SQL is a standard computer language for accessing and manipulating databases.

In this tutorial you will learn how to use SQL to access and manipulate data in Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, DB2, Access, and other database systems

What is SQL?
SQL SQL SQL SQL SQL SQL SQL SQL SQL stands for Structured Query Language allows you to access a database is an ANSI standard computer language can execute queries against a database can retrieve data from a database can insert new records in a database can delete records from a database can update records in a database is easy to learn

SQL is a Standard - BUT....

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard computer language for accessing and manipulating database systems. SQL statements are used to retrieve and update data in a database. SQL works with database programs like MS Access, DB2, Informix, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc. Unfortunately, there are many different versions of the SQL language, but to be in compliance with the ANSI standard, they must support the same major keywords in a similar manner (such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE, and others). Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary extensions in addition to the SQL standard!

SQL Database Tables

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows) with data. Below is an example of a table called "Persons": LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen FirstName Ola Tove Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger

The table above contains three records (one for each person) and four columns (LastName, FirstName, Address, and City).

SQL Queries
With SQL, we can query a database and have a result set returned. A query like this:

SELECT LastName FROM Persons

Gives a result set like this: LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen Note: Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of the SQL statement. We don't use the semicolon in our tutorials.

SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML)

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a syntax for executing queries. But the SQL language also includes a syntax to update, insert, and delete records. These query and update commands together form the Data Manipulation Language (DML) part of SQL:

SELECT - extracts data from a database table UPDATE - updates data in a database table DELETE - deletes data from a database table INSERT INTO - inserts new data into a database table

SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)

The Data Definition Language (DDL) part of SQL permits database tables to be created or deleted. We can also define indexes (keys), specify links between tables, and impose constraints between database tables. The most important DDL statements in SQL are:

CREATE TABLE - creates a new database table ALTER TABLE - alters (changes) a database table DROP TABLE - deletes a database table CREATE INDEX - creates an index (search key) DROP INDEX - deletes an index

The SQL SELECT Statement

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a table. The tabular result is stored in a result table (called the result-set).

Syntax SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive. SELECT is the same as select.

SQL SELECT Example

To select the content of columns named "LastName" and "FirstName", from the database table called "Persons", use a SELECT statement like this:

SELECT LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

The database table "Persons": LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen The result LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen FirstName Ola Tove Kari FirstName Ola Tove Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger

Select All Columns

To select all columns from the "Persons" table, use a * symbol instead of column names, like this:

SELECT * FROM Persons

Result LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen FirstName Ola Tove Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger

The Result Set

The result from a SQL query is stored in a result-set. Most database software systems allow navigation of the result set with programming functions, like: Move-To-First-Record, Get-RecordContent, Move-To-Next-Record, etc. Programming functions like these are not a part of this tutorial. To learn about accessing data with function calls, please visit our ADO tutorial.

Semicolon after SQL Statements?

Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that allow more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.

Some SQL tutorials end each SQL statement with a semicolon. Is this necessary? We are using MS Access and SQL Server 2000 and we do not have to put a semicolon after each SQL statement, but some database programs force you to use it.

The SELECT DISTINCT Statement

The DISTINCT keyword is used to return only distinct (different) values. The SELECT statement returns information from table columns. But what if we only want to select distinct elements? With SQL, all we need to do is to add a DISTINCT keyword to the SELECT statement:

Syntax SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s) FROM table_name

Using the DISTINCT keyword

To select ALL values from the column named "Company" we use a SELECT statement like this:

SELECT Company FROM Orders

"Orders" table Company Sega W3Schools Trio W3Schools Result Company Sega W3Schools Trio W3Schools Note that "W3Schools" is listed twice in the result-set. To select only DIFFERENT values from the column named "Company" we use a SELECT DISTINCT statement like this: OrderNumber 3412 2312 4678 6798

SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM Orders

Result:

Company Sega W3Schools Trio

The WHERE clause is used to specify a selection criterion.

The WHERE Clause

To conditionally select data from a table, a WHERE clause can be added to the SELECT statement.

Syntax SELECT column FROM table WHERE column operator value

With the WHERE clause, the following operators can be used: Operator = <> > < >= <= BETWEEN LIKE Description Equal Not equal Greater than Less than Greater than or equal Less than or equal Between an inclusive range Search for a pattern

Note: In some versions of SQL the <> operator may be written as !=

Using the WHERE Clause

To select only the persons living in the city "Sandnes", we add a WHERE clause to the SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE City='Sandnes'

"Persons" table LastName Hansen Svendson Svendson Pettersen Result FirstName Ola Tove Stale Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Kaivn 18 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger Year 1951 1978 1980 1960

LastName Hansen Svendson Svendson

FirstName Ola Tove Stale

Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Kaivn 18

City Sandnes Sandnes Sandnes

Year 1951 1978 1980

Using Quotes
Note that we have used single quotes around the conditional values in the examples. SQL uses single quotes around text values (most database systems will also accept double quotes). Numeric values should not be enclosed in quotes. For text values:

This is correct: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tove' This is wrong: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName=Tove
For numeric values:

This is correct: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year>1965 This is wrong: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year>'1965'

The LIKE Condition

The LIKE condition is used to specify a search for a pattern in a column.

Syntax SELECT column FROM table WHERE column LIKE pattern

A "%" sign can be used to define wildcards (missing letters in the pattern) both before and after the pattern.

Using LIKE
The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that start with an 'O':

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE 'O%'

The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that end with an 'a':

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE '%a'

The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that contain the pattern 'la':

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE '%la%'

The INSERT INTO Statement

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new rows into a table.

Syntax INSERT INTO table_name VALUES (value1, value2,....)

You can also specify the columns for which you want to insert data:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2,...) VALUES (value1, value2,....)

Insert a New Row

This "Persons" table: LastName Pettersen And this SQL statement: FirstName Kari Address Storgt 20 City Stavanger

INSERT INTO Persons VALUES ('Hetland', 'Camilla', 'Hagabakka 24', 'Sandnes')

Will give this result: LastName Pettersen Hetland FirstName Kari Camilla Address Storgt 20 Hagabakka 24 City Stavanger Sandnes

Insert Data in Specified Columns

This "Persons" table: LastName Pettersen Hetland FirstName Kari Camilla Address Storgt 20 Hagabakka 24 City Stavanger Sandnes

And This SQL statement:

INSERT INTO Persons (LastName, Address)

VALUES ('Rasmussen', 'Storgt 67')

Will give this result: LastName Pettersen Hetland Rasmussen FirstName Kari Camilla Address Storgt 20 Hagabakka 24 Storgt 67 City Stavanger Sandnes

The Update Statement

The UPDATE statement is used to modify the data in a table.

Syntax UPDATE table_name SET column_name = new_value WHERE column_name = some_value

Person: LastName Nilsen Rasmussen FirstName Fred Address Kirkegt 56 Storgt 67 City Stavanger

Update one Column in a Row

We want to add a first name to the person with a last name of "Rasmussen":

UPDATE Person SET FirstName = 'Nina' WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'

Result: LastName Nilsen Rasmussen FirstName Fred Nina Address Kirkegt 56 Storgt 67 City Stavanger

Update several Columns in a Row

We want to change the address and add the name of the city:

UPDATE Person SET Address = 'Stien 12', City = 'Stavanger' WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'
Result:

LastName Nilsen Rasmussen

FirstName Fred Nina

Address Kirkegt 56 Stien 12

City Stavanger Stavanger

The DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement is used to delete rows in a table.

Syntax DELETE FROM table_name WHERE column_name = some_value

Person: LastName Nilsen Rasmussen FirstName Fred Nina Address Kirkegt 56 Stien 12 City Stavanger Stavanger

Delete a Row
"Nina Rasmussen" is going to be deleted:

DELETE FROM Person WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'

Result LastName Nilsen FirstName Fred Address Kirkegt 56 City Stavanger

Delete All Rows

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This means that the table structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:

DELETE FROM table_name or DELETE * FROM table_name

Test your SQL Skills

On this page you can test your SQL skills. We will use the Customers table in the Northwind database: CompanyName ContactName Address City

Alfreds Futterkiste Berglunds snabbkp Centro comercial Moctezuma Ernst Handel FISSA Fabrica Inter. Salchichas S.A. Galera del gastrnomo Island Trading Kniglich Essen Laughing Bacchus Wine Cellars Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti North/South Paris spcialits Rattlesnake Canyon Grocery Simons bistro The Big Cheese Vaffeljernet Wolski Zajazd

Maria Anders Christina Berglund Francisco Chang Roland Mendel Diego Roel Eduardo Saavedra Helen Bennett Philip Cramer Yoshi Tannamuri Giovanni Rovelli Simon Crowther Marie Bertrand Paula Wilson Jytte Petersen Liz Nixon Palle Ibsen Zbyszek Piestrzeniewicz

Obere Str. 57 Berguvsvgen 8 Sierras de Granada 9993 Kirchgasse 6 C/ Moralzarzal, 86 Rambla de Catalua, 23 Maubelstr. 90 1900 Oak St. Via Ludovico il Moro 22 South House 300 Queensbridge 265, boulevard Charonne 2817 Milton Dr. Vinbltet 34 89 Jefferson Way Suite 2 Smagslget 45 ul. Filtrowa 68

Berlin Lule Mxico D.F. Graz Madrid Barcelona Brandenburg Vancouver Bergamo London Paris Albuquerque Kbenhavn Portland rhus Warszawa

Garden House Crowther Way Cowes

To preserve space, the table above is a subset of the Customers table used in the example below.

Try it Yourself
To see how SQL works, you can copy the SQL statements below and paste them into the textarea, or you can make your own SQL statements.

SELECT * FROM customers SELECT CompanyName, ContactName FROM customers SELECT * FROM customers WHERE companyname LIKE 'a%' SELECT CompanyName, ContactName FROM customers WHERE CompanyName > 'g' AND ContactName > 'g'

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result.

Sort the Rows

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The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the rows. Orders: Company Sega ABC Shop W3Schools W3Schools OrderNumber 3412 5678 2312 6798

Example
To display the companies in alphabetical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company

Result: Company ABC Shop Sega W3Schools W3Schools OrderNumber 5678 3412 6798 2312

Example
To display the companies in alphabetical order AND the ordernumbers in numerical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company, OrderNumber

Result: Company ABC Shop Sega W3Schools W3Schools OrderNumber 5678 3412 2312 6798

Example
To display the companies in reverse alphabetical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company DESC

Result: Company OrderNumber

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W3Schools W3Schools Sega ABC Shop

6798 2312 3412 5678

Example
To display the companies in reverse alphabetical order AND the ordernumbers in numerical order:

SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company DESC, OrderNumber ASC
Result: Company W3Schools W3Schools Sega ABC Shop OrderNumber 2312 6798 3412 5678

AND & OR
AND and OR join two or more conditions in a WHERE clause. The AND operator displays a row if ALL conditions listed are true. The OR operator displays a row if ANY of the conditions listed are true.

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName Hansen Svendson Svendson FirstName Ola Tove Stephen Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Kaivn 18 City Sandnes Sandnes Sandnes

Example
Use AND to display each person with the first name equal to "Tove", and the last name equal to "Svendson":

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tove' AND LastName='Svendson'

Result: LastName Svendson FirstName Tove Address Borgvn 23 City Sandnes

Example

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Use OR to display each person with the first name equal to "Tove", or the last name equal to "Svendson":

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE firstname='Tove' OR lastname='Svendson'

Result: LastName Svendson Svendson FirstName Tove Stephen Address Borgvn 23 Kaivn 18 City Sandnes Sandnes

Example
You can also combine AND and OR (use parentheses to form complex expressions):

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE (FirstName='Tove' OR FirstName='Stephen') AND LastName='Svendson'

Result: LastName Svendson Svendson FirstName Tove Stephen Address Borgvn 23 Kaivn 18 City Sandnes Sandnes

SQL IN

IN
The IN operator may be used if you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of the columns.

SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,..)

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName Hansen Nordmann Pettersen Svendson FirstName Ola Anna Kari Tove Address Timoteivn 10 Neset 18 Storgt 20 Borgvn 23 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger Sandnes

Example 1

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To display the persons with LastName equal to "Hansen" or "Pettersen", use the following SQL:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName IN ('Hansen','Pettersen')

Result: LastName Hansen Pettersen FirstName Ola Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Stavanger

BETWEEN ... AND

The BETWEEN ... AND operator selects a range of data between two values. These values can be numbers, text, or dates.

SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name BETWEEN value1 AND value2

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName Hansen Nordmann Pettersen Svendson FirstName Ola Anna Kari Tove Address Timoteivn 10 Neset 18 Storgt 20 Borgvn 23 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger Sandnes

Example 1
To display the persons alphabetically between (and including) "Hansen" and exclusive "Pettersen", use the following SQL:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

Result: LastName Hansen Nordmann FirstName Ola Anna Address Timoteivn 10 Neset 18 City Sandnes Sandnes

IMPORTANT! The BETWEEN...AND operator is treated differently in different databases. With some databases a person with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will not be listed (BETWEEN..AND only selects fields that are between and excluding the test values). With some databases a person with the last name of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will be listed (BETWEEN..AND selects fields that are between and including the test values). With other databases a person with the last name of "Hansen" will be listed, but "Pettersen" will not be listed (BETWEEN..AND selects fields between the test values, including the first test value and excluding the last test value). Therefore: Check how your database treats the BETWEEN....AND operator!

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Example 2
To display the persons outside the range used in the previous example, use the NOT operator:

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName NOT BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'
Result: LastName Pettersen Svendson FirstName Kari Tove Address Storgt 20 Borgvn 23 City Stavanger Sandnes

SQL Alias

With SQL, aliases can be used for column names and table names.

Column Name Alias

The syntax is:

SELECT column AS column_alias FROM table

Table Name Alias

The syntax is:

SELECT column FROM table AS table_alias

Example: Using a Column Alias

This table (Persons): LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen And this SQL: FirstName Ola Tove Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger

SELECT LastName AS Family, FirstName AS Name FROM Persons

Returns this result:

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Family Hansen Svendson Pettersen

Name Ola Tove Kari

Example: Using a Table Alias

This table (Persons): LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen And this SQL: FirstName Ola Tove Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger

SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM Persons AS Employees

Returns this result: Table Employees: LastName Hansen Svendson Pettersen FirstName Ola Tove Kari

SQL JOIN

Joins and Keys

Sometimes we have to select data from two or more tables to make our result complete. We have to perform a join. Tables in a database can be related to each other with keys. A primary key is a column with a unique value for each row. The purpose is to bind data together, across tables, without repeating all of the data in every table. In the "Employees" table below, the "Employee_ID" column is the primary key, meaning that no two rows can have the same Employee_ID. The Employee_ID distinguishes two persons even if they have the same name. When you look at the example tables below, notice that:

The "Employee_ID" column is the primary key of the "Employees" table The "Prod_ID" column is the primary key of the "Orders" table

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The "Employee_ID" column in the "Orders" table is used to refer to the persons in the "Employees" table without using their names

Employees: Employee_ID 01 02 03 04 Orders: Prod_ID 234 657 865 Product Printer Table Chair Employee_ID 01 03 03 Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Pettersen, Kari

Referring to Two Tables

We can select data from two tables by referring to two tables, like this:

Example
Who has ordered a product, and what did they order?

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees, Orders WHERE Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID

Result Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Stephen Svendson, Stephen Product Printer Table Chair

Example
Who ordered a printer?

SELECT Employees.Name FROM Employees, Orders WHERE Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID AND Orders.Product='Printer'

Result

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Name Hansen, Ola

Using Joins
OR we can select data from two tables with the JOIN keyword, like this:

Example INNER JOIN

Syntax

SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table INNER JOIN second_table ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield
Who has ordered a product, and what did they order?

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID

The INNER JOIN returns all rows from both tables where there is a match. If there are rows in Employees that do not have matches in Orders, those rows will not be listed. Result Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Stephen Svendson, Stephen Product Printer Table Chair

Example LEFT JOIN

Syntax

SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table LEFT JOIN second_table ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield
List all employees, and their orders - if any.

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees LEFT JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID

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The LEFT JOIN returns all the rows from the first table (Employees), even if there are no matches in the second table (Orders). If there are rows in Employees that do not have matches in Orders, those rows also will be listed. Result Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Svendson, Stephen Pettersen, Kari Table Chair Product Printer

Example RIGHT JOIN

Syntax

SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table RIGHT JOIN second_table ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield
List all orders, and who has ordered - if any.

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees RIGHT JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID

The RIGHT JOIN returns all the rows from the second table (Orders), even if there are no matches in the first table (Employees). If there had been any rows in Orders that did not have matches in Employees, those rows also would have been listed. Result Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Stephen Svendson, Stephen Product Printer Table Chair

Example
Who ordered a printer?

SELECT Employees.Name FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID WHERE Orders.Product = 'Printer'
Result

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Name Hansen, Ola

SQL UNION and UNION ALL

UNION
The UNION command is used to select related information from two tables, much like the JOIN command. However, when using the UNION command all selected columns need to be of the same data type. Note: With UNION, only distinct values are selected.

SQL Statement 1 UNION SQL Statement 2

Employees_Norway: Employee_ID 01 02 03 04 Employees_USA: Employee_ID 01 02 03 04 E_Name Turner, Sally Kent, Clark Svendson, Stephen Scott, Stephen E_Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Pettersen, Kari

Using the UNION Command

Example
List all different employee names in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway UNION SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA

Result

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Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Pettersen, Kari Turner, Sally Kent, Clark Scott, Stephen Note: This command cannot be used to list all employees in Norway and USA. In the example above we have two employees with equal names, and only one of them is listed. The UNION command only selects distinct values.

UNION ALL
The UNION ALL command is equal to the UNION command, except that UNION ALL selects all values.

SQL Statement 1 UNION ALL SQL Statement 2

Using the UNION ALL Command

Example
List all employees in Norway and USA:

SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway UNION ALL SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA
Result Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Pettersen, Kari Turner, Sally Kent, Clark Svendson, Stephen Scott, Stephen

Create a Database
To create a database:

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CREATE DATABASE database_name

Create a Table
To create a table in a database:

CREATE TABLE table_name ( column_name1 data_type, column_name2 data_type, ....... ) Example

This example demonstrates how you can create a table named "Person", with four columns. The column names will be "LastName", "FirstName", "Address", and "Age":

CREATE TABLE Person ( LastName varchar, FirstName varchar, Address varchar, Age int )
This example demonstrates how you can specify a maximum length for some columns:

CREATE TABLE Person ( LastName varchar(30), FirstName varchar, Address varchar, Age int(3) )
The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. The table below contains the most common data types in SQL: Data Type integer(size) int(size) smallint(size) tinyint(size) decimal(size,d) numeric(size,d) char(size) varchar(size) date(yyyymmdd) Description Hold integers only. The maximum number of digits are specified in parenthesis.

Hold numbers with fractions. The maximum number of digits are specified in "size". The maximum number of digits to the right of the decimal is specified in "d". Holds a fixed length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special characters). The fixed size is specified in parenthesis. Holds a variable length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special characters). The maximum size is specified in parenthesis. Holds a date

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Create Index
Indices are created in an existing table to locate rows more quickly and efficiently. It is possible to create an index on one or more columns of a table, and each index is given a name. The users cannot see the indexes, they are just used to speed up queries. Note: Updating a table containing indexes takes more time than updating a table without, this is because the indexes also need an update. So, it is a good idea to create indexes only on columns that are often used for a search. A Unique Index Creates a unique index on a table. A unique index means that two rows cannot have the same index value.

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name ON table_name (column_name)

The "column_name" specifies the column you want indexed. A Simple Index Creates a simple index on a table. When the UNIQUE keyword is omitted, duplicate values are allowed.

CREATE INDEX index_name ON table_name (column_name)

The "column_name" specifies the column you want indexed.

Example
This example creates a simple index, named "PersonIndex", on the LastName field of the Person table:

CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName)

If you want to index the values in a column in descending order, you can add the reserved word DESC after the column name:

CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName DESC)

If you want to index more than one column you can list the column names within the parentheses, separated by commas:

CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName, FirstName)

SQL Drop Index, Table and Database

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Drop Index
You can delete an existing index in a table with the DROP INDEX statement. Syntax for Microsoft SQLJet (and Microsoft Access):

DROP INDEX index_name ON table_name

Syntax for MS SQL Server:

DROP INDEX table_name.index_name

Syntax for IBM DB2 and Oracle:

DROP INDEX index_name

Syntax for MySQL:

ALTER TABLE table_name DROP INDEX index_name

Delete a Table or Database

To delete a table (the table structure, attributes, and indexes will also be deleted):

DROP TABLE table_name

To delete a database:

DROP DATABASE database_name

Truncate a Table
What if we only want to get rid of the data inside a table, and not the table itself? Use the TRUNCATE TABLE command (deletes only the data inside the table):

TRUNCATE TABLE table_name

SQL ALTER TABLE

ALTER TABLE
The ALTER TABLE statement is used to add or drop columns in an existing table.

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ALTER TABLE table_name ADD column_name datatype ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN column_name
Note: Some database systems don't allow the dropping of a column in a database table (DROP COLUMN column_name).

Person: LastName Pettersen FirstName Kari Address Storgt 20

Example
To add a column named "City" in the "Person" table:

ALTER TABLE Person ADD City varchar(30)

Result: LastName Pettersen FirstName Kari Address Storgt 20 City

Example
To drop the "Address" column in the "Person" table:

ALTER TABLE Person DROP COLUMN Address

Result: LastName Pettersen FirstName Kari City

SQL Functions

SQL has a lot of built-in functions for counting and calculations.

Function Syntax
The syntax for built-in SQL functions is:

SELECT function(column) FROM table

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Types of Functions
There are several basic types and categories of functions in SQL. The basic types of functions are:

Aggregate Functions Scalar functions

Aggregate functions
Aggregate functions operate against a collection of values, but return a single value. Note: If used among many other expressions in the item list of a SELECT statement, the SELECT must have a GROUP BY clause!!

"Persons" table (used in most examples)

Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Pettersen, Kari Age 34 45 19

Aggregate functions in MS Access

Function AVG(column) COUNT(column) COUNT(*) FIRST(column) LAST(column) MAX(column) MIN(column) STDEV(column) STDEVP(column) SUM(column) VAR(column) VARP(column) Returns the total sum of a column Description Returns the average value of a column Returns the number of rows (without a NULL value) of a column Returns the number of selected rows Returns the value of the first record in a specified field Returns the value of the last record in a specified field Returns the highest value of a column Returns the lowest value of a column

Aggregate functions in SQL Server

Function AVG(column) BINARY_CHECKSUM CHECKSUM CHECKSUM_AGG COUNT(column) COUNT(*) COUNT(DISTINCT column) Returns the number of rows (without a NULL value) of a column Returns the number of selected rows Returns the number of distinct results Description Returns the average value of a column

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FIRST(column) LAST(column) MAX(column) MIN(column) STDEV(column) STDEVP(column) SUM(column) VAR(column) VARP(column)

Returns the value of the first record in a specified field (not supported in SQLServer2K) Returns the value of the last record in a specified field (not supported in SQLServer2K) Returns the highest value of a column Returns the lowest value of a column

Returns the total sum of a column

Scalar functions
Scalar functions operate against a single value, and return a single value based on the input value.

Useful Scalar Functions in MS Access

Function UCASE(c) LCASE(c) MID(c,start[,end]) LEN(c) INSTR(c,char) LEFT(c,number_of_char) RIGHT(c,number_of_char) ROUND(c,decimals) MOD(x,y) NOW() FORMAT(c,format) DATEDIFF(d,date1,date2) Description Converts a field to upper case Converts a field to lower case Extract characters from a text field Returns the length of a text field Returns the numeric position of a named character within a text field Return the left part of a text field requested Return the right part of a text field requested Rounds a numeric field to the number of decimals specified Returns the remainder of a division operation Returns the current system date Changes the way a field is displayed Used to perform date calculations

SQL GROUP BY and HAVING

Aggregate functions (like SUM) often need an added GROUP BY functionality.

GROUP BY...
GROUP BY... was added to SQL because aggregate functions (like SUM) return the aggregate of all column values every time they are called, and without the GROUP BY function it was impossible to find the sum for each individual group of column values. The syntax for the GROUP BY function is:

SELECT column,SUM(column) FROM table GROUP BY column

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GROUP BY Example
This "Sales" Table: Company W3Schools IBM W3Schools And This SQL: Amount 5500 4500 7100

SELECT Company, SUM(Amount) FROM Sales

Returns this result: Company W3Schools IBM W3Schools SUM(Amount) 17100 17100 17100

The above code is invalid because the column returned is not part of an aggregate. A GROUP BY clause will solve this problem:

SELECT Company,SUM(Amount) FROM Sales GROUP BY Company

Returns this result: Company W3Schools IBM SUM(Amount) 12600 4500

HAVING...
HAVING... was added to SQL because the WHERE keyword could not be used against aggregate functions (like SUM), and without HAVING... it would be impossible to test for result conditions. The syntax for the HAVING function is:

SELECT column,SUM(column) FROM table GROUP BY column HAVING SUM(column) condition value
This "Sales" Table: Company W3Schools IBM Amount 5500 4500

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W3Schools This SQL:

7100

SELECT Company,SUM(Amount) FROM Sales GROUP BY Company HAVING SUM(Amount)>10000

Returns this result Company W3Schools SUM(Amount) 12600

SQL SELECT INTO Statement

The SELECT INTO Statement

The SELECT INTO statement is most often used to create backup copies of tables or for archiving records.

Syntax SELECT column_name(s) INTO newtable [IN externaldatabase] FROM source

Make a Backup Copy

The following example makes a backup copy of the "Persons" table:

SELECT * INTO Persons_backup FROM Persons

The IN clause can be used to copy tables into another database:

SELECT Persons.* INTO Persons IN 'Backup.mdb' FROM Persons

If you only want to copy a few fields, you can do so by listing them after the SELECT statement:

SELECT LastName,FirstName INTO Persons_backup FROM Persons

You can also add a WHERE clause. The following example creates a "Persons_backup" table with two columns (FirstName and LastName) by extracting the persons who lives in "Sandnes" from the "Persons" table:

SELECT LastName,Firstname INTO Persons_backup

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FROM Persons WHERE City='Sandnes'

Selecting data from more than one table is also possible. The following example creates a new table "Empl_Ord_backup" that contains data from the two tables Employees and Orders:

SELECT Employees.Name,Orders.Product INTO Empl_Ord_backup FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID

SQL CREATE VIEW Statement

A view is a virtual table based on the result-set of a SELECT statement.

What is a View?
In SQL, a VIEW is a virtual table based on the result-set of a SELECT statement. A view contains rows and columns, just like a real table. The fields in a view are fields from one or more real tables in the database. You can add SQL functions, WHERE, and JOIN statements to a view and present the data as if the data were coming from a single table. Note: The database design and structure will NOT be affected by the functions, where, or join statements in a view.

Syntax CREATE VIEW view_name AS SELECT column_name(s) FROM table_name WHERE condition
Note: The database does not store the view data! The database engine recreates the data, using the view's SELECT statement, every time a user queries a view.

Using Views
A view could be used from inside a query, a stored procedure, or from inside another view. By adding functions, joins, etc., to a view, it allows you to present exactly the data you want to the user. The sample database Northwind has some views installed by default. The view "Current Product List" lists all active products (products that are not discontinued) from the Products table. The view is created with the following SQL:

CREATE VIEW [Current Product List] AS SELECT ProductID,ProductName

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FROM Products WHERE Discontinued=No

We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Current Product List]

Another view from the Northwind sample database selects every product in the Products table that has a unit price that is higher than the average unit price:

CREATE VIEW [Products Above Average Price] AS SELECT ProductName,UnitPrice FROM Products WHERE UnitPrice>(SELECT AVG(UnitPrice) FROM Products)
We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Products Above Average Price]

Another example view from the Northwind database calculates the total sale for each category in 1997. Note that this view select its data from another view called "Product Sales for 1997":

CREATE VIEW [Category Sales For 1997] AS SELECT DISTINCT CategoryName,Sum(ProductSales) AS CategorySales FROM [Product Sales for 1997] GROUP BY CategoryName
We can query the view above as follows:

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997]

We can also add a condition to the query. Now we want to see the total sale only for the category "Beverages":

SELECT * FROM [Category Sales For 1997] WHERE CategoryName='Beverages'

SQL Servers - RDBMS

Modern SQL Servers are built on RDBMS.

DBMS - Database Management System

A Database Management System (DBMS) is a computer program that can access data in a database. The DBMS program enables you to extract, modify, or store information in a database.

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Different DBMS programs provides different functions for querying data, reporting data, and modifying data.

RDBMS - Relational Database Management System

A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a Database Management System (DBMS) where the database is organized and accessed according to the relationships between data. RDBMS was invented by IBM in the early 1970's. RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and for all modern database systems like Oracle, SQL Server, IBM DB2, Sybase, MySQL, and Microsoft Access

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