Chapter 4: SQL

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
 Chapter 4: SQL
 Data Definition
 Basic Query Structure
 Set Operations
 Aggregate Functions
 Null Values
 Nested Subqueries
 Modification of the Database
 Joined Relations**

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data Definition Language
Allows the specification of not only a set of
relations but also information about each relation,
including:
 The schema for each relation.
 The domain of values associated with each attribute.
 Integrity constraints
 The set of indices to be maintained for each relations.
 Security and authorization information for each
relation.
 The physical storage structure of each relation on
disk.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Domain Types in SQL
 char(n). Fixed length character string, with user-specified
length n.
 varchar(n). Variable length character strings, with user-
specified maximum length n.
 int. Integer (a finite subset of the integers that is machine-
dependent).
 smallint. Small integer (a machine-dependent subset of the
integer domain type).
 numeric(p,d). Fixed point number, with user-specified
precision of p digits, with n digits to the right of decimal
point.
 real, double precision. Floating point and double-precision
floating point numbers, with machine-dependent precision.
 float(n). Floating point number, with user-specified precision
of at least n digits.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Create Table Construct
 An SQL relation is defined using the create table
command:
create table r (A1 D1, A2 D2, ..., An Dn,
(integrity-constraint1),
...,
(integrity-constraintk))
 r is the name of the relation
 each Ai is an attribute name in the schema of relation r
 Di is the data type of values in the domain of attribute
Ai

 Example:
create table branch
(branch_name char(15) not null,
branch_city char(30),
assets integer)

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Integrity Constraints in Create
Table
 not null
 primary key (A1, ..., An )
 Default
 Unique
 Check
 Identity, Auto_increment

Example: Declare branch_name as the primary key

for branch
.
create table branch
(branch_name char(15),
branch_city char(30),
assets integer,
primary key (branch_name))
primary key declaration on an attribute automatically ensures not
null in SQL-92 onwards, needs to be explicitly stated in SQL-89

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Drop and Alter Table Constructs
 The drop table command deletes all information about
the dropped relation from the database.
 The alter table command is used to add attributes to
an existing relation:
alter table r add A D
where A is the name of the attribute to be added to
relation r and D is the domain of A.
 All tuples in the relation are assigned null as the
value for the new attribute.
 The alter table command can also be used to drop
attributes of a relation:
alter table r drop A
where A is the name of an attribute of relation r
 Dropping of attributes not supported by many
databases

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Basic Query Structure
 SQL is based on set and relational operations with
certain modifications and enhancements
 A typical SQL query has the form:

select A1, A2, ..., An

from r1, r2, ..., rm
where P

 A represents an attribute
i
 R represents a relation
i
 P is a predicate.
 This query is equivalent to the relational algebra
expression. ( (r  r    r ))
A1 , A2 ,, An P 1 2 m

 The result of an SQL query is a relation.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The select Clause
 The select clause list the attributes desired in the result of
a query
 corresponds to the projection operation of the relational
algebra
 Example: find the names of all branches in the loan relation:
select branch_name
from loan
 In the relational algebra, the query would be:
branch_name (loan)
 NOTE: SQL names are case insensitive (i.e., you may use
upper- or lower-case letters.)
 E.g. Branch_Name ≡ BRANCH_NAME ≡ branch_name
 Some people use upper case wherever we use bold font.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The select Clause (Cont.)
 SQL allows duplicates in relations as well as in query
results.
 To force the elimination of duplicates, insert the keyword
distinct after select.
 Find the names of all branches in the loan relations, and
remove duplicates
select distinct branch_name
from loan

 The keyword all specifies that duplicates not be removed.

select all branch_name

from loan

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The select Clause (Cont.)
 An asterisk in the select clause denotes “all attributes”
select *
from loan
 The select clause can contain arithmetic expressions
involving the operation, +, –, , and /, and operating on
constants or attributes of tuples.
 The query:
select loan_number, branch_name, amount 
100
from loan
would return a relation that is the same as the loan
relation, except that the value of the attribute amount is
multiplied by 100.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The where Clause
 The where clause specifies conditions that the result
must satisfy
 Corresponds to the selection predicate of the
relational algebra.
 To find all loan number for loans made at the Perryridge
branch with loan amounts greater than $1200.
select loan_number
from loan
where branch_name = 'Perryridge' and amount
> 1200
 Comparison results can be combined using the logical
connectives and, or, and not.
 Comparisons can be applied to results of arithmetic
expressions.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The where Clause (Cont.)
 SQL includes a between comparison operator
 Example: Find the loan number of those loans with loan
amounts between $90,000 and $100,000 (that is, $90,000
and $100,000)
select loan_number
from loan
where amount between 90000 and 100000

