Chapter 8

SQL-99: SchemaDefinition,
Constraints, and Queries and Views
 Data Definition, Constraints, and Schema
Changes
• Used to CREATE, DROP, and ALTER the
descriptions of the tables (relations) of a
database

Slide 8- 2
 CREATE TABLE
• Specifies a new base relation by giving it a name, and
specifying each of its attributes and their data types
(INTEGER, FLOAT, DECIMAL(i,j), CHAR(n), VARCHAR(n))
• A constraint NOT NULL may be specified on an attribute
CREATE TABLE DEPARTMENT (
DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
MGRSSN CHAR(9),
MGRSTARTDATE CHAR(9) );

Slide 8- 3
 CREATE TABLE
• In SQL2, can use the CREATE TABLE command for specifying the primary key
attributes, secondary keys, and referential integrity constraints (foreign keys).
• Key attributes can be specified via the PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE phrases
CREATE TABLE DEPT (
DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
MGRSSN CHAR(9),
MGRSTARTDATE CHAR(9),
PRIMARY KEY (DNUMBER),
UNIQUE (DNAME),
FOREIGN KEY (MGRSSN) REFERENCES
EMP );

Slide 8- 4
 DROP TABLE
• Used to remove a relation (base table) and its
definition
• The relation can no longer be used in queries,
updates, or any other commands since its
description no longer exists
• Example:

DROP TABLE DEPENDENT;

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 ALTER TABLE
• Used to add an attribute to one of the base
relations
– The new attribute will have NULLs in all the tuples of the
relation right after the command is executed; hence, the
NOT NULL constraint is not allowed for such an attribute
• Example:
ALTER TABLE EMPLOYEE ADD JOB
VARCHAR(12);

• The database users must still enter a value for

the new attribute JOB for each EMPLOYEE tuple.
– This can be done using the UPDATE command.

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 Features Added in SQL2 and SQL-99

• Create schema
• Referential integrity options

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 CREATE SCHEMA
• Specifies a new database schema by giving it a
name

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 REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY OPTIONS
• We can specify RESTRICT, CASCADE, SET NULL or SET DEFAULT on
referential integrity constraints (foreign keys)
CREATE TABLE DEPT (
DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
MGRSSN CHAR(9),
MGRSTARTDATE CHAR(9),
PRIMARY KEY (DNUMBER),
UNIQUE (DNAME),
FOREIGN KEY (MGRSSN) REFERENCES EMP
ON DELETE SET DEFAULT ON UPDATE
CASCADE);
Slide 8- 9
 REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY OPTIONS
(continued)
CREATE TABLE EMP(
ENAME VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
ESSN CHAR(9),
BDATE DATE,
DNO INTEGER DEFAULT 1,
SUPERSSN CHAR(9),
PRIMARY KEY (ESSN),
FOREIGN KEY (DNO) REFERENCES DEPT
ON DELETE SET DEFAULT ON UPDATE
CASCADE,
FOREIGN KEY (SUPERSSN) REFERENCES EMP
ON DELETE SET NULL ON UPDATE CASCADE);

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Additional Data Types in SQL2 and SQL-99
Has DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP data types
• DATE:
– Made up of year-month-day in the format yyyy-mm-dd
• TIME:
– Made up of hour:minute:second in the format hh:mm:ss
• TIME(i):
– Made up of hour:minute:second plus i additional digits
specifying fractions of a second
– format is hh:mm:ss:ii...i

Slide 8- 11
 Additional Data Types in SQL2 and SQL-99
(contd.)
• TIMESTAMP:
– Has both DATE and TIME components
• INTERVAL:
– Specifies a relative value rather than an absolute
value
– Can be DAY/TIME intervals or YEAR/MONTH intervals
– Can be positive or negative when added to or
subtracted from an absolute value, the result is an
absolute value

