 2000)

• Mastering Oracle SQL

Sanjay Mishra, Alan Beaulieu
O'Reilly & Associates; ISBN: 0596001290; (April 2002)

• http://otn.oracle.com

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Questions & Answers

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