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The from Clause
 The from clause lists the relations involved in the query
 Corresponds to the Cartesian product operation of the
relational algebra.
 Find the Cartesian product borrower X loan
select 
 Find the name, loan from borrower,
number loan
and loan amount of all
customers
having a loan at the Perryridge branch.
select customer_name, borrower.loan_number, amount
from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number and
branch_name = 'Perryridge'

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The Rename Operation
 The SQL allows renaming relations and attributes using the
as clause:
old-name as new-name
 Find the name, loan number and loan amount of all
customers; rename the column name loan_number as
loan_id.
select customer_name, borrower.loan_number as loan_id,
amount
from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Tuple Variables
 Tuple variables are defined in the from clause via the
use of the as clause.
 Find the customer names and their loan numbers for all
customers having a loan at some branch.

select customer_name, T.loan_number, S.amount

from borrower as T, loan as S
where T.loan_number = S.loan_number

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 String Operations
 SQL includes a string-matching operator for comparisons
on character strings. The operator “like” uses patterns
that are described using two special characters:
 percent (%). The % character matches any substring.
 underscore (_). The _ character matches any character.
 Find the names of all customers whose street includes
the substring “Main”.
select customer_name
from customer
where customer_street like '% Main%'
 Match the name “Main%”
like 'Main\%' escape '\'
 SQL supports a variety of string operations such as
 concatenation (using “||”)
 converting from upper to lower case (and vice versa)
 finding string length, extracting substrings, etc.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Ordering the Display of Tuples

 List in alphabetic order the names of all customers having a

loan in Perryridge branch

select distinct customer_name

from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number and
branch_name = 'Perryridge'
order by customer_name

 We may specify desc for descending order or asc for ascending

order, for each attribute; ascending order is the default.

 Example: order by customer_name desc

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set Operations
 The set operations union, intersect, and except operate
on relations and correspond to the relational algebra
operations 
 Each of the above operations automatically eliminates
duplicates; to retain all duplicates use the
corresponding multiset versions union all, intersect all
and except all.

Suppose a tuple occurs m times in r and n times in s,

then, it occurs:
 m + n times in r union all s
 min(m,n) times in r intersect all s
 max(0, m – n) times in r except all s

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set Operations

 Find all customers who have a loan, an account, or both:

(select customer_name from depositor)
union
(select customer_name from borrower)

 Find all customers who have both a loan and an account.

(select customer_name from depositor)

intersect
(select customer_name from borrower)

 Find all customers who have an account but no loan.

(select customer_name from depositor)

except
(select customer_name from borrower)

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Aggregate Functions
 These functions operate on the multiset of values
of a column of a relation, and return a value
avg: average value
min: minimum value
max: maximum value
sum: sum of values
count: number of values

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Aggregate Functions (Cont.)
 Find the average account balance at the Perryridge branch.

select avg (balance)

from account
where branch_name = 'Perryridge'

 Find the number of tuples in the customer relation.

select count (*)

from customer

 Find the number of depositors in the bank.

select count (distinct customer_name)

from depositor

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Aggregate Functions – Group By
 Find the number of depositors for each branch.

select branch_name, count (distinct customer_name)

from depositor, account
where depositor.account_number =
account.account_number
group by branch_name

Note: Attributes in select clause outside of aggregate

functions must
appear in group by list

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Aggregate Functions – Having
Clause

 Find the names of all branches where the average

account balance is more than $1,200.

select branch_name, avg (balance)

from account
group by branch_name
having avg (balance) > 1200

Note: predicates in the having clause are applied after

the
formation of groups whereas predicates in the
where
clause are applied before forming groups