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 Retrieval Queries in SQL
• SQL has one basic statement for retrieving information from a
database; the SELECT statement
– This is not the same as the SELECT operation of the relational
algebra
• Important distinction between SQL and the formal relational
model:
– SQL allows a table (relation) to have two or more tuples that are
identical in all their attribute values
– Hence, an SQL relation (table) is a multi-set (sometimes called
a bag) of tuples; it is not a set of tuples
• SQL relations can be constrained to be sets by specifying
PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE attributes, or by using the DISTINCT
option in a query

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 Retrieval Queries in SQL (contd.)
• A bag or multi-set is like a set, but an element
may appear more than once.
– Example: {A, B, C, A} is a bag. {A, B, C} is also a bag
that also is a set.
– Bags also resemble lists, but the order is irrelevant
in a bag.
• Example:
– {A, B, A} = {B, A, A} as bags
– However, [A, B, A] is not equal to [B, A, A] as lists
Slide 8- 14
 Retrieval Queries in SQL (contd.)
• Basic form of the SQL SELECT statement is called a mapping or
a SELECT-FROM-WHERE block

SELECT <attribute list>

FROM <table list>
WHERE <condition>

– <attribute list> is a list of attribute names whose values are to be

retrieved by the query
– <table list> is a list of the relation names required to process the
query
– <condition> is a conditional (Boolean) expression that identifies
the tuples to be retrieved by the query

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Relational Database Schema--Figure 5.5

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Populated Database--Fig.5.6

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 Simple SQL Queries
• Basic SQL queries correspond to using the
following operations of the relational algebra:
– SELECT
– PROJECT
– JOIN
• All subsequent examples use the COMPANY
database

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 Simple SQL Queries (contd.)
• Example of a simple query on one relation
• Query 0: Retrieve the birthdate and address of the employee
whose name is 'John B. Smith'.
Q0: SELECT BDATE, ADDRESS
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE FNAME='John' AND MINIT='B’
AND LNAME='Smith’

– Similar to a SELECT-PROJECT pair of relational algebra

operations:
• The SELECT-clause specifies the projection attributes and the
WHERE-clause specifies the selection condition
– However, the result of the query may contain duplicate tuples

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 Simple SQL Queries (contd.)
• Query 1: Retrieve the name and address of all employees who
work for the 'Research' department.

Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS

FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND DNUMBER=DNO

– Similar to a SELECT-PROJECT-JOIN sequence of relational algebra

operations
– (DNAME='Research') is a selection condition (corresponds to a
SELECT operation in relational algebra)
– (DNUMBER=DNO) is a join condition (corresponds to a JOIN
operation in relational algebra)

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 Simple SQL Queries (contd.)
• Query 2: For every project located in 'Stafford', list the project number, the
controlling department number, and the department manager's last
name, address, and birthdate.

Q2: SELECT PNUMBER, DNUM, LNAME, BDATE, ADDRESS

FROM PROJECT, DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNUM=DNUMBER AND MGRSSN=SSN
AND PLOCATION='Stafford'

– In Q2, there are two join conditions

– The join condition DNUM=DNUMBER relates a project to its
controlling department
– The join condition MGRSSN=SSN relates the controlling department to
the employee who manages that department

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 Aliases, * and DISTINCT, Empty WHERE-
clause
• In SQL, we can use the same name for two (or
more) attributes as long as the attributes are in
different relations
• A query that refers to two or more attributes with
the same name must qualify the attribute name
with the relation name by prefixing the relation
name to the attribute name
• Example:

• EMPLOYEE.LNAME, DEPARTMENT.DNAME
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 ALIASES
• Some queries need to refer to the same relation twice
– In this case, aliases are given to the relation name
• Query 8: For each employee, retrieve the employee's name, and the name
of his or her immediate supervisor.

Q8: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME, S.FNAME, S.LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE E S
WHERE E.SUPERSSN=S.SSN

– In Q8, the alternate relation names E and S are called aliases or tuple
variables for the EMPLOYEE relation
– We can think of E and S as two different copies of EMPLOYEE; E
represents employees in role of supervisees and S represents
employees in role of supervisors

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 ALIASES (contd.)
• Aliasing can also be used in any SQL query for
convenience
• Can also use the AS keyword to specify aliases

Q8: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME, S.FNAME,

S.LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE AS E, EMPLOYEE AS S
WHERE E.SUPERSSN=S.SSN

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 UNSPECIFIED
WHERE-clause
• A missing WHERE-clause indicates no condition; hence, all
tuples of the relations in the FROM-clause are selected
– This is equivalent to the condition WHERE TRUE
• Query 9: Retrieve the SSN values for all employees.

– Q9: SELECT SSN

FROM EMPLOYEE

• If more than one relation is specified in the FROM-clause and

there is no join condition, then the CARTESIAN PRODUCT of
tuples is selected

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 UNSPECIFIED
WHERE-clause (contd.)
• Example:

Q10: SELECT SSN, DNAME

FROMEMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT

– It is extremely important not to overlook

specifying any selection and join conditions in the
WHERE-clause; otherwise, incorrect and very large
relations may result

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 USE OF *
• To retrieve all the attribute values of the selected tuples, a * is
used, which stands for all the attributes
Examples:

Q1C: SELECT *
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNO=5

Q1D: SELECT *
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND
DNO=DNUMBER

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 USE OF DISTINCT
• SQL does not treat a relation as a set; duplicate tuples can
appear
• To eliminate duplicate tuples in a query result, the keyword
DISTINCT is used
• For example, the result of Q11 may have duplicate SALARY
values whereas Q11A does not have any duplicate values

Q11: SELECT SALARY

FROM EMPLOYEE
Q11A: SELECT DISTINCT SALARY
FROM EMPLOYEE

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 SET OPERATIONS
• SQL has directly incorporated some set operations
• There is a union operation (UNION), and in some versions of
SQL there are set difference (MINUS) and intersection
(INTERSECT) operations
• The resulting relations of these set operations are sets of
tuples; duplicate tuples are eliminated from the result
• The set operations apply only to union compatible relations;
the two relations must have the same attributes and the
attributes must appear in the same order

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 SET OPERATIONS (contd.)
• Query 4: Make a list of all project numbers for projects that involve an
employee whose last name is 'Smith' as a worker or as a manager of the
department that controls the project.

Q4: (SELECT PNAME

FROM PROJECT, DEPARTMENT,
EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNUM=DNUMBER AND
MGRSSN=SSN AND LNAME='Smith')
UNION
(SELECT PNAME
FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON, EMPLOYEE
WHERE PNUMBER=PNO AND
ESSN=SSN AND NAME='Smith')

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 NESTING OF QUERIES
• A complete SELECT query, called a nested query, can be
specified within the WHERE-clause of another query, called
the outer query
– Many of the previous queries can be specified in an alternative
form using nesting
• Query 1: Retrieve the name and address of all employees who
work for the 'Research' department.

Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNO IN (SELECT DNUMBER
FROM DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' )

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 NESTING OF QUERIES (contd.)
• The nested query selects the number of the 'Research'
department
• The outer query select an EMPLOYEE tuple if its DNO value is
in the result of either nested query
• The comparison operator IN compares a value v with a set (or
multi-set) of values V, and evaluates to TRUE if v is one of the
elements in V
• In general, we can have several levels of nested queries
• A reference to an unqualified attribute refers to the relation
declared in the innermost nested query
• In this example, the nested query is not correlated with the
outer query

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 CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES
• If a condition in the WHERE-clause of a nested query references an
attribute of a relation declared in the outer query, the two queries are said
to be correlated
– The result of a correlated nested query is different for each tuple (or
combination of tuples) of the relation(s) the outer query
• Query 12: Retrieve the name of each employee who has a dependent with
the same first name as the employee.

