SQL

What is SQL?

SQL (pronounced "ess-que-el") stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is used to communicate with a database. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute), it is the standard language for relational database management systems. SQL statements are used to perform tasks such as update data on a database, or retrieve data from a database. Some common relational database management systems that use SQL are: Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Ingres, etc. Although most database systems use SQL, most of them also have their own additional proprietary extensions that are usually only used on their system. However, the standard SQL commands such as "Select", "Insert", "Update", "Delete", "Create", and "Drop" can be used to accomplish almost everything that one needs to do with a database. This tutorial will provide you with the instruction on the basics of each of these commands as well as allow you to put them to practice using the SQL Interpreter.

Table Basics

A relational database system contains one or more objects called tables. The data or information for the database are stored in these tables. Tables are uniquely identified by their names and are comprised of columns and rows. Columns contain the column name, data type, and any other attributes for the column. Rows contain the records or data for the columns. Here is a sample table called "weather".
city, state, high, and low are the columns. The rows contain the data for this table:

Weather
city	state	high	low
Phoenix	Arizona	105	90
Tucson	Arizona	101	92
Flagstaff	Arizona	88	69
San Diego	California	77	60
Albuquerque	New Mexico	80	72

Selecting Data

The select statement is used to query the database and retrieve selected data that match the criteria that you specify. Here is the format of a simple select statement:

select "column1"
  [,"column2",etc] 
  from "tablename"
  [where "condition"];
  [] = optional

The column names that follow the select keyword determine which columns will be returned in the results. You can select as many column names that you'd like, or you can use a "*" to select all columns.
The table name that follows the keyword from specifies the table that will be queried to retrieve the desired results.
The where clause (optional) specifies which data values or rows will be returned or displayed, based on the criteria described after the keyword where.
Conditional selections used in the where clause:

=	Equal
>	Greater than
<	Less than
>=	Greater than or equal
<=	Less than or equal
<>	Not equal to
LIKE	*See note below

The LIKE pattern matching operator can also be used in the conditional selection of the where clause. Like is a very powerful operator that allows you to select only rows that are "like" what you specify. The percent sign "%" can be used as a wild card to match any possible character that might appear before or after the characters specified. For example:

select first, last, city
   from empinfo
   where first LIKE 'Er%';

This SQL statement will match any first names that start with 'Er'. Strings must be in single quotes.
Or you can specify,

select first, last
   from empinfo
   where last LIKE '%s';

This statement will match any last names that end in a 's'.

select * from empinfo
   where first = 'Eric';

This will only select rows where the first name equals 'Eric' exactly.

Sample Table: empinfo
first	last	id	age	city	state
John	Jones	99980	45	Payson	Arizona
Mary	Jones	99982	25	Payson	Arizona
Eric	Edwards	88232	32	San Diego	California
Mary Ann	Edwards	88233	32	Phoenix	Arizona
Ginger	Howell	98002	42	Cottonwood	Arizona
Sebastian	Smith	92001	23	Gila Bend	Arizona
Gus	Gray	22322	35	Bagdad	Arizona
Mary Ann	May	32326	52	Tucson	Arizona
Erica	Williams	32327	60	Show Low	Arizona
Leroy	Brown	32380	22	Pinetop	Arizona
Elroy	Cleaver	32382	22	Globe	Arizona

Enter the following sample select statements in the SQL Interpreter Form at the bottom of this page. Before you press "submit", write down your expected results. Press "submit", and compare the results.

select first, last, city from empinfo; 

select last, city, age from empinfo
       where age > 30; 

select first, last, city, state from empinfo
       where first LIKE 'J%'; 

select * from empinfo; 

select first, last, from empinfo
       where last LIKE '%s'; 

select first, last, age from empinfo
       where last LIKE '%illia%'; 

select * from empinfo where first = 'Eric';

Select statement exercises

Enter select statements to:

1. Display the first name and age for everyone that's in the table.
2. Display the first name, last name, and city for everyone that's not from Payson.
3. Display all columns for everyone that is over 40 years old.
4. Display the first and last names for everyone whose last name ends in an "ay".
5. Display all columns for everyone whose first name equals "Mary".
6. Display all columns for everyone whose first name contains "Mary".

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:

char(size)	Fixed-length character string. Size is specified in parenthesis. Max 255 bytes.
varchar(size)	Variable-length character string. Max size is specified in parenthesis.
number(size)	Number value with a max number of column digits specified in parenthesis.
date	Date value
number(size,d)	Number value with a maximum number of digits of "size" total, with a 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. The SQL statement drop will be covered later.

Create Table Exercise

You have just started a new company. It is time to hire some employees. You will need to create a table that will contain the following information about your new employees: firstname, lastname, title, age, and salary. After you create the table, you should receive a small form on the screen with the appropriate column names. If you are missing any columns, you need to double check your SQL statement and recreate the table. Once it's created successfully, go to the "Insert" lesson.
IMPORTANT: When selecting a table name, it is important to select a unique name that no one else will use or guess. Your table names should have an underscore followed by your initials and the digits of your birth day and month. For example, Tom Smith, who was born on November 2nd, would name his table myemployees_ts0211 Use this convention for all of the tables you create. Your tables will remain on a shared database until you drop them, or they will be cleaned up if they aren't accessed in 4-5 days. If "support" is good, I hope to eventually extend this to at least one week. When you are finished with your table, it is important to drop your table (covered in last lesson).

Inserting into a Table

The insert statement is used to insert or add a row of data into the table.
To insert records into a table, enter the key words insert into followed by the table name, followed by an open parenthesis, followed by a list of column names separated by commas, followed by a closing parenthesis, followed by the keyword values, followed by the list of values enclosed in parenthesis. The values that you enter will be held in the rows and they will match up with the column names that you specify. Strings should be enclosed in single quotes, and numbers should not.

insert into "tablename"
 (first_column,...last_column)
  values (first_value,...last_value);

In the example below, the column name first will match up with the value 'Luke', and the column name state will match up with the value 'Georgia'.
Example:

insert into employee
  (first, last, age, address, city, state)
  values ('Luke', 'Duke', 45, '2130 Boars Nest', 
          'Hazard Co', 'Georgia');

Note: All strings should be enclosed between single quotes: 'string'

Insert statement exercises

It is time to insert data into your new employee table.
Your first three employees are the following:
Jonie Weber, Secretary, 28, 19500.00
Potsy Weber, Programmer, 32, 45300.00
Dirk Smith, Programmer II, 45, 75020.00
Enter these employees into your table first, and then insert at least 5 more of your own list of employees in the table.
After they're inserted into the table, enter select statements to:

1. Select all columns for everyone in your employee table.
2. Select all columns for everyone with a salary over 30000.
3. Select first and last names for everyone that's under 30 years old.
4. Select first name, last name, and salary for anyone with "Programmer" in their title.
5. Select all columns for everyone whose last name contains "ebe".
6. Select the first name for everyone whose first name equals "Potsy".
7. Select all columns for everyone over 80 years old.
8. Select all columns for everyone whose last name ends in "ith".

Create at least 5 of your own select statements based on specific information that you'd like to retrieve.

Updating Records

The update statement is used to update or change records that match a specified criteria. This is accomplished by carefully constructing a where clause.

update "tablename"
set "columnname" = 
    "newvalue"
 [,"nextcolumn" = 
   "newvalue2"...]
where "columnname" 
  OPERATOR "value" 
 [and|or "column" 
  OPERATOR "value"];

 [] = optional

[The above example was line wrapped for better viewing on this Web page.]
Examples:

update phone_book
  set area_code = 623
  where prefix = 979;

update phone_book
  set last_name = 'Smith', prefix=555, suffix=9292
  where last_name = 'Jones';

update employee
  set age = age+1
  where first_name='Mary' and last_name='Williams';

Update statement exercises

After each update, issue a select statement to verify your changes.

1. Jonie Weber just got married