SQL Commands:

SQL commands are instructions used to communicate with the database to perform specific task that work with data. SQL commands can be used not only for searching the database but also to perform various other functions like, for example, you can create tables, add data to tables, or modify data, drop the table, set permissions for users.

SQL CREATE TABLE Statement

The CREATE TABLE Statement is used to create tables to store data. Integrity Constraints like primary key, unique key, foreign key can be defined for the columns while creating the table. The integrity constraints can be defined at column level or table level. The implementation and the syntax of the CREATE Statements differs for different RDBMS. The Syntax for the CREATE TABLE Statement is: CREATE TABLE table_name (column_name1 datatype,column_name2

datatype,...column_nameN datatype);

table_name - is the name of the table. column_name1, column_name2.... - is the name of the datatype - is the datatype for the column like char, date,

columns

number etc. For Example: If you want to create the employee table, the statement would be like, CREATE TABLE employee ( id number(5) , name char(20) ,

dept char(10) , age number(2) , sala ry number(10) , location char(10) ); In Oracle database, the datatype for an integer column is represented as "number". In Sybase it is represented as "int". Oracle provides another way of creating a table. CREATE TABLE temp_employee; SELECT * FROM employee; In the above statement, temp_employee table is created with the same number of columns and datatype as employee table.

SQL INSERT Statement

The INSERT Statement is used to add new rows of data to a table. We can insert data to a table in two ways, 1) Inserting the data directly to a table. Syntax for SQL INSERT is: INSERT INTO TABLE_NAME [ (col1, col2, col3,...colN)] VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...valueN);

col1, col2,...colN -- the names of the columns in the table into

which you want to insert data.

While inserting a row, if you are adding value for all the columns of the table you need not specify the column(s) name in the sql query. But you need to make sure the order of the values is in the same order as the columns in the table. The sql insert query will be as follows INSERT INTO TABLE_NAME VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...valueN); For Example: If you want to insert a row to the employee table, the query would be like,

INSERT INTO employee (id, name, dept, age, salary location) VALUES (105,'Srinath', 'Aeronautics', 27, 33000);

When adding a row, only the characters or date values should be enclosed with single quotes. If you are inserting data to all the columns, the column names can be omitted. The above insert statement can also be written as, INSERT INTO employee VALUES (105, 'Srinath', 'Aeronautics', 27, 33000); Inserting data to a table through a select statement. Syntax for SQL INSERT is: INSERT INTO table_name [(column1, column2, ... columnN)] SELECT column1, column2, ...columnN FROM table_name [WHERE condition]; For Example: To insert a row into the employee table from a temporary table, the sql insert query would be like, INSERT INTO employee (id, name, dept, age, salary location) SELECT emp_id,

emp_name, dept, age, salary, location FROM temp_employee; If you are inserting data to all the columns, the above insert statement can also be written as, INSERT INTO employee SELECT * FROM temp_employee; We have assumed the temp_employee table has columns

emp_id, emp_name, dept, age, salary, location in the above given order and the same datatype. IMPORTANT NOTE: 1) When adding a new row, you should ensure the datatype of the value and the column matches 2) You follow the integrity constraints, if any, defined for the table.

SQL SELECT Statement

The most commonly used SQL command is SELECT statement. The SQL SELECT statement is used to query or retrieve data from a table in the database. A query may retrieve information from specified columns or from all of the columns in the table. To create a simple SQL SELECT Statement, you must specify the column(s) name and the table name. The whole query is called SQL SELECT Statement. Syntax of SQL SELECT Statement: SELECT column_l i s t FROM table-name [WHERE Clause]

[GROUP BY clause] [HAVING clause] [ORDER BY clause];

table-name is the name of the table from which the information is column_list includes one or more columns from which data is The code within the brackets is optional.

retrieved.

retrieved.

database table student_details; id first_name last_name age subject 100 101 102 103 104 Rahul Anjali Stephen Shekar Priya Sharma Bhagwat Fleming Gowda Chandra 10 12 09 18 Science Maths Science Maths games Cricket Football Cricket Badminton Chess

15 Economics

These database tables are used here for better explanation of SQL commands. In reality, the tables can have different columns and different data. For example, consider the table student_details. To select the first name of all the students the query would be like: SELECT first_name FROM student_details;

The commands are not case sensitive. The above SELECT statement can also be written as "select first_name from students_details;" You can also retrieve data from more than one column. For example, to select first name and last name of all the students. SELECT first_name, last_name FROM student_details; You can also use clauses like WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, ORDER BY with SELECT statement. We will discuss these commands in coming chapters. In a SQL SELECT statement only SELECT and FROM statements are mandatory. Other clauses like WHERE, ORDER BY, GROUP BY, HAVING are optional.

How to use expressions in SQL SELECT Statement?

Expressions combine many arithmetic operators, they can be used in SELECT, WHERE and ORDER BY Clauses of the SQL SELECT Statement. Here we will explain how to use expressions in the SQL SELECT Statement. About using expressions in WHERE and ORDER BY clause, they will be explained in their respective sections. The operators are evaluated in a specific order of precedence, when more than one arithmetic operator is used in an expression. The order of evaluation expression. For example: If we want to display the first and last name of an employee combined together, the SQL Select Statement would be like SELECT first_name || ' ' || last_name FROM employee; is: parentheses, division, multiplication, addition, and subtraction. The evaluation is performed from the left to the right of the

Output: first_name || ' ' || last_name --------------------------------Rahul Sharma Anjali Bhagwat Stephen Fleming Shekar Gowda Priya Chandra

You can also provide aliases as below. SELECT first_name || ' ' || last_name AS emp_name FROM employee; Output: emp_name ------------Rahul Sharma Anjali Bhagwat Stephen Fleming Shekar Gowda Priya Chandra

SQL Delete Statement

The DELETE Statement is used to delete rows from a table. The Syntax of a SQL DELETE statement is: DELETE FROM table_name [WHERE condition];

table_name -- the table name which has to be updated.

The WHERE clause in the sql delete command is optional and it identifies the rows in the column that gets deleted. If you do not include the WHERE clause all the rows in the table is deleted, so be careful while writing a DELETE query without WHERE clause. For Example: To delete an employee with id 100 from the employee table, the sql delete query would be like, DELETE FROM employee WHERE id = 100; To delete all the rows from the employee table, the query would be like, DELETE FROM employee;

SQL TRUNCATE Statement

The SQL TRUNCATE command is used to delete all the rows from the table and free the space containing the table. Syntax to TRUNCATE a table: TRUNCATE TABLE table_name; For Example: To delete all the rows from employee table, the query would be like,

TRUNCATE TABLE employee;

Difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE Statements: DELETE Statement: This command deletes only the rows from the table based on the condition given in the where clause or deletes all the rows from the table if no condition is specified. But it does not free the space containing the table. TRUNCATE statement: This command is used to delete all the rows from the table and free the space containing the table.

SQL DROP Statement:

The SQL DROP command is used to remove an object from the database. If you drop a table, all the rows in the table is deleted and the table structure is removed from the database. Once a table is dropped we cannot get it back, so be careful while using RENAME command. When a table is dropped all the references to the table will not be valid. Syntax to drop a sql table structure: DROP TABLE table_name; For Example: To drop the table employee, the query would be like DROP TABLE employee; Difference between DROP and TRUNCATE Statement: If a table is dropped, all the relationships with other tables will no longer be valid, the integrity constraints will be dropped, grant or access privileges on the table will also be dropped, if want use the table again it has to be recreated with the integrity constraints, access privileges and

the relationships with other tables should be established again. But, if a table is truncated, the table structure remains the same, therefore any of the above problems will not exist.

SQL ALTER TABLE Statement

The SQL ALTER TABLE command is used to modify the definition (structure) of a table by modifying the definition of its columns. The ALTER command is used to perform the following functions. 1) Add, drop, modify table columns 2) Add and drop constraints 3) Enable and Disable constraints Syntax to add a column ALTER TABLE table_name ADD (column_name datatype(size)); For Example: To add a column "experience" to the employee table, the query would be like ALTER TABLE employee ADD (experience number(3)); Syntax to drop a column ALTER TABLE table_name DROP (column_name); For Example: To drop the column "location" from the employee table, the query would be like ALTER TABLE employee DROP location; Syntax to modify a column ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY (column_name datatype(size));

For Example: To modify the column salary in the employee table, the query would be like ALTER TABLE employee MODIFY (salary number(15,2));

SQL RENAME Command

The SQL RENAME command is used to change the name of the table or a database object. If you change the object's name any reference to the old name will be affected. You have to manually change the old name to the new name in every reference. Syntax to rename a table RENAME old_table_name To new_table_name; For Example: To change the name of the table employee to my_employee, the query would be like RENAME employee TO my_emloyee;