Q12: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE AS E
WHERE E.SSN IN
(SELECT ESSN
FROM DEPENDENT
WHERE ESSN=E.SSN AND
E.FNAME=DEPENDENT_NAME)

Slide 8- 33
 CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES (contd.)
• In Q12, the nested query has a different result in the outer
query
• A query written with nested SELECT... FROM... WHERE...
blocks and using the = or IN comparison operators can always
be expressed as a single block query. For example, Q12 may
be written as in Q12A

Q12A: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE E, DEPENDENT D
WHERE E.SSN=D.ESSN AND
E.FNAME=D.DEPENDENT_NAME

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CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES (contd.)
• The original SQL as specified for SYSTEM R also had a
CONTAINS comparison operator, which is used in conjunction
with nested correlated queries
– This operator was dropped from the language, possibly because
of the difficulty in implementing it efficiently
– Most implementations of SQL do not have this operator
– The CONTAINS operator compares two sets of values, and
returns TRUE if one set contains all values in the other set
• Reminiscent of the division operation of algebra

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CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES (contd.)
• Query 3: Retrieve the name of each employee who works on
all the projects controlled by department number 5.

Q3: SELECT FNAME, LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE ( (SELECT PNO
FROM WORKS_ON
WHERE SSN=ESSN)
CONTAINS
(SELECT PNUMBER
FROM PROJECT
WHERE DNUM=5) )

Slide 8- 36
CORRELATED NESTED QUERIES (contd.)

• In Q3, the second nested query, which is not

correlated with the outer query, retrieves the
project numbers of all projects controlled by
department 5
• The first nested query, which is correlated,
retrieves the project numbers on which the
employee works, which is different for each
employee tuple because of the correlation

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 THE EXISTS FUNCTION
• EXISTS is used to check whether the result of a
correlated nested query is empty (contains no
tuples) or not
– We can formulate Query 12 in an alternative form
that uses EXISTS as Q12B

Slide 8- 38
 THE EXISTS FUNCTION (contd.)
• Query 12: Retrieve the name of each
employee who has a dependent with the
same first name as the employee.

Q12B: SELECT FNAME, LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM DEPENDENT
WHERE SSN=ESSN
AND FNAME=DEPENDENT_NAME)

Slide 8- 39
 THE EXISTS FUNCTION (contd.)
• Query 6: Retrieve the names of employees who have no
dependents.

Q6: SELECT FNAME, LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM DEPENDENT
WHERE SSN=ESSN)
• In Q6, the correlated nested query retrieves all DEPENDENT
tuples related to an EMPLOYEE tuple. If none exist, the
EMPLOYEE tuple is selected
– EXISTS is necessary for the expressive power of SQL

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 EXPLICIT SETS
• It is also possible to use an explicit
(enumerated) set of values in the WHERE-
clause rather than a nested query
• Query 13: Retrieve the social security numbers
of all employees who work on project number
1, 2, or 3.
Q13: SELECT DISTINCT ESSN
FROMWORKS_ON
WHERE PNO IN (1, 2, 3)
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 NULLS IN SQL QUERIES
• SQL allows queries that check if a value is NULL (missing or
undefined or not applicable)
• SQL uses IS or IS NOT to compare NULLs because it considers
each NULL value distinct from other NULL values, so equality
comparison is not appropriate.
• Query 14: Retrieve the names of all employees who do not
have supervisors.
Q14: SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE SUPERSSN IS NULL
– Note: If a join condition is specified, tuples with NULL values for
the join attributes are not included in the result

Slide 8- 42
 Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2
• Can specify a "joined relation" in the FROM-
clause
– Looks like any other relation but is the result of a
join
– Allows the user to specify different types of joins
(regular "theta" JOIN, NATURAL JOIN, LEFT OUTER
JOIN, RIGHT OUTER JOIN, CROSS JOIN, etc)

Slide 8- 43
 Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2 (contd.)
• Examples:
Q8: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME, S.FNAME, S.LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE E S
WHERE E.SUPERSSN=S.SSN

• can be written as:

Q8: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME, S.FNAME, S.LNAME
FROM (EMPLOYEE E LEFT OUTER JOIN
EMPLOYEES ON E.SUPERSSN=S.SSN)

Slide 8- 44
 Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2 (contd.)
• Examples:
Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND DNUMBER=DNO
• could be written as:
Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM (EMPLOYEE JOIN DEPARTMENT
ON DNUMBER=DNO)
WHERE DNAME='Research’
• or as:
Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM (EMPLOYEE NATURAL JOIN DEPARTMENT
AS DEPT(DNAME, DNO, MSSN, MSDATE)
WHERE DNAME='Research’

Slide 8- 45
 Joined Relations Feature
in SQL2 (contd.)
• Another Example: Q2 could be written as
follows; this illustrates multiple joins in the
joined tables
Q2: SELECT PNUMBER, DNUM, LNAME, BDATE,
ADDRESS
FROM(PROJECT JOIN DEPARTMENT ON
DNUM=DNUMBER) JOIN EMPLOYEE ON
MGRSSN=SSN) )
WHERE PLOCATION='Stafford’

Slide 8- 46
 AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS
• Include COUNT, SUM, MAX, MIN, and AVG
• Query 15: Find the maximum salary, the minimum
salary, and the average salary among all
employees.
Q15: SELECT MAX(SALARY), MIN(SALARY),
AVG(SALARY)
FROMEMPLOYEE

• Some SQL implementations may not allow more

than one function in the SELECT-clause
Slide 8- 47
 AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (contd.)
• Query 16: Find the maximum salary, the
minimum salary, and the average salary among
employees who work for the 'Research'
department.
Q16: SELECT MAX(SALARY), MIN(SALARY),
AVG(SALARY)
FROMEMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNO=DNUMBER AND DNAME='Research'

Slide 8- 48
 AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (contd.)
• Queries 17 and 18: Retrieve the total number of employees in
the company (Q17), and the number of employees in the
'Research' department (Q18).
Q17: SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM EMPLOYEE

Q18: SELECT COUNT (*)

FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNO=DNUMBER AND
DNAME='Research’

Slide 8- 49
 GROUPING
• In many cases, we want to apply the aggregate
functions to subgroups of tuples in a relation
• Each subgroup of tuples consists of the set of
tuples that have the same value for the grouping
attribute(s)
• The function is applied to each subgroup
independently
• SQL has a GROUP BY-clause for specifying the
grouping attributes, which must also appear in
the SELECT-clause
Slide 8- 50
 GROUPING (contd.)
• Query 20: For each department, retrieve the department
number, the number of employees in the department, and
their average salary.
Q20: SELECT DNO, COUNT (*), AVG (SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEE
GROUP BY DNO

– In Q20, the EMPLOYEE tuples are divided into groups-

• Each group having the same value for the grouping attribute DNO
– The COUNT and AVG functions are applied to each such group of
tuples separately
– The SELECT-clause includes only the grouping attribute and the
functions to be applied on each group of tuples
– A join condition can be used in conjunction with grouping

Slide 8- 51
 GROUPING (contd.)
• Query 21: For each project, retrieve the project number,
project name, and the number of employees who work on
that project.

Q21: SELECT PNUMBER, PNAME, COUNT (*)

FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE PNUMBER=PNO
GROUP BY PNUMBER, PNAME

– In this case, the grouping and functions are applied after the
joining of the two relations

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 THE HAVING-CLAUSE
• Sometimes we want to retrieve the values of
these functions for only those groups that
satisfy certain conditions
• The HAVING-clause is used for specifying a
selection condition on groups (rather than on
individual tuples)

Slide 8- 53
 THE HAVING-CLAUSE (contd.)
• Query 22: For each project on which more than
two employees work, retrieve the project
number, project name, and the number of
employees who work on that project.
Q22: SELECT PNUMBER, PNAME, COUNT(*)
FROMPROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE PNUMBER=PNO
GROUP BY PNUMBER, PNAME
HAVING COUNT (*) > 2

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 SUBSTRING COMPARISON
• The LIKE comparison operator is used to
compare partial strings
• Two reserved characters are used: '%' (or '*' in
some implementations) replaces an arbitrary
number of characters, and '_' replaces a single
arbitrary character

Slide 8- 55
SUBSTRING COMPARISON (contd.)
• Query 25: Retrieve all employees whose
address is in Houston, Texas. Here, the value
of the ADDRESS attribute must contain the
substring 'Houston,TX‘ in it.
Q25: SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROMEMPLOYEE
WHERE ADDRESS LIKE
'%Houston,TX%'

Slide 8- 56
 SUBSTRING COMPARISON (contd.)
• Query 26: Retrieve all employees who were born during the
1950s.
– Here, '5' must be the 8th character of the string (according to
our format for date), so the BDATE value is '_______5_', with
each underscore as a place holder for a single arbitrary
character.
Q26: SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE BDATE LIKE '_______5_’

• The LIKE operator allows us to get around the fact that each
value is considered atomic and indivisible
– Hence, in SQL, character string attribute values are not atomic

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 ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS
• The standard arithmetic operators '+', '-'. '*', and '/' (for
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division,
respectively) can be applied to numeric values in an SQL
query result
• Query 27: Show the effect of giving all employees who work
on the 'ProductX' project a 10% raise.
Q27: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, 1.1*SALARY
FROM EMPLOYEE, WORKS_ON,
PROJECT
WHERE SSN=ESSN AND PNO=PNUMBER
AND PNAME='ProductX’

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 ORDER BY
• The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the tuples in a query
result based on the values of some attribute(s)
• Query 28: Retrieve a list of employees and the projects each
works in, ordered by the employee's department, and within
each department ordered alphabetically by employee last
name.
Q28: SELECT DNAME, LNAME, FNAME, PNAME
FROM DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE,
WORKS_ON, PROJECT
WHERE DNUMBER=DNO AND SSN=ESSN
AND PNO=PNUMBER
ORDER BY DNAME, LNAME

Slide 8- 59
 ORDER BY (contd.)
• The default order is in ascending order of
values
• We can specify the keyword DESC if we want a
descending order; the keyword ASC can be
used to explicitly specify ascending order,
even though it is the default

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 Summary of SQL Queries
• A query in SQL can consist of up to six clauses, but
only the first two, SELECT and FROM, are
mandatory. The clauses are specified in the
following order:

SELECT <attribute list>

FROM <table list>
[WHERE <condition>]
[GROUP BY <grouping attribute(s)>]
[HAVING <group condition>]
[ORDER BY <attribute list>]
Slide 8- 61
 Summary of SQL Queries (contd.)
• The SELECT-clause lists the attributes or functions to be retrieved
• The FROM-clause specifies all relations (or aliases) needed in the query
but not those needed in nested queries
• The WHERE-clause specifies the conditions for selection and join of tuples
from the relations specified in the FROM-clause
• GROUP BY specifies grouping attributes
• HAVING specifies a condition for selection of groups
• ORDER BY specifies an order for displaying the result of a query
– A query is evaluated by first applying the WHERE-clause, then GROUP
BY and HAVING, and finally the SELECT-clause

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 Specifying Updates in SQL
• There are three SQL commands to modify the
database: INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE

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 INSERT
• In its simplest form, it is used to add one or
more tuples to a relation
• Attribute values should be listed in the same
order as the attributes were specified in the
CREATE TABLE command

Slide 8- 64
 INSERT (contd.)
• Example:
U1: INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE
VALUES ('Richard','K','Marini', '653298653', '30-DEC-52',
'98 Oak Forest,Katy,TX', 'M', 37000,'987654321', 4 )

• An alternate form of INSERT specifies explicitly the attribute

names that correspond to the values in the new tuple
– Attributes with NULL values can be left out
• Example: Insert a tuple for a new EMPLOYEE for whom we
only know the FNAME, LNAME, and SSN attributes.
U1A: INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE (FNAME, LNAME,
SSN)
VALUES ('Richard', 'Marini', '653298653')

Slide 8- 65
 INSERT (contd.)
• Important Note: Only the constraints specified
in the DDL commands are automatically
enforced by the DBMS when updates are
applied to the database
– Another variation of INSERT allows insertion of
multiple tuples resulting from a query into a
relation

Slide 8- 66
 INSERT (contd.)
• Example: Suppose we want to create a temporary table that has the
name, number of employees, and total salaries for each department.
– A table DEPTS_INFO is created by U3A, and is loaded with the
summary information retrieved from the database by the query in
U3B.
U3A: CREATE TABLE DEPTS_INFO
(DEPT_NAME VARCHAR(10),
NO_OF_EMPS INTEGER,
TOTAL_SAL INTEGER);

U3B: INSERT INTO DEPTS_INFO (DEPT_NAME,

NO_OF_EMPS, TOTAL_SAL)
SELECT DNAME, COUNT (*), SUM (SALARY)
FROM DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNUMBER=DNO
GROUP BY DNAME ;

Slide 8- 67
 INSERT (contd.)
• Note: The DEPTS_INFO table may not be up-
to-date if we change the tuples in either the
DEPARTMENT or the EMPLOYEE relations after
issuing U3B. We have to create a view (see
later) to keep such a table up to date.

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 DELETE
• Removes tuples from a relation
– Includes a WHERE-clause to select the tuples to be deleted
– Referential integrity should be enforced
– Tuples are deleted from only one table at a time (unless
CASCADE is specified on a referential integrity constraint)
– A missing WHERE-clause specifies that all tuples in the relation
are to be deleted; the table then becomes an empty table
– The number of tuples deleted depends on the number of tuples
in the relation that satisfy the WHERE-clause

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 DELETE (contd.)
• Examples:
U4A: DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE LNAME='Brown’

U4B: DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE

WHERE SSN='123456789’

U4C: DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE

WHERE DNO IN (SELECT
DNUMBER
FROM DEPARTMENT
WHERE
DNAME='Research')

U4D: DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE

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 UPDATE
• Used to modify attribute values of one or more
selected tuples
• A WHERE-clause selects the tuples to be modified
• An additional SET-clause specifies the attributes
to be modified and their new values
• Each command modifies tuples in the same
relation
• Referential integrity should be enforced

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 UPDATE (contd.)
• Example: Change the location and controlling
department number of project number 10 to
'Bellaire' and 5, respectively.
U5: UPDATE PROJECT
SET PLOCATION = 'Bellaire',
DNUM = 5
WHERE PNUMBER=10

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 UPDATE (contd.)
• Example: Give all employees in the 'Research' department a
10% raise in salary.
U6: UPDATE EMPLOYEE
SET SALARY = SALARY *1.1
WHERE DNO IN (SELECT DNUMBER
FROM DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research')

• In this request, the modified SALARY value depends on the

original SALARY value in each tuple
– The reference to the SALARY attribute on the right of = refers to
the old SALARY value before modification
– The reference to the SALARY attribute on the left of = refers to
the new SALARY value after modification

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 Recap of SQL Queries
• A query in SQL can consist of up to six clauses, but only the
first two, SELECT and FROM, are mandatory. The clauses are
specified in the following order:

SELECT <attribute list>

FROM <table list>
[WHERE <condition>]
[GROUP BY <grouping attribute(s)>]
[HAVING <group condition>]
[ORDER BY <attribute list>]
• There are three SQL commands to modify the database:
INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE

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