SQL

Structured Query Language

Rita Sinha
IUCAA
June 2007 1
 SQL

Simple Query Language

A standard computer language for

accessing and manipulating database systems.

Rita Sinha
IUCAA
June 2007 2
 Outline

 SQL Ingredients
 Syntax, Key words

DATABASES…
Example queries
 Link to web tutorials on SQL
 MySQL - demo

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 Database

Database is a structure that can house information about

many different type of objects as well as the relationships
among those objects.

A tool is required to easily manipulate such information. This

is called a database management system or DBMS.

Most popular approach for manipulating data in a relational

DBMS is SQL

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 Structure of the database

 Organized collection of data (Tables)

 Entries in the Table are single-valued
 Each column in the Table should have an unique
name (called attribute name)
 All values in a column are values of the same
attribute
 Each row is distinct
 Order of columns and rows is flexible

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 Terminology

 Relation Table File

 Tuple Row Record
 Attribute Column Field

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 Data Types
 Integer(size), int(size), smallint(size), tinyint(size)
Holds integers only. The maximum number of digits specified in
parenthesis.
 decimal(size,d), numeric(size,d)
Holds 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".
 CHAR(size)
Holds a fixed length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special
characters). The fixed size is specified in parenthesis.
 varchar(size)
Holds a variable length string (can contain letters, numbers, and
special characters). The maximum size is specified in parenthesis.
 DATEdate(yyyymmdd) Holds a date
 TIME Holds time

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 What is SQL ?
 An ANSI standard computer language
 Allows you to access a database
 Execute queries against a database
 Retrieve data from a database
 Insert new records in a database
 Delete records from a database
 Update records in a database
 Querying Language for database programs like
MySQL, MS SQL Server, ADQL, MS Access, DB2,
Informix, Oracle, Sybase, etc.
 Easy

Note: Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of the SQL statement
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 Ingredients

SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML)

It includes syntax to update, insert and delete records.

SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)

It permits database tables to be created or deleted, define
indexes (keys), specify links between tables and impose
constraints between database tables.

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 Data Manipulation Language (DML) :

 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

Data Definition Language (DDL) :

 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
 WHERE – impose constraints

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 Basic Syntax
 Select - Attributes, column name
 From - Table name
 Where - Restrictions, constraints
[Note: To query data on an existing database which you are not allowed to change]

For example: SALARY Name Rank Amount Years

Select name, rank, amount Select *

from salary from Salary
where amount = 10000 where amount > 10000

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive.

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 Select …

 Alias – column name alias

Select Z as Redshift or Select psfmag_u as u
 Operations are permitted in ‘select’ clause
Select cos(angle) from Triangles or
Select (income-expenditure) as Savings

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 Select …
DISTINCT
Outputs only one entry/row of data for every group of rows/entries
that is identical.

ORDERS
OrderNumber Time Name Items Amount
400 1300 Mr. R. Sharma TomatoSoup 45
401 1310 Mr. S. Pal Fried rice 80
402 1315 Mr. R. Sharma Pasta 75

Select DISTINCT name

FROM Orders
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 From …
 Alias – table name alias
From Phototable as P or From Spectable as S

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 Where …

The following operators can be used with the WHERE clause:

Operator Description
= Equal
<> or != Not equal
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
BETWEEN Between an inclusive range
LIKE Search for a pattern

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 Where …
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.

For example: SALARY Name Rank Amount Years

Select name, rank From Salary

Where amount >25000 and years > 5

Select name, rank From Salary

Where amount > 25000 or years > 5
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Where …
Using Quotes
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:

SELECT *
FROM Persons
WHERE Surname=‘Sharma’

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 Where …
LIKE condition- used to specify a search for a pattern in a column.

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.
For example:
The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that start
with an 'R':
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName LIKE ‘R%’
The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that end
with an 'a':
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName LIKE ‘%a’
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 Duplication of attributes ?
 When two tables have a common attribute or
column name then we write both the table name
and the column name, separated by a period. By
this we qualify the names.
Making Life Easier…

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 Duplication of attributes ?
 When two tables have a common attribute or column name
then we write both the table name and the column name,
separated by a period. By this we qualify the names.

 For example- Consider a movies database

Table: 1980s Table: 1990s

Title Star Director Storage Title Star Director Storage

Select 1980s.title, 1980s.star, 1990s.title,1990s.star

or
Select o.title, o.star, n.title, n.star
from 1980s as o, 1990s as n
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 Where …
Join
Selects data from two or more tables to make the result complete or to bind
data together across tables, without repeating all of the data in every table.
Tables in a database can be related to each other with keys called
primary key. Each primary key value must be unique within the
table.

For example: SALARY EmployeeID Name Amount

RANK EmployeeID Position Years

SELECT Salary.EmployeeID, Salary.Name, Rank.Position,

Rank.Years
FROM Salary, Rank
WHERE Salary.EmployeeID=Rank.EmployeeID
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 Join …

To select data from two tables with the JOIN keyword.

The INNER JOIN returns all rows from both tables where there is a match.

For example: SALARY EmployeeID Name Amount

RANK EmployeeID Position Years

SELECT Salary.EmployeeID, Salary.Name, Rank.Position

FROM Salary
INNER JOIN Rank
ON Salary.EmployeeID=Rank.EmployeeID
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 Order by

The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the rows.

To display the names in alphabetical order:

SELECT Name, Marks FROM Marksheet
ORDER BY Name
To display the company names in numerical order:
SELECT Marks FROM Marksheet
ORDER BY Marks
To display the names in reverse alphabetical order:
SELECT Name, Marks FROM Marksheet
ORDER BY Name DESC
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 Group by
GROUP BY...
possible to find the aggregate functions like (SUM) for each individual
group of column values.
For example, consider
Table containing expenditure by persons employed under a research project
DST2006
Date Name Item Amount

To find the total expenditure under each person:

SELECT Name, SUM(Amount) FROM DST2006
GROUP BY Name
In place of where we use HAVING to specify conditions
HAVING SUM(amount) > 5000
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 Functions
SQL has a lot of built-in functions for counting and other calculations-
SELECT function(column) FROM table

Types of Functions
The basic types of functions are:
 Aggregate Functions: operate against a collection of values, but
return a single value.
AVG(column), COUNT(column), MAX(column),
MIN(column), STDEV(column), SUM(column)
 Scalar functions: operate against a single value, and return a single
value based on the input value.

MOD(x,y), ABS(x), ROUND(c,decimals)

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Summary Select … from ….. where

Select ….
 AS (alias for column)
 DISTINCT
 COUNT

From …
 AS (alias for table)

Where …
 AND/OR
 BETWEEN
 JOIN
 GROUP BY
 ORDER BY

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 Links

 http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_quickref.asp

 http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/help/howto/search

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 MySQL
 Runs on all platforms: Unix/Linux, Windows
 Runs as a daemon under Unix/Linux and service under
windows

 Latest binary and source code distributions at:

http://www.mysql.com

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