Language elements

 Clauses, which are constituent components of statements and queries. (In some cases,
these are optional.)

 Expressions, which can produce either scalar values, or tables consisting of columns and
rows of data

 Predicates, which specify conditions that can be evaluated to SQL three-valued logic
(3VL) (true/false/unknown) or Boolean truth values and are used to limit the effects of
statements and queries, or to change program flow.

 Queries, which retrieve the data based on specific criteria. This is an important element
of SQL.

 Statements, which may have a persistent effect on schemata and data, or may control
transactions, program flow, connections, sessions, or diagnostics.

Queries

The most common operation in SQL, the query, makes use of the declarative SELECT statement.

SELECT retrieves data from one or more tables , or expression.

SELECT has optional keywords and clauses that include :

FROM clause, which indicates the table(s) to retrieve data from.

The FROM clause can include optional JOIN subclauses to specify the rules for joining tables.

WHERE

The WHERE clause is used to filter records.

The WHERE clause is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified criterion.
The following operators can be used in the WHERE clause:

Operator Description
= Equal
<> Not equal. Note: In some versions of SQL this operator may be written as !=
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
BETWEEN Between an inclusive range
LIKE Search for a pattern
IN To specify multiple possible values for a column

GROUP BY
The GROUP BY clause projects rows having common values into a smaller set of rows.

GROUP BY use aggregation functions or eliminate duplicate rows from a result set. The WHERE
clause is applied before the GROUP BY clause.

SELECT column_name, aggregate_function(column_name)

FROM table_name
WHERE column_name operator value
GROUP BY column_name;

HAVING
The HAVING clause was added to SQL because the WHERE keyword could not be used with aggregate
functions.

The HAVING clause includes a predicate used to filter rows resulting from the GROUP BY clause.
Because it acts on the results of the GROUP BY clause, aggregation functions can be used in the
HAVING clause predicate.
 ORDER BY clause identifies which column[s] to use to sort the resulting data, and in which
direction to sort them (ascending or descending).

Without an ORDER BY clause, the order of rows returned by an SQL query is undefined

Data manipulation

The Data Manipulation Language (DML) is the subset of SQL used to add, update and delete
data:

INSERT --> add rows to an existing table

UPDATE --> modifies a set of existing table rows

DELETE removes existing rows from a table

MERGE is used to combine the data of multiple tables. It combines the INSERT and UPDATE
elements
Data definition

The Data Definition Language (DDL) manages table and index structure.

The most basic items of DDL are the :

CREATE creates an object (a table, for example) in the database

ALTER modifies the structure of an existing object in various ways, for example, adding
a column to an existing table or a constraint

TRUNCATE deletes all data from a table in a very fast way, deleting the data inside the
table and not the table itself.

DROP deletes an object in the database, usually irretrievably , it cannot be rolled back.

SQL Aggregate Functions

SQL aggregate functions return a single value, calculated from values in a column.

Useful aggregate functions:

 AVG() - Returns the average value

 COUNT() - Returns the number of rows
 FIRST() - Returns the first value
 LAST() - Returns the last value
 MAX() - Returns the largest value
 MIN() - Returns the smallest value
 SUM() - Returns the sum

SQL Scalar functions

SQL scalar functions return a single value, based on the input value.

Useful scalar functions:

 UCASE() - Converts a field to upper case

 LCASE() - Converts a field to lower case
 MID() - Extract characters from a text field
 LEN() - Returns the length of a text field
 ROUND() - Rounds a numeric field to the number of decimals specified
 NOW() - Returns the current system date and time
 FORMAT() - Formats how a field is to be displayed

Some of The Most Important SQL Commands

 SELECT - extracts data from a database

 UPDATE - updates data in a database
 DELETE - deletes data from a database
 INSERT INTO - inserts new data into a database
 CREATE DATABASE - creates a new database
 ALTER DATABASE - modifies a database
 CREATE TABLE - creates a new table
 ALTER TABLE - modifies a table
 DROP TABLE - deletes a table
 CREATE INDEX - creates an index (search key)
 DROP INDEX - deletes an index