SQL TUTORIAL

What is SQL?
1. SQL stands for Structured Query Language
2. SQL allows you to access a database
3. SQL is an ANSI standard computer language
4. SQL can execute queries against a database
5. SQL can retrieve data from a database
6. SQL can insert new records in a database
7. SQL can delete records from a database
8. SQL can update records in a database
9. SQL is easy to learn

SQL is a Standard - BUT....

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard computer language for
accessing and manipulating database systems. SQL statements are used to retrieve and
update data in a database. SQL works with database programs like MS Access, DB2,
Informix, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc.
Unfortunately, there are many different versions of the SQL language, but to be in
compliance with the ANSI standard, they must support the same major keywords in a
similar manner (such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE, and others).

SQL Database Tables

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name
(e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"). Tables contain records (rows) with data.
Below is an example of a table called "Persons":
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The table above contains three records (one for each person) and four columns
(LastName, FirstName, Address, and City).
SQL Queries
With SQL, we can query a database and have a result set returned.
A query like this:
SELECT LastName FROM Persons
Gives a result set like this:
LastName
Hansen
Svendson
Pettersen
Note: Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of the SQL statement. We
don't use the semicolon in our tutorials.

SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML)

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a syntax for executing queries. But the SQL
language also includes a syntax to update, insert, and delete records.
These query and update commands together form the Data Manipulation Language
(DML) part of SQL:
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

SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)

The Data Definition Language (DDL) part of SQL permits database tables to be created
or deleted. We can also define indexes (keys), specify links between tables, and impose
constraints between database tables.
The most important DDL statements in SQL are:
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
The SQL SELECT Statement
The SELECT statement is used to select data from a table. The tabular result is stored in a
result table (called the result-set).
Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive. SELECT is the same as select.

SQL SELECT Example

To select the content of columns named "LastName" and "FirstName", from the database
table called "Persons", use a SELECT statement like this:
SELECT LastName,FirstName FROM Persons
The database table "Persons":
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The result
LastName FirstName
Hansen Ola
Svendson Tove
Pettersen Kari

Select All Columns

To select all columns from the "Persons" table, use a * symbol instead of column names,
like this:
SELECT * FROM Persons
Result
LastName FirstName Address City
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
The Result Set
The result from a SQL query is stored in a result-set. Most database software systems
allow navigation of the result set with programming functions, like: Move-To-First-
Record, Get-Record-Content, Move-To-Next-Record, etc.
Programming functions like these are not a part of this tutorial. To learn about accessing
data with function calls, please visit our ADO tutorial.

Semicolon after SQL Statements?

Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that
allow more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.
Some SQL tutorials end each SQL statement with a semicolon. Is this necessary? We are
using MS Access and SQL Server 2000 and we do not have to put a semicolon after each
SQL statement, but some database programs force you to use it.

The SELECT DISTINCT Statement

The DISTINCT keyword is used to return only distinct (different) values.
The SELECT statement returns information from table columns. But what if we only
want to select distinct elements?
With SQL, all we need to do is to add a DISTINCT keyword to the SELECT statement:
Syntax
SELECT DISTINCT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

Creating Tables
The create table statement is used to create a new table. Here is the format of a simple
create table statement:
create table "tablename"
("column1" "data type",
"column2" "data type",
"column3" "data type");
Format of create table if you were to use optional constraints:
create table "tablename"
("column1" "data type"
[constraint],
"column2" "data type"
[constraint],
"column3" "data type"
[constraint]);
[ ] = optional
Note: You may have as many columns as you'd like, and the constraints are optional.
Example:
create table employee
(first varchar(15),
last varchar(20),
age number(3),
address varchar(30),
city varchar(20),
state varchar(20));
To create a new table, enter the keywords create table followed by the table name,
followed by an open parenthesis, followed by the first column name, followed by the data
type for that column, followed by any optional constraints, and followed by a closing
parenthesis. It is important to make sure you use an open parenthesis before the
beginning table, and a closing parenthesis after the end of the last column definition.
Make sure you seperate each column definition with a comma. All SQL statements
should end with a ";".
The table and column names must start with a letter and can be followed by letters,
numbers, or underscores - not to exceed a total of 30 characters in length. Do not use any
SQL reserved keywords as names for tables or column names (such as "select", "create",
"insert", etc).
Data types specify what the type of data can be for that particular column. If a column
called "Last_Name", is to be used to hold names, then that particular column should have
a "varchar" (variable-length character) data type.
Here are the most common Data types:

Fixed-length character string. Size is specified in parenthesis. Max 255

char(size)
bytes.
varchar(size) Variable-length character string. Max size is specified in parenthesis.
Number value with a max number of column digits specified in
number(size)
parenthesis.
date Date value
Number value with a maximum number of digits of "size" total, with a
number(size,d)
maximum number of "d" digits to the right of the decimal.

What are constraints? When tables are created, it is common for one or more columns to
have constraints associated with them. A constraint is basically a rule associated with a
column that the data entered into that column must follow. For example, a "unique"
constraint specifies that no two records can have the same value in a particular column.
They must all be unique. The other two most popular constraints are "not null" which
specifies that a column can't be left blank, and "primary key". A "primary key" constraint
defines a unique identification of each record (or row) in a table. All of these and more
will be covered in the future Advanced release of this Tutorial. Constraints can be entered
in this SQL interpreter, however, they are not supported in this Intro to SQL tutorial &
interpreter. They will be covered and supported in the future release of the Advanced
SQL tutorial - that is, if "response" is good.
It's now time for you to design and create your own table. You will use this table
throughout the rest of the tutorial. If you decide to change or redesign the table, you can
either drop it and recreate it or you can create a completely different one.

Using the DISTINCT keyword

To select ALL values from the column named "Company" we use a SELECT statement
like this:
SELECT Company FROM Orders
"Orders" table
Company OrderNumber
Sega 3412
W3Schools 2312
Trio 4678
W3Schools 6798
Result
Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio
W3Schools
Note that "W3Schools" is listed twice in the result-set.
To select only DIFFERENT values from the column named "Company" we use a
SELECT DISTINCT statement like this:
SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM Orders
Result:
Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio

The WHERE Clause

To conditionally select data from a table, a WHERE clause can be added to the SELECT
statement.
Syntax
SELECT column FROM table
WHERE column operator value
With the WHERE clause, the following operators can be used:
Operator Description
= Equal
<> Not equal
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal
<= Less than or equal
BETWEEN Between an inclusive range
LIKE Search for a pattern
IN If you know the exact value you want to
return for at least one of the columns
Note: In some versions of SQL the <> operator may be written as !=

Using the WHERE Clause

To select only the persons living in the city "Sandnes", we add a WHERE clause to the
SELECT statement:
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE City='Sandnes'
"Persons" table
LastName FirstName Address City Year
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes 1951
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes 1978
Svendson Stale Kaivn 18 Sandnes 1980
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger 1960
Result
LastName FirstName Address City Year
Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes 1951
Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes 1978
Svendson Stale Kaivn 18 Sandnes 1980

Using Quotes
Note that we have used single quotes around the conditional values in the examples.
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:
This is correct:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tove'
This is wrong:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName=Tove
For numeric values:
This is correct:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year>1965
This is wrong:
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE Year>'1965'

The LIKE Condition

The LIKE condition is used to specify a search for a pattern in a column.
Syntax
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.

Using LIKE
The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that start with an 'O':
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName LIKE 'O%'
The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that end with an 'a':
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName LIKE '%a'
The following SQL statement will return persons with first names that contain the pattern
'la':
SELECT * FROM Persons
WHERE FirstName LIKE '%la%'

The INSERT INTO Statement

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new rows into a table.
Syntax
INSERT INTO table_name
VALUES (value1, value2,....)
You can also specify the columns for which you want to insert data:
INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2,...)
VALUES (value1, value2,....)

Insert a New Row

This "Persons" table:
LastName FirstName Address City
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
And this SQL statement:
INSERT INTO Persons
VALUES ('Hetland', 'Camilla', 'Hagabakka 24', 'Sandnes')
Will give this result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes

Insert Data in Specified Columns

This "Persons" table:
LastName FirstName Address City
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes
And This SQL statement:
INSERT INTO Persons (LastName, Address)
VALUES ('Rasmussen', 'Storgt 67')
Will give this result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger
Hetland Camilla Hagabakka 24 Sandnes
Rasmussen Storgt 67

The Update Statement

The UPDATE statement is used to modify the data in a table.
Syntax
UPDATE table_name
SET column_name = new_value
WHERE column_name = some_value

Person:
LastName FirstName Address City
Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Storgt 67

Update one Column in a Row

We want to add a first name to the person with a last name of "Rasmussen":
UPDATE Person SET FirstName = 'Nina'
WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'
Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Storgt 67

Update several Columns in a Row

We want to change the address and add the name of the city:
UPDATE Person
SET Address = 'Stien 12', City = 'Stavanger'
WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'
Result:
LastName FirstName Address City
Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Stien 12 Stavanger

The DELETE Statement

The DELETE statement is used to delete rows in a table.
Syntax
DELETE FROM table_name
WHERE column_name = some_value

Person:
LastName FirstName Address City
Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger
Rasmussen Nina Stien 12 Stavanger

Delete a Row
"Nina Rasmussen" is going to be deleted:
DELETE FROM Person WHERE LastName = 'Rasmussen'
Result
LastName FirstName Address City
Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Stavanger

Delete All Rows

It is possible to delete all rows in a table without deleting the table. This means that the
table structure, attributes, and indexes will be intact:
DELETE FROM table_name
or
DELETE * FROM table_name