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Null Values
 It is possible for tuples to have a null value, denoted by
null, for some of their attributes
 null signifies an unknown value or that a value does not
exist.
 The predicate is null can be used to check for null
values.
 Example: Find all loan number which appear in the
loan relation with null values for amount.
select loan_number
from loan
where amount is null
 The result of any arithmetic expression involving null is
null
 Example: 5 + null returns null
 However, aggregate functions simply ignore nulls
 More on next slide

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Null Values and Three Valued
Logic
 Any comparison with null returns unknown
 Example: 5 < null or null <> null or null = null
 Three-valued logic using the truth value unknown:
 OR: (unknown or true) = true,
(unknown or false) = unknown
(unknown or unknown) = unknown
 AND: (true and unknown) = unknown,
(false and unknown) = false,
(unknown and unknown) = unknown
 NOT: (not unknown) = unknown
 “P is unknown” evaluates to true if predicate P
evaluates to unknown
 Result of where clause predicate is treated as false if it
evaluates to unknown

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Null Values and Aggregates
 Total all loan amounts
select sum (amount )
from loan
 Above statement ignores null amounts
 All aggregate operations except count(*) ignore
tuples with null values on the aggregated
attributes.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Nested Subqueries
 SQL provides a mechanism for the nesting of subqueries.
 A subquery is a select-from-where expression that is
nested within another query.
 A common use of subqueries is to perform tests for set
membership, set comparisons, and set cardinality.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example Query
 Find all customers who have both an account and a loan
at the bank.

select distinct customer_name

from borrower
where customer_name in (select customer_name
from depositor )

 Find all customers who have a loan at the bank but do

not have
an account at the bank
select distinct customer_name
from borrower
where customer_name not in (select customer_name
from depositor )

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Modification of the Database –
Deletion

 Delete all account tuples at the Perryridge branch

delete from account
where branch_name = 'Perryridge'

 Delete all accounts at every branch located in the city

‘Needham’.
delete from account
where branch_name in (select branch_name
from branch
where branch_city = 'Needham')

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example Query
 Delete the record of all accounts with balances below
the average at the bank.

delete from account

where balance < (select avg (balance )
from account )

 Problem: as we delete tuples from deposit, the average

balance changes
 Solution used in SQL:
1. First, compute avg balance and find all tuples to
delete
2. Next, delete all tuples found above (without
recomputing avg or
retesting the tuples)

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Modification of the Database –
Insertion

 Add a new tuple to account

insert into account
values ('A-9732', 'Perryridge', 1200)

or equivalently

insert into account (branch_name, balance,

account_number)
values ('Perryridge', 1200, 'A-9732')

 Add a new tuple to account with balance set to null

insert into account
values ('A-777','Perryridge', null )

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.32 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Modification of the Database –
Updates

 Increase all accounts with balances over $10,000 by 6%,

all other accounts receive 5%.
 Write two update statements:
update account
set balance = balance  1.06
where balance > 10000

update account
set balance = balance  1.05
where balance  10000
 The order is important
 Can be done better using the case statement (next
slide)

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.33 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Case Statement for Conditional
Updates

 Same query as before: Increase all accounts with

balances over $10,000 by 6%, all other accounts receive
5%.

update account
set balance = case
when balance <= 10000 then
balance *1.05
else balance * 1.06
end

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations**
 Join operations take two relations and return as a result
another relation.
 These additional operations are typically used as
subquery expressions in the from clause
 Join condition – defines which tuples in the two
relations match, and what attributes are present in the
result of the join.
 Join type – defines how tuples in each relation that do
not match any tuple in the other relation (based on the
join condition) are treated.

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations – Datasets for
Examples

 Relation loan
 Relation borrower

 Note: borrower information missing for L-260 and loan information

missing for L-155

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.36 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations – Examples
 loan inner join borrower on
loan.loan_number = borrower.loan_number

 loan left outer join borrower on

loan.loan_number = borrower.loan_number

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.37 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations – Examples
 loan natural inner join borrower

 loan natural right outer join borrower

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.38 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations – Examples
 loan full outer join borrower using (loan_number)

 Find all customers who have either an account or a loan

(but not both) at the bank.

select customer_name
from (depositor natural full outer join borrower )
where account_number is null or loan_number is null

atabase System Concepts, 5th Edition, Oct 5, 2006 3.39 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 4

Database System Concepts, 5th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use