SQL Functions Cheatsheet - Complete Reference

Guide
A comprehensive quick-reference guide covering all essential SQL functions from basic to
advanced, organized by category for easy lookup and problem-solving.

Table of Contents
1. Aggregate Functions
2. String/Text Functions
3. Date and Time Functions
4. Mathematical Functions
5. Window Functions
6. Conditional Functions
7. NULL Handling Functions
8. Conversion Functions
9. Analytical Functions
10. System Functions
11. Quick Problem-Solving Guide

Aggregate Functions

Basic Aggregates

-- COUNT: Count rows/values

COUNT(*) -- Count all rows
COUNT(column) -- Count non-NULL values
COUNT(DISTINCT column) -- Count unique non-NULL values

-- SUM: Sum numeric values

SUM(column) -- Sum all non-NULL values
SUM(DISTINCT column) -- Sum unique values

-- AVG: Average values

AVG(column) -- Average of non-NULL values
AVG(DISTINCT column) -- Average of unique values

-- MIN/MAX: Minimum and Maximum

MIN(column) -- Smallest value
MAX(column) -- Largest value

-- Examples
 SELECT
COUNT(*) as total_rows,
COUNT(salary) as salary_count,
SUM(salary) as total_salary,
AVG(salary) as avg_salary,
MIN(salary) as min_salary,
MAX(salary) as max_salary
FROM employees;

Statistical Aggregates

-- STDDEV: Standard deviation

STDDEV(column) -- Sample standard deviation
STDDEV_POP(column) -- Population standard deviation

-- VARIANCE: Variance
VARIANCE(column) -- Sample variance
VAR_POP(column) -- Population variance

-- STRING_AGG/GROUP_CONCAT: Concatenate values

STRING_AGG(column, ',') -- PostgreSQL/SQL Server
GROUP_CONCAT(column) -- MySQL
LISTAGG(column, ',') -- Oracle

String/Text Functions

Basic String Operations

-- CONCAT: Concatenate strings

CONCAT(str1, str2, str3) -- Join multiple strings
str1 || str2 -- Concatenation operator (PostgreSQL/Oracle)

-- LENGTH/LEN: String length

LENGTH(string) -- MySQL/PostgreSQL
LEN(string) -- SQL Server
CHAR_LENGTH(string) -- Character length

-- SUBSTRING/SUBSTR: Extract part of string

SUBSTRING(string, start, length) -- Standard SQL
SUBSTR(string, start, length) -- Oracle/MySQL
LEFT(string, length) -- Get leftmost characters
RIGHT(string, length) -- Get rightmost characters

-- Examples
SELECT
CONCAT(first_name, ' ', last_name) as full_name,
LENGTH(email) as email_length,
SUBSTRING(phone, 1, 3) as area_code,
LEFT(zip_code, 5) as zip_prefix
FROM customers;
Case Conversion

-- UPPER/LOWER: Change case

UPPER(string) -- Convert to uppercase
LOWER(string) -- Convert to lowercase
INITCAP(string) -- Capitalize first letter of each word (Oracle)

-- Examples
SELECT
UPPER(last_name) as last_name_upper,
LOWER(email) as email_lower,
INITCAP(city) as city_proper
FROM employees;

String Cleaning and Formatting

-- TRIM: Remove whitespace

TRIM(string) -- Remove leading and trailing spaces
LTRIM(string) -- Remove leading spaces
RTRIM(string) -- Remove trailing spaces
TRIM(BOTH 'x' FROM string) -- Remove specific characters

-- REPLACE: Replace text

REPLACE(string, old_text, new_text) -- Replace all occurrences

-- REVERSE: Reverse string

REVERSE(string) -- Reverse character order

-- Examples
SELECT
TRIM(address) as clean_address,
REPLACE(phone, '-', '') as clean_phone,
REVERSE(product_code) as reversed_code
FROM products;

String Search and Pattern Matching

-- CHARINDEX/INSTR/POSITION: Find substring position

CHARINDEX(substring, string) -- SQL Server (1-based)
INSTR(string, substring) -- Oracle/MySQL (1-based)
POSITION(substring IN string) -- PostgreSQL (1-based)

-- LIKE: Pattern matching

column LIKE 'pattern' -- % for multiple chars, _ for single char
column ILIKE 'pattern' -- Case-insensitive LIKE (PostgreSQL)

-- SPLIT_PART: Split string by delimiter

SPLIT_PART(string, delimiter, part_number) -- PostgreSQL
Date and Time Functions

Current Date and Time

-- Current date/time functions

CURRENT_DATE -- Current date (YYYY-MM-DD)
CURRENT_TIME -- Current time (HH:MM:SS)
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP -- Current date and time
NOW() -- MySQL/PostgreSQL current timestamp
GETDATE() -- SQL Server current timestamp
SYSDATE -- Oracle current timestamp

-- Examples
SELECT
CURRENT_DATE as today,
CURRENT_TIME as now_time,
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP as now_full
FROM dual; -- Oracle; use any table for other databases

Date Extraction

-- EXTRACT: Get date parts

EXTRACT(YEAR FROM date) -- Get year
EXTRACT(MONTH FROM date) -- Get month
EXTRACT(DAY FROM date) -- Get day
EXTRACT(HOUR FROM datetime) -- Get hour

-- DATEPART: SQL Server date parts

DATEPART(YEAR, date) -- Get year
DATEPART(MONTH, date) -- Get month
DATEPART(DAY, date) -- Get day
DATEPART(WEEKDAY, date) -- Get day of week

-- YEAR/MONTH/DAY: Direct extraction functions

YEAR(date) -- Extract year
MONTH(date) -- Extract month
DAY(date) -- Extract day

-- Examples
SELECT
order_date,
EXTRACT(YEAR FROM order_date) as order_year,
EXTRACT(MONTH FROM order_date) as order_month,
YEAR(order_date) as year_alt,
MONTH(order_date) as month_alt
FROM orders;
Date Arithmetic

-- DATEADD: Add time intervals (SQL Server)

DATEADD(YEAR, 1, date) -- Add 1 year
DATEADD(MONTH, 6, date) -- Add 6 months
DATEADD(DAY, 30, date) -- Add 30 days

-- INTERVAL: Add intervals (MySQL/PostgreSQL)

date + INTERVAL '1 YEAR' -- Add 1 year
date + INTERVAL '6 MONTH' -- Add 6 months
date + INTERVAL '30 DAY' -- Add 30 days

-- ADD_MONTHS: Oracle month arithmetic

ADD_MONTHS(date, 6) -- Add 6 months

-- Examples
SELECT
hire_date,
DATEADD(YEAR, 1, hire_date) as anniversary, -- SQL Server
hire_date + INTERVAL '1 YEAR' as anniversary_mysql, -- MySQL
ADD_MONTHS(hire_date, 12) as anniversary_oracle -- Oracle
FROM employees;

Date Differences

-- DATEDIFF: Calculate differences

DATEDIFF(DAY, start_date, end_date) -- Days between dates (SQL Server)
DATEDIFF(YEAR, birth_date, GETDATE()) -- Age in years (SQL Server)

-- Direct subtraction (Oracle/PostgreSQL)

end_date - start_date -- Days between (Oracle)
AGE(end_date, start_date) -- Interval between (PostgreSQL)

-- Examples
SELECT
employee_name,
birth_date,
DATEDIFF(YEAR, birth_date, GETDATE()) as age,
DATEDIFF(DAY, hire_date, GETDATE()) as days_employed
FROM employees;

Date Formatting

-- FORMAT: Format dates (SQL Server)

FORMAT(date, 'yyyy-MM-dd') -- Custom format

-- TO_CHAR: Format dates (Oracle/PostgreSQL)

TO_CHAR(date, 'YYYY-MM-DD') -- Custom format
TO_CHAR(date, 'Month DD, YYYY') -- Month name format

-- DATE_FORMAT: Format dates (MySQL)

DATE_FORMAT(date, '%Y-%m-%d') -- Custom format
 -- Examples
SELECT
order_date,
FORMAT(order_date, 'yyyy-MM-dd') as formatted_sql_server,
TO_CHAR(order_date, 'YYYY-MM-DD') as formatted_oracle,
DATE_FORMAT(order_date, '%Y-%m-%d') as formatted_mysql
FROM orders;

Mathematical Functions

Basic Math Operations

-- ABS: Absolute value

ABS(number) -- Returns positive value

-- ROUND: Rounding
ROUND(number) -- Round to nearest integer
ROUND(number, decimals) -- Round to specified decimal places

-- CEILING/CEIL: Round up
CEILING(number) -- Round up to nearest integer
CEIL(number) -- Same as CEILING (MySQL)

-- FLOOR: Round down

FLOOR(number) -- Round down to nearest integer

-- Examples
SELECT
price,
ABS(price - 100) as price_diff,
ROUND(price, 2) as rounded_price,
CEILING(price) as price_ceiling,
FLOOR(price) as price_floor
FROM products;

Advanced Math Functions

-- POWER/POW: Exponentiation
POWER(base, exponent) -- Raise base to power
POW(base, exponent) -- Same as POWER (MySQL)

-- SQRT: Square root

SQRT(number) -- Square root

-- LOG: Logarithms
LOG(number) -- Natural logarithm
LOG10(number) -- Base-10 logarithm
LOG(base, number) -- Logarithm with custom base

-- EXP: Exponential
 EXP(number) -- e raised to power

-- Examples
SELECT
quantity,
POWER(quantity, 2) as quantity_squared,
SQRT(quantity) as quantity_sqrt,
LOG(quantity) as quantity_ln
FROM inventory;

Trigonometric Functions

-- Basic trig functions

SIN(radians) -- Sine
COS(radians) -- Cosine
TAN(radians) -- Tangent

-- Inverse trig functions

ASIN(value) -- Arcsine
ACOS(value) -- Arccosine
ATAN(value) -- Arctangent

-- Angle conversion
RADIANS(degrees) -- Convert degrees to radians
DEGREES(radians) -- Convert radians to degrees

-- Constants
PI() -- Value of π (3.14159...)

Other Math Functions

-- SIGN: Get sign of number

SIGN(number) -- Returns -1, 0, or 1

-- MOD: Modulo operation

MOD(dividend, divisor) -- Remainder after division
number % divisor -- Modulo operator

-- RANDOM/RAND: Random numbers

RANDOM() -- Random 0-1 (PostgreSQL)
RAND() -- Random 0-1 (MySQL/SQL Server)
RAND(seed) -- Random with seed

-- Examples
SELECT
SIGN(profit) as profit_direction,
MOD(order_id, 10) as last_digit,
RAND() as random_value
FROM sales;
Window Functions

Ranking Functions

-- ROW_NUMBER: Unique sequential numbers

ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY column)
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY dept ORDER BY salary DESC)

-- RANK: Ranking with gaps for ties

RANK() OVER (ORDER BY score DESC)
RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY category ORDER BY price)

-- DENSE_RANK: Ranking without gaps

DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC)

-- NTILE: Divide into equal groups

NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY sales) -- Quartiles

-- Examples
SELECT
employee_name,
department,
salary,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) as row_num,
RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) as salary_rank,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) as dense_rank,
NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) as quartile
FROM employees;

Aggregate Window Functions

-- SUM: Running totals

SUM(amount) OVER (ORDER BY date) -- Cumulative sum
SUM(amount) OVER (PARTITION BY customer ORDER BY date) -- By customer

-- AVG: Moving averages

AVG(amount) OVER (ORDER BY date ROWS BETWEEN 2 PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW)

-- COUNT: Running counts

COUNT(*) OVER (ORDER BY date)

-- Examples
SELECT
order_date,
amount,
SUM(amount) OVER (ORDER BY order_date) as running_total,
AVG(amount) OVER (ORDER BY order_date ROWS BETWEEN 2 PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) as mo
FROM orders;
Offset Functions

-- LAG: Previous row value

LAG(column, offset, default) OVER (ORDER BY column)
LAG(salary, 1, 0) OVER (ORDER BY hire_date) -- Previous salary

-- LEAD: Next row value

LEAD(column, offset, default) OVER (ORDER BY column)
LEAD(salary, 1, 0) OVER (ORDER BY hire_date) -- Next salary

-- FIRST_VALUE: First value in window

FIRST_VALUE(column) OVER (PARTITION BY dept ORDER BY salary DESC)

-- LAST_VALUE: Last value in window

LAST_VALUE(column) OVER (PARTITION BY dept ORDER BY salary DESC
ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING)

-- Examples
SELECT
employee_name,
salary,
hire_date,
LAG(salary, 1, 0) OVER (ORDER BY hire_date) as prev_salary,
LEAD(salary, 1, 0) OVER (ORDER BY hire_date) as next_salary,
FIRST_VALUE(salary) OVER (PARTITION BY department ORDER BY salary DESC) as highest_de
FROM employees;

Conditional Functions

CASE Statement

-- Simple CASE
CASE column
WHEN value1 THEN result1
WHEN value2 THEN result2
ELSE default_result
END

-- Searched CASE
CASE
WHEN condition1 THEN result1
WHEN condition2 THEN result2
ELSE default_result
END

-- Examples
SELECT
employee_name,
salary,
CASE
WHEN salary > 80000 THEN 'High'
WHEN salary > 50000 THEN 'Medium'
 ELSE 'Low'
END as salary_category,
CASE department
WHEN 'IT' THEN 'Technology'
WHEN 'HR' THEN 'Human Resources'
ELSE 'Other'
END as dept_category
FROM employees;

IF Functions (MySQL)

-- IF: Simple conditional

IF(condition, true_value, false_value)

-- Examples
SELECT
product_name,
price,
IF(price > 100, 'Expensive', 'Affordable') as price_category
FROM products;

NULL Handling Functions

COALESCE

-- COALESCE: Return first non-NULL value

COALESCE(value1, value2, value3, default)

-- Examples
SELECT
customer_name,
COALESCE(phone_mobile, phone_home, phone_work, 'No phone') as contact_phone,
COALESCE(email, 'No email') as contact_email
FROM customers;

ISNULL/IFNULL

-- ISNULL: Replace NULL with value (SQL Server)

ISNULL(column, replacement_value)

-- IFNULL: Replace NULL with value (MySQL)

IFNULL(column, replacement_value)

-- NVL: Replace NULL with value (Oracle)

NVL(column, replacement_value)

-- Examples
SELECT
employee_name,
 ISNULL(middle_name, '') as middle_name_clean, -- SQL Server
IFNULL(bonus, 0) as bonus_amount, -- MySQL
NVL(commission, 0) as commission_amount -- Oracle
FROM employees;

NULLIF

-- NULLIF: Return NULL if values are equal

NULLIF(value1, value2)

-- Examples
SELECT
customer_name,
NULLIF(discount, 0) as actual_discount -- Returns NULL if discount is 0
FROM customers;

Conversion Functions

CAST and CONVERT

-- CAST: Standard SQL conversion

CAST(expression AS data_type)

-- CONVERT: SQL Server conversion with format

CONVERT(data_type, expression)
CONVERT(data_type, expression, style)

-- Examples
SELECT
order_id,
CAST(order_date AS VARCHAR) as date_string,
CAST(total_amount AS INT) as amount_integer,
CONVERT(VARCHAR(10), order_date, 101) as formatted_date -- SQL Server MM/DD/YYYY
FROM orders;

TO_CHAR/TO_NUMBER/TO_DATE (Oracle)

-- TO_CHAR: Convert to string

TO_CHAR(number, 'format')
TO_CHAR(date, 'format')

-- TO_NUMBER: Convert to number

TO_NUMBER(string, 'format')

-- TO_DATE: Convert to date

TO_DATE(string, 'format')

-- Examples
SELECT
 employee_id,
TO_CHAR(salary, '$999,999.99') as formatted_salary,
TO_CHAR(hire_date, 'Month DD, YYYY') as formatted_hire_date,
TO_NUMBER('1234.56', '9999.99') as converted_number,
TO_DATE('2023-12-25', 'YYYY-MM-DD') as converted_date
FROM employees;

Other Conversion Functions

-- STR: Convert number to string (SQL Server)

STR(number, length, decimal_places)

-- FORMAT: Format values (SQL Server)

FORMAT(value, format)
FORMAT(123456.789, 'C', 'en-US') -- Currency format
FORMAT(GETDATE(), 'yyyy-MM-dd') -- Date format

-- Examples
SELECT
product_id,
STR(price, 10, 2) as price_string,
FORMAT(price, 'C', 'en-US') as price_currency,
FORMAT(created_date, 'yyyy-MM-dd') as formatted_date
FROM products;

Analytical Functions

Statistical Functions

-- PERCENTILE: Calculate percentiles

PERCENTILE_CONT(0.5) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY salary) -- Median
PERCENTILE_DISC(0.25) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY salary) -- 25th percentile

-- PERCENT_RANK: Relative rank as percentage

PERCENT_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary)

-- CUME_DIST: Cumulative distribution

CUME_DIST() OVER (ORDER BY salary)

-- Examples
SELECT
employee_name,
salary,
PERCENT_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary) as salary_percent_rank,
CUME_DIST() OVER (ORDER BY salary) as salary_cume_dist
FROM employees;
System Functions

Information Functions

-- USER: Current user

USER() -- MySQL
CURRENT_USER -- PostgreSQL/SQL Server
USER -- Oracle

-- DATABASE: Current database

DATABASE() -- MySQL
DB_NAME() -- SQL Server
CURRENT_SCHEMA -- PostgreSQL

-- VERSION: Database version

VERSION() -- MySQL/PostgreSQL
@@VERSION -- SQL Server

-- Examples
SELECT
USER() as current_user,
DATABASE() as current_db,
VERSION() as db_version;

Quick Problem-Solving Guide

Common Problem Patterns

1. Finding Top N Records per Group

-- Using ROW_NUMBER()
WITH ranked_data AS (
SELECT *,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY category ORDER BY sales DESC) as rn
FROM products
)
SELECT * FROM ranked_data WHERE rn <= 3;

2. Running Totals and Moving Averages

SELECT
date,
amount,
SUM(amount) OVER (ORDER BY date) as running_total,
AVG(amount) OVER (ORDER BY date ROWS BETWEEN 6 PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) as moving_a
FROM sales;
3. Comparing Current vs Previous Values

SELECT
month,
revenue,
LAG(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY month) as prev_month_revenue,
revenue - LAG(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY month) as revenue_change,
ROUND((revenue - LAG(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY month)) / LAG(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY mo
FROM monthly_sales;

4. Handling NULL Values Elegantly

SELECT
customer_name,
COALESCE(phone, email, 'No contact info') as primary_contact,
CASE
WHEN phone IS NOT NULL THEN 'Phone: ' || phone
WHEN email IS NOT NULL THEN 'Email: ' || email
ELSE 'No contact available'
END as contact_display
FROM customers;

5. Text Processing and Cleaning

SELECT
TRIM(UPPER(product_name)) as clean_name,
REPLACE(REPLACE(phone, '-', ''), ' ', '') as clean_phone,
SUBSTRING(description, 1, 50) || '...' as short_description
FROM products
WHERE LENGTH(TRIM(product_name)) > 0;

6. Date Calculations and Formatting

SELECT
customer_id,
birth_date,
EXTRACT(YEAR FROM AGE(CURRENT_DATE, birth_date)) as age,
CASE
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR FROM AGE(CURRENT_DATE, birth_date)) >= 65 THEN 'Senior'
WHEN EXTRACT(YEAR FROM AGE(CURRENT_DATE, birth_date)) >= 18 THEN 'Adult'
ELSE 'Minor'
END as age_category,
TO_CHAR(birth_date, 'Month DD, YYYY') as formatted_birth_date
FROM customers;
7. Pivot-like Operations with CASE

SELECT
product_id,
SUM(CASE WHEN EXTRACT(MONTH FROM order_date) = 1 THEN quantity ELSE 0 END) as jan_sal
SUM(CASE WHEN EXTRACT(MONTH FROM order_date) = 2 THEN quantity ELSE 0 END) as feb_sal
SUM(CASE WHEN EXTRACT(MONTH FROM order_date) = 3 THEN quantity ELSE 0 END) as mar_sal
FROM order_details od
JOIN orders o ON od.order_id = o.order_id
GROUP BY product_id;

Performance Tips
Use window functions instead of correlated subqueries when possible
Prefer EXISTS over IN with subqueries for better performance
Use COALESCE instead of nested CASE WHEN ... IS NULL statements

Index columns used in window function PARTITION BY and ORDER BY clauses

Be cautious with LAST_VALUE - always specify window frame explicitly

This cheatsheet covers the most commonly used SQL functions across major database systems.
Keep it handy for quick reference during development and problem-solving!