Chapter 7

More SQL: Complex Queries, Views,

and Schema Modification
More Complex SQL Retrieval
Queries
 Additional features allow users to specify more
complex retrievals from database:
 Nested queries, joined tables, and outer joins (in
the FROM clause), aggregate functions, and
grouping
DISTINCT FUNCTIONS
 The SELECT DISTINCT statement is used to return
only distinct (different) values. Inside a table, a column
often contains many duplicate values; and sometimes you
only want to list the different (distinct) values

 SELECT DISTINCT column_name FROM table_name;

The query returns only distinct values in the specified
column. In other words, it removes the duplicate values in
the column from the result set.
DISTINCT FUNCTIONS
 The following SQL statement selects ALL
(including the duplicates) values from the
"Country" column in the "Customers" table:
 SELECT Country FROM Customers;

 The following SQL statement selects only the

DISTINCT values from the "Country" column in
the "Customers" table:
 SELECT DISTINCT Country FROM Customers;
Nested Queries, Tuples,
and Set/Multiset Comparisons
 Nested queries
 Complete select-from-where blocks within WHERE
clause of another query
 Outer query and nested subqueries
 Comparison operator IN
 Compares value v with a set (or multiset) of values
V
 Evaluates to TRUE if v is one of the elements in V
Nested Queries (cont’d.)
Nested Queries (cont’d.)
 Use tuples of values in comparisons
 Place them within parentheses
Nested Queries (cont’d.)
 Use other comparison operators to compare a
single value v
 = ANY (or = SOME) operator
 Returns TRUE if the value v is equal to some value in
the set V and is hence equivalent to IN
 Other operators that can be combined with ANY (or
SOME): >, >=, <, <=, and <>
 ALL: value must exceed all values from nested
query
Specifying Joined Tables in the
FROM Clause of SQL
 Joined table
 Permits users to specify a table resulting from a
join operation in the FROM clause of a query
 The FROM clause
 Contains a single joined table. JOIN may also be
called INNER JOIN
Aggregate Functions in SQL
 Used to summarize information from multiple
tuples into a single-tuple summary
 Built-in aggregate functions
 COUNT, SUM, MAX, MIN, and AVG
 Grouping
 Create subgroups of tuples before summarizing
 To select entire groups, HAVING clause is used
 Aggregate functions can be used in the SELECT
clause or in a HAVING clause
Renaming Results of Aggregation
 Following query returns a single row of computed values
from EMPLOYEE table:

Q19: SELECT SUM (Salary), MAX (Salary), MIN (Salary),

AVG (Salary)
FROM EMPLOYEE;
 The result can be presented with new names:

Q19A: SELECT SUM (Salary) AS Total_Sal, MAX (Salary)

AS Highest_Sal, MIN (Salary) AS Lowest_Sal,
AVG (Salary) AS Average_Sal
FROM EMPLOYEE;
Aggregate Functions in SQL (cont’d.)
 NULL values are discarded when aggregate
functions are applied to a particular column
Grouping: The GROUP BY Clause
 Partition relation into subsets of tuples
 Based on grouping attribute(s)
 Apply function to each such group independently
 GROUP BY clause
 Specifies grouping attributes
 COUNT (*) counts the number of rows in the
group
Examples of GROUP BY
 The grouping attribute must appear in the SELECT
clause:
Q24: SELECT Dno, COUNT (*), AVG (Salary)
FROM EMPLOYEE
GROUP BY Dno;
 GROUP BY may be applied to the result of a JOIN:
Q25: SELECT Pnumber, Pname, COUNT (*)
FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE Pnumber=Pno
GROUP BY Pnumber, Pname;
Grouping: The GROUP BY and
HAVING Clauses (cont’d.)
 HAVING clause
 Provides a condition to select or reject an entire
group:
 Query 26. For each project on which more than two employees work,
retrieve the project number, the project name, and the number of
employees who work on the project.

Q26: SELECT Pnumber, Pname, COUNT (*)

FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE Pnumber=Pno
GROUP BY Pnumber, Pname
HAVING COUNT (*) > 2;
Combining the WHERE and the
HAVING Clause
 Consider the query: we want to count the total number of
employees whose salaries exceed $40,000 in each
department, but only for departments where more than
five employees work.

 INCORRECT QUERY:
SELECT Dno, COUNT (*)
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE Salary>40000
GROUP BY Dno
HAVING COUNT (*) > 5;
Combining the WHERE and the
HAVING Clause (continued)
Correct Specification of the Query:
Note: the WHERE clause applies tuple by tuple

whereas HAVING applies to entire group of tuples

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 17

Use of WITH
 The WITH clause allows a user to define a table
that will only be used in a particular query (not
available in all SQL implementations)
 Used for convenience to create a temporary
“View” and use that immediately in a query
 Allows a more straightforward way of looking a
step-by-step query

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 18

Example of WITH
 See an alternate approach to doing Q28:
 Q28’: WITH BIGDEPTS (Dno) AS
( SELECT Dno
FROM EMPLOYEE
GROUP BY Dno
HAVING COUNT (*) > 5)
SELECT Dno, COUNT (*)
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE Salary>40000 AND Dno IN BIGDEPTS
GROUP BY Dno;

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 19

Use of CASE
 SQL also has a CASE construct
 Used when a value can be different based on
certain conditions.
 Can be used in any part of an SQL query where a
value is expected
 Applicable when querying, inserting or updating
tuples
EXAMPLE of use of CASE
 The following example shows that employees are
receiving different raises in different departments
(A variation of the update U6)

 U6’: UPDATE EMPLOYEE

SET Salary =
CASE WHEN Dno = 5THEN Salary + 2000
WHEN Dno = 4THEN Salary + 1500
WHEN Dno = 1THEN Salary + 3000
Views (Virtual Tables) in SQL
 Concept of a view in SQL
 Single table derived from other tables called the
defining tables
 Considered to be a virtual table that is not
necessarily populated

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 45

Specification of Views in SQL
 CREATE VIEW command
 Give table name, list of attribute names, and a query to
specify the contents of the view
 In V1, attributes retain the names from base tables. In
V2, attributes are assigned names

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 46

Specification of Views in SQL
(cont’d.)
 Once a View is defined, SQL queries can use the
View relation in the FROM clause
 View is always up-to-date
 Responsibility of the DBMS and not the user
 DROP VIEW command
 Dispose of a view

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 47

View Update
 Update on a view defined on a single table without any
aggregate functions
 Can be mapped to an update on underlying base table-

possible if the primary key is preserved in the view

 Update not permitted on aggregate views. E.g.,
UV2: UPDATE DEPT_INFO
SET Total_sal=100000
WHERE Dname=‘Research’;
cannot be processed because Total_sal is a computed value
in the view definition
The DROP Command
 DROP command
 Used to drop named schema elements, such as
tables, domains, or constraint
 Drop behavior options:
 CASCADE and RESTRICT
 Example:
 DROP SCHEMA COMPANY CASCADE;
 This removes the schema and all its elements including tables,
views, constraints, etc. If the RESTRICT option is chosen, the
schema is dropped only if it has no elements in it; otherwise, the
DROP command will not be executed.
The ALTER table command
 Alter table actions include:
 Adding or dropping a column (attribute)
 Changing a column definition
 Adding or dropping table constraints
 Example:
 ALTER TABLE COMPANY.EMPLOYEE ADD
COLUMN Job VARCHAR(12);
Dropping Columns, Default Values
 To drop a column
 Choose either CASCADE or RESTRICT
 CASCADE would drop the column from views etc.
RESTRICT is possible if no views refer to it.
ALTER TABLE COMPANY.EMPLOYEE DROP COLUMN
Address CASCADE;
 Default values can be dropped and altered :
ALTER TABLE COMPANY.DEPARTMENT ALTER COLUMN Mgr_ssn
DROP DEFAULT;
ALTER TABLE COMPANY.DEPARTMENT ALTER COLUMN Mgr_ssn SET
DEFAULT ‘333445555’;
Table 7.2 Summary of SQL
Syntax

continued on next slide

Table 7.2 (continued)
Summary of SQL Syntax
THANK YOU

Copyright © 2016 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe