SQL Sub Queries
SQL Sub Queries
A Subquery or Inner query or Nested query is a query within another SQL query and embedded
within the WHERE clause.
A subquery is used to return data that will be used in the main query as a condition to further
restrict the data to be retrieved.
Subqueries can be used with the SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements along with the
operators like =, <, >, >=, <=, IN, BETWEEN etc.
A subquery can have only one column in the SELECT clause, unless multiple columns are in
the main query for the subquery to compare its selected columns.
An ORDER BY cannot be used in a subquery, although the main query can use an ORDER BY.
The GROUP BY can be used to perform the same function as the ORDER BY in a subquery.
Subqueries that return more than one row can only be used with multiple value operators,
such as the IN operator.
The SELECT list cannot include any references to values that evaluate to a BLOB, ARRAY,
CLOB, or NCLOB.
The BETWEEN operator cannot be used with a subquery; however, the BETWEEN operator
can be used within the subquery.
Example:
Consider the CUSTOMERS table having the following records:
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME | AGE | ADDRESS | SALARY |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh | 35 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
| 2 | Khilan | 25 | Delhi | 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota | 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai | 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik | 27 | Bhopal | 8500.00 |
| 6 | Komal | 22 | MP | 4500.00 |
| 7 | Muffy | 24 | Indore | 10000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
SQL> SELECT *
FROM CUSTOMERS
WHERE ID IN (SELECT ID
FROM CUSTOMERS
WHERE SALARY > 4500) ;
+----+----------+-----+---------+----------+
| ID | NAME | AGE | ADDRESS | SALARY |
+----+----------+-----+---------+----------+
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai | 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik | 27 | Bhopal | 8500.00 |
| 7 | Muffy | 24 | Indore | 10000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+---------+----------+
Example:
Consider a table CUSTOMERS_BKP with similar structure as CUSTOMERS table. Now to copy
complete CUSTOMERS table into CUSTOMERS_BKP, following is the syntax:
UPDATE table
SET column_name = new_value
[ WHERE OPERATOR [ VALUE ]
(SELECT COLUMN_NAME
FROM TABLE_NAME)
[ WHERE) ]
Example:
Assuming, we have CUSTOMERS_BKP table available which is backup of CUSTOMERS table.
Following example updates SALARY by 0.25 times in CUSTOMERS table for all the customers
whose AGE is greater than or equal to 27:
This would impact two rows and finally CUSTOMERS table would have the following records:
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME | AGE | ADDRESS | SALARY |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh | 35 | Ahmedabad | 125.00 |
| 2 | Khilan | 25 | Delhi | 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota | 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai | 6500.00 |
| 5 | Hardik | 27 | Bhopal | 2125.00 |
| 6 | Komal | 22 | MP | 4500.00 |
| 7 | Muffy | 24 | Indore | 10000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
Example:
Assuming, we have CUSTOMERS_BKP table available which is backup of CUSTOMERS table.
Following example deletes records from CUSTOMERS table for all the customers whose AGE is
greater than or equal to 27:
This would impact two rows and finally CUSTOMERS table would have the following records:
+----+----------+-----+---------+----------+
| ID | NAME | AGE | ADDRESS | SALARY |
+----+----------+-----+---------+----------+
| 2 | Khilan | 25 | Delhi | 1500.00 |
| 3 | kaushik | 23 | Kota | 2000.00 |
| 4 | Chaitali | 25 | Mumbai | 6500.00 |
| 6 | Komal | 22 | MP | 4500.00 |
| 7 | Muffy | 24 | Indore | 10000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+---------+----------+