SU 2

Database File
Handling
Topics

• 11.7 Selecting Data with the SQL Select Statement

• 11.8 Changing Data
11.7 Selecting Data with the SQL
Select Statement
• SQL, short for structured query language, is a standard language
for working with database management systems

• SQL statements consist of several keywords

– You use the keywords to construct statements known as queries
– Queries are sent to the DBMS as instructions to process data
– The SELECT and FROM statements, for example, are used for retrieving
the rows in a table. To retrieve the Description column for every row in
the Product table, use:
SELECT Description FROM Product

– SQL is not case-sensitive

• In this chapter, SQL statements are part of the C# applications you
will create
The Select Statement
• The SELECT statement allows you to select specific rows.
Its generic form is:
SELECT Columns FROM Table

• To retrieve the Description and Price columns for every

row in the Product table, use:
SELECT Description, Price FROM Product

• If you wish to retrieve every column in a table, use the *

character
SELECT * FROM Product
Specifying a Search Criteria with the
Where Clause
• When you need to narrow the list down to few selected
rows in the table, use the WHERE clause
– The general format is:
SELECT Columns FROM Table WHERE Criteria

• in which Criteria is a conditional expression

SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Price > 20.00
• SQL supports several relational operators for writing conditional
expressions Operator Meaning
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal to
<= Less than or equal to
= Equal to
<> Not equal to
Sample SQL Statements (Where
Clause)
• To retrieve the product numbers and prices of all the
items that are priced at $28.95:
SELECT Product_Number, Price FROM Product WHERE Price = 28.95

• To retrieve all the columns from only the rows where the
description is "Denim Jeans":
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description = 'Denim Jeans'

• If you need to include a single quote as part of a string,

simply write two single quotes. To search for Katy's Wool
Cap, use:
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description = 'Katy''s Wool Cap'
SQL String Functions
• SQL keywords and clauses are not case-sensitive. But, string
comparison are.
– 'Denim Jeans', 'denim jeans', and 'Denim jeans' are considered three
different string literals
– The following three SQL statements will generate three different results:
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description = 'Denim Jeans'
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description = 'denim jeans'
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description = 'Denim jeans'

• You can use the Lower() or Upper() string function before

performing the comparison

SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Lower(Description) = 'denim jeans'

SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Upper(Description) = 'DENIM JEANS'
Using the LIKE Operator
• The LIKE operator allows you to do a search based on a pattern
rather than specifying exactly what is desired
– "Oxford Cloth Shirt" and "Poplin Shirt" both contains the string "Shirt"
– Use the string "Shirt" as the pattern with the wildcard character %
– % represents any sequence of zero or more characters
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description LIKE '%Shirt%'
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description LIKE 'Chino%'
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description LIKE '%jeans'

– The underscore (_) wildcard character represents a single character. To

search for all rows in which Product_Number begins with "2", followed
by any one character, followed by "-0", followed by any one character,
use
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Product_Number LIKE '2_-0_'
Using Logical Operators
• You can use the AND, OR, and NOT logical operators to
specify multiple search criteria in a WHERE clause
– The AND operator requires both search criteria be true for a row
to be qualified as a match
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Price > 20.00 AND Price < 30.00

– The OR operator requires that either of the search criteria be true

for a row to be qualified as a match
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Price > 20.00 OR Product_Number LIKE '10-%'

– The NOT operator disqualify a search criteria

SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Description NOT LIKE '%Shirt%'
Sorting the Results of a Select Query

• To sort the results of a SELECT query, use the ORDER BY

clause
SELECT * FROM Product ORDER BY Price
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Price > 20.00 ORDER BY Price

– The results will be sorted in ascending order

– To sort in descending order, use the Desc
operator
SELECT * FROM Product ORDER BY Price Desc
SELECT * FROM Product WHERE Price > 20.00 ORDER BY Price Desc
 SQL Math Functions
• SQL provides several functions for performing calculations
– Avg(Column): calculates the average value in a particular column
SELECT Avg(Price) FROM Product

– Sum(Column): calculates the sum of a column's values

SELECT Sum(Price) FROM Product

– Min(Column): finds the minimum value of a column.

SELECT Min(Price) FROM Product

– Max(Column): finds the maximum value of a column

SELECT Max(Price) FROM Product

– Count(Column): returns the number of values of the specified column

SELECT Count(Price) FROM Product

•To determine the number of rows in a table, use:

SELECT Count(*) FROM Product
Resources
Database Tutorials –
http://www.quackit.com/database/tutorial/
Accessing Data in Visual Studio –
http://msdn.Microsoft.com/en-
us/library/wzabh8c4.aspx
http://databases.about.com/od/tutorials/Tutorials
.htm
https://www.guru99.com/
Starting out with Visual C#, Tony Gaddis, 4th
edition, Chapter 11