Chapter 3

How to retrieve data from

a single table

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 1
 Objectives
Applied
 Code SELECT statements that require any of the language elements
presented in this chapter.

Knowledge
 Distinguish between the base table values and the calculated values in
SELECT statements.
 Describe the use of a column alias.
 Describe the use of the concatenation operator in string expressions.
 Describe the order of precedence and the use of parentheses for
arithmetic expressions.
 Describe the use of scalar functions.
 Describe the use of the Dual table, the DISTINCT keyword, and the
ROWNUM pseudo column.

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 2
 Objectives (continued)
Knowledge
 Describe the use of comparison operators, logical operators, and
parentheses in WHERE clauses.
 Describe the use of the IN, BETWEEN, and LIKE operators in
WHERE clauses.
 Describe the use of IS NULL in a WHERE clause.
 Describe the use of column names, column aliases, calculated values,
and column numbers in ORDER BY clauses.

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 3
 The simplified syntax of the SELECT statement
SELECT select_list
FROM table_source
[WHERE search_condition]
[ORDER BY order_by_list]

The four clauses of the SELECT statement

 SELECT
 FROM
 WHERE
 ORDER BY

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 4
 A simple SELECT statement
SELECT *
FROM invoices

(114 rows selected)

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 5
 A SELECT statement that retrieves and sorts
SELECT invoice_number, invoice_date, invoice_total
FROM invoices
ORDER BY invoice_total

(114 rows selected)

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 6
 A SELECT statement that retrieves
a calculated value
SELECT invoice_id, invoice_total,
(credit_total + payment_total) AS total_credits
FROM invoices
WHERE invoice_id = 17

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 7
 A SELECT statement that retrieves all invoices
between given dates
SELECT invoice_number, invoice_date, invoice_total
FROM invoices
WHERE invoice_date BETWEEN '01-MAY-2014'
AND '31-MAY-2014'
ORDER BY invoice_date

(70 rows selected)

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 8
 A SELECT statement that returns
an empty result set
SELECT invoice_number, invoice_date, invoice_total
FROM invoices
WHERE invoice_total > 50000

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 9
 The expanded syntax of the SELECT clause
SELECT [ALL|DISTINCT]
column_specification [[AS] result_column]
[, column_specification [[AS] result_column]] ...

Five ways to code column specifications

 All columns in base table
 Column name in base table
 Concatenation
 Calculation
 Scalar function

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 10
 Column specifications that use base table values
The * is used to retrieve all columns
SELECT *
Column names are used to retrieve specific columns
SELECT vendor_name, vendor_city, vendor_state

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 11
 Column specifications that use calculated values
An arithmetic expression that calculates balance_due
SELECT invoice_number,
invoice_total – payment_total – credit_total
AS balance_due
A string expression that derives full_name
SELECT first_name || ' ' || last_name AS full_name

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 12
 Two SELECT statements that name the columns
A SELECT statement that uses the AS keyword
-- DATE is a reserved keyword.
-- As a result, it must be enclosed in quotations.
SELECT invoice_number AS "Invoice Number",
invoice_date AS "Date",
invoice_total AS total
FROM invoices
A SELECT statement that omits the AS keyword
SELECT invoice_number "Invoice Number",
invoice_date "Date",
invoice_total total
FROM invoices

The result set for both SELECT statements

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 13
 A SELECT statement that doesn’t provide a name
for a calculated column
SELECT invoice_number, invoice_date, invoice_total,
invoice_total – payment_total – credit_total
FROM invoices

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 14
 How to concatenate string data
SELECT vendor_city, vendor_state,
vendor_city || vendor_state
FROM vendors

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 15
 How to format string data using literal values
SELECT vendor_name,
vendor_city || ', '
|| vendor_state
|| ' '
|| vendor_zip_code
AS address
FROM vendors

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 16
 How to include apostrophes in literal values
SELECT vendor_name || '''s address: ',
vendor_city || ', '
|| vendor_state
|| ' '
|| vendor_zip_code
FROM vendors

Terms to know
 String expression
 Literal value
 String literal (string constant)
 Concatenation operator

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 17
 The arithmetic operators in order of precedence
* Multiplication
/ Division
+ Addition
- Subtraction

A SELECT statement that calculates balance due

SELECT invoice_total, payment_total, credit_total,
invoice_total – payment_total – credit_total
AS balance_due
FROM invoices

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 18
 A SELECT statement that uses parentheses
SELECT invoice_id,
invoice_id + 7 * 3 AS order_of_precedence,
(invoice_id + 7) * 3 AS add_first
FROM invoices
ORDER BY invoice_id

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 19
 What determines the sequence of operations
 Order of precedence
 Parentheses

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 20
 A SELECT statement that uses SUBSTR
SELECT vendor_contact_first_name,
vendor_contact_last_name,
SUBSTR(vendor_contact_first_name, 1, 1) ||
SUBSTR(vendor_contact_last_name, 1, 1) AS initials
FROM vendors

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 21
 A SELECT statement that uses TO_CHAR
SELECT 'Invoice: # '
|| invoice_number
|| ', dated '
|| TO_CHAR(payment_date, 'MM/DD/YYYY')
|| ' for $'
|| TO_CHAR(payment_total)
AS "Invoice Text"
FROM invoices

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 22
 A SELECT statement that uses the SYSDATE and
ROUND functions
SELECT invoice_date,
SYSDATE AS today,
ROUND(SYSDATE - invoice_date) AS invoice_age_in_days
FROM invoices

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 23
 A SELECT statement that uses the MOD function
SELECT invoice_id,
MOD(invoice_id, 10) AS Remainder
FROM invoices
ORDER BY invoice_id

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 24
 A SELECT statement that uses the Dual table
SELECT 'test' AS test_string,
10-7 AS test_calculation,
SYSDATE AS test_date
FROM Dual

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 25
 A SELECT statement that returns all rows
SELECT vendor_city, vendor_state
FROM vendors
ORDER BY vendor_city

(122 rows selected)

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 26
 A SELECT statement with no duplicate rows
SELECT DISTINCT vendor_city, vendor_state
FROM vendors
ORDER BY vendor_city

(53 rows selected)

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 27
 A SELECT statement that uses the ROWNUM
pseudo column to limit the number of rows
SELECT vendor_id, invoice_total
FROM invoices
WHERE ROWNUM <= 5

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 28
 A SELECT statement that sorts the result set after
the WHERE clause
SELECT vendor_id, invoice_total
FROM invoices
WHERE ROWNUM <= 5
ORDER BY invoice_total DESC

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 29
 A SELECT statement that sorts the result set
before the WHERE clause
SELECT vendor_id, invoice_total
FROM (SELECT * FROM invoices
ORDER BY invoice_total DESC)
WHERE ROWNUM <= 5

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 30
 The syntax of the WHERE clause with comparison
operators
WHERE expression_1 operator expression_2

The comparison operators

 =
 >
 <
 <=
 >=
 <>

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 31
 Examples of WHERE clauses that retrieve…
Vendors located in Iowa
WHERE vendor_state = 'IA'
Invoices with a balance due (two variations)
WHERE invoice_total – payment_total – credit_total > 0
WHERE invoice_total > payment_total + credit_total
Vendors with names from A to L
WHERE vendor_name < 'M'
Invoices on or before a specified date
WHERE invoice_date <= '31-MAY-14'
Invoices on or after a specified date
WHERE invoice_date >= '01-MAY-14'
Invoices with credits that don’t equal zero
WHERE credit_total <> 0

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 32
 Warning about date comparisons
 All DATE data types include both a date and time.
 The value returned by the SYSDATE function includes a date and
a time.
 When you code a date literal like ‘31-May-2014’, the time defaults
to 00:00:00 on a 24-hour clock.
 If you ignore the times, a date comparison may not yield the results
you expect.

Notes
 Chapter 8 provides solutions for this problem.

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 33
 The syntax of the WHERE clause with logical
operators
WHERE [NOT] search_condition_1
{AND|OR} [NOT] search_condition_2 ...

Examples of queries using logical operators

A search condition that uses the AND operator
WHERE vendor_state = 'NJ' AND vendor_city = 'Springfield'
A search condition that uses the OR operator
WHERE vendor_state = 'NJ' OR vendor_city = 'Pittsburgh'
A search condition that uses the NOT operator
WHERE NOT (invoice_total >= 5000
OR NOT invoice_date <= '01-JUL-2014')
The same condition rephrased to eliminate NOT
WHERE invoice_total < 5000
AND invoice_date <= '01-JUL-2008'

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 34
A compound condition without parentheses
SELECT invoice_number, invoice_date, invoice_total
FROM invoices
WHERE invoice_date > '01-MAY-2014' OR invoice_total > 500
AND invoice_total – payment_total – credit_total > 0
ORDER BY invoice_number

(91 rows selected)

The order of precedence for compound conditions

 NOT
 AND
 OR

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 35
 The same compound condition with parentheses
WHERE (invoice_date > '01-MAY-2014'
OR invoice_total > 500)
AND invoice_total – payment_total – credit_total > 0
ORDER BY invoice_number

(39 rows selected)

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 36
 The syntax of the WHERE clause with the IN
operator
WHERE test_expression
[NOT] IN ({subquery|expression_1 [, expression_2]...})

Examples of the IN operator

The IN operator with a list of numeric literals
WHERE terms_id IN (1, 3, 4)
The IN operator preceded by NOT
WHERE vendor_state NOT IN ('CA', 'NV', 'OR')
The IN operator with a subquery
WHERE vendor_id IN
(SELECT vendor_id
FROM invoices
WHERE invoice_date = '01-MAY-2014')

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 37
 The syntax of the WHERE clause with the
BETWEEN operator
WHERE test_expression
[NOT] BETWEEN begin_expression AND end_expression

Examples of the BETWEEN operator

The BETWEEN operator with literal values
WHERE invoice_date
BETWEEN '01-MAY-2014' AND '31-MAY-2014'
The BETWEEN operator preceded by NOT
WHERE vendor_zip_code NOT BETWEEN 93600 AND 93799
The BETWEEN operator with a calculated value
WHERE invoice_total – payment_total – credit_total
BETWEEN 200 AND 500
The BETWEEN operator with upper and lower limits
WHERE invoice_due_date BETWEEN SYSDATE AND (SYSDATE + 30)

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 38
 The syntax of the WHERE clause with the LIKE
operator
WHERE match_expression [NOT] LIKE pattern

Wildcard symbols
%
_

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 39
 WHERE clauses that use the LIKE operator
Example 1
WHERE vendor_city LIKE 'SAN%'
Cities that will be retrieved
“San Diego” and “Santa Ana”

Example 2
WHERE vendor_name LIKE 'COMPU_ER%'
Vendors that will be retrieved
“Compuserve” and “Computerworld”

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 40
 The syntax of the WHERE clause with the Is null
condition
WHERE expression IS [NOT] NULL

The contents of the Null_Sample table

SELECT *
FROM null_sample

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 41
 A SELECT statement that retrieves rows
with zero values
SELECT *
FROM null_sample
WHERE invoice_total = 0

A SELECT statement that retrieves rows

with non-zero values
SELECT *
FROM null_sample
WHERE invoice_total <> 0

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 42
 A SELECT statement that retrieves rows
with null values
SELECT *
FROM null_sample
WHERE invoice_total IS NULL

A SELECT statement that retrieves rows

without null values
SELECT *
FROM null_sample
WHERE invoice_total IS NOT NULL

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 43
 The expanded syntax of the ORDER BY clause
ORDER BY expression [ASC|DESC]
[, expression [ASC|DESC]] ...

An ORDER BY clause that sorts by one column

SELECT vendor_name,
vendor_city || ', ' || vendor_state || ' ' ||
vendor_zip_code AS address
FROM vendors
ORDER BY vendor_name

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 44
 The default sequence for an ascending sort
 Special characters
 Capital letters
 Lowercase letters
 Null values

Notes
 This causes problems when sorting mixed-case columns.
 Chapter 8 provides the solutions.

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 45
 An ORDER BY clause that sorts by one column
in descending sequence
SELECT vendor_name,
vendor_city || ', ' || vendor_state || ' ' ||
vendor_zip_code AS address
FROM vendors
ORDER BY vendor_name DESC

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 46
An ORDER BY clause that sorts by three columns
SELECT vendor_name,
vendor_city || ', ' || vendor_state || ' ' ||
vendor_zip_code AS address
FROM vendors
ORDER BY vendor_state, vendor_city, vendor_name

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 47
An ORDER BY clause that uses an alias
SELECT vendor_name,
vendor_city || ', ' || vendor_state || ' ' ||
vendor_zip_code AS address
FROM vendors
ORDER BY address, vendor_name

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 48
 An ORDER BY clause that uses an expression
SELECT vendor_name,
vendor_city || ', ' || vendor_state || ' ' ||
vendor_zip_code AS address
FROM vendors
ORDER BY vendor_contact_last_name
|| vendor_contact_first_name

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 49
 An ORDER BY clause that uses column positions
SELECT vendor_name,
vendor_city || ', ' || vendor_state || ' ' ||
vendor_zip_code AS address
FROM vendors
ORDER BY 2, 1

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 50
 The syntax of the row limiting clause
(12c and later)
[ OFFSET offset { ROW | ROWS } ]
[ FETCH { FIRST | NEXT } [ { rowcount | percent PERCENT } ]
{ ROW | ROWS } { ONLY | WITH TIES } ]

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 51
 A FETCH clause that retrieves the first five rows
SELECT vendor_id, invoice_total
FROM invoices
ORDER BY invoice_total DESC
FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS ONLY

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 52
 An OFFSET clause that starts with the third row
and fetches three rows
SELECT invoice_id, vendor_id, invoice_total
FROM invoices
ORDER BY invoice_id
OFFSET 2 ROWS FETCH NEXT 3 ROWS ONLY

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 53
 An OFFSET clause that starts with the 101st row
SELECT invoice_id, vendor_id, invoice_total
FROM invoices
ORDER BY invoice_id
OFFSET 100 ROWS FETCH NEXT 1000 ROWS ONLY

Murach’s Oracle SQL and

PL/SQL, C3 © 2014, Mike Murach & Associates, Inc. Slide 54