SQL: Updates (DML)

and Views (DDL)

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SQL DML (Updating the Data)
• Insert
• Delete
• Update

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Inserting tuples
INSERT INTO Student VALUES
(6, ‘Emily’, ‘324 FL’, NULL);

INSERT INTO Student (sNumber, sName)

VALUES (6, ‘Emily’);

INSERT INTO Professor (pNumber)

SELECT professor
FROM Student;

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Delete and Update
 Deleting tuples
DELETE FROM Student
WHERE sNumber=‘6’;

 Updating tuples
UPDATE Student SET professor=‘ER’
WHERE sNumer=‘6’

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 Views

NOTE: You can present logical subsets or combinations of the data by creating
views of tables. A view is a virtual table based on a table or another view. A view
contains no data of its own but is like a window through which data from tables can
be viewed or changed. The tables on which a view is based are called base tables.
The view is stored as a SELECT statement in the data dictionary.
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Views
 View is a virtual relation
 Convenience: Queries on base relations might be
“complex”
 Logical Data Independence: “base tables” may
change, but still queries using views need not
change.
 Provide different views of the same data.
 Security: Expose only necessary data to users
 Views can be queried like any “base” relation.

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Views
 CREATE VIEW <viewName> as <query>
 DROP VIEW <viewName>

CREATE VIEW studentProfessor (student, professor)

AS
SELECT sName, pName
FROM Student, Professor
WHERE Student.professor = Professor.pNumber;

DROP VIEW studentProfessor

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Views - Example
Student Professor
sNumber sName address professor
pNumber pName address
1 Dave 320FL 1
1 MM 235FL
2 Greg 320FL 1
2 ER 241FL
3 Matt 320FL 2

CREATE VIEW studentProfessor

student professor
(student, professor) AS
SELECT sName, pName Dave MM
FROM Student, Professor
WHERE Student.professor = Greg MM
Professor.pNumber; Matt ER

SELECT * from studentProfessor

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Updating Views
 Consider views defined with only one
relation in the FROM clause such as:

CREATE VIEW MyStudent (num, name) AS

SELECT sNumber, sName FROM Student;

These views are updatable. Updating these

views are done by updating the underlying
Student tables.
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Updating Single relation Views
For instance, the following updates are valid:
DELETE FROM MyStudent WHERE name=`Dave';

-- This will delete the corresponding row

from the Student table

INSERT INTO MyStudent VALUES (4, `Mary’);

-- This will be translated to INSERT INTO

Student(sNumber, sName) VALUES (4,
`Mary’);
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Inserting into single relation
views
Consider the view
CREATE VIEW MyStudent1(name)
AS SELECT sName FROM Student;

-- INSERT INTO MyStudent1 VALUES (‘Mary’)

will be translated to INSERT INTO
Student(sName) VALUES (‘Mary’). This will
return an error as sNumber must not be
null

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Updating Single relation views
 If the SELECT clause specifies DISTINCT,
then the view is not updatable.

For instance, the following view is not

updatable.

CREATE VIEW MyStudent2(num) AS

SELECT DISTINCT sNumber FROM Student;

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Updating Single Relation
Views
 Note that the WHERE clause may specify
subqueries. Let us consider an extreme
example.
CREATE VIEW MyStudent3 (num, name) AS
SELECT sNumber, sName FROM Student
WHERE sNumber NOT IN (SELECT sNumber FROM
Student);
-- this view will always have 0 tuples.
Insert into this view will still insert
into student table, though that tuple does
not appear in the view.
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Multiple relation views: Delete
Consider a multi-relation view such as
CREATE VIEW studentProf(student, professor)
AS SELECT sName, pName
FROM Student, Professor
WHERE professor=pNumber;

-- Note that the pNumber is key for professor. We

see that sNumber is a key for Student and also for
the view (though sNumber does not appear in the
result). So deleting from the views are possible
by deleting appropriate sNumbers from the Student
table.

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Deleting from multi-relation
views
Try the following update statements:

DELETE FROM Studentprof WHERE professor='MM';

-- This will actually delete the two rows in the

student table.

-- Therefore deletes can be done against multi-

relation views if there is a table such that
the view and the table have the same key.

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Deleting from multirelation
views
 Suppose we drop the key constraint on the
professor table for the same view.

 Now delete will fail because there is no table

whose key is the key of the view.

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Inserting into multi-relation
views
Consider the following slightly modified view
definition
CREATE VIEW studentProf(student, professor)
AS SELECT sNumber, pName FROM Student, Professor
WHERE professor=pNumber;

INSERT INTO Studentprof VALUES (4, 'ER');

-- THIS ABOVE INSERT WILL FAIL AS IT TRIES TO INSERT
INTO Professor TABLE AS WELL.
INSERT INTO Studentprof(student) VALUES (4);
-- THIS ABOVE INSERT WILL SUCCEED.

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Inserting into multi-relation
views
 Insert will succeed only if
 The insert translates to insert into only one table.
 The key for the table to be inserted will also be a
key for the view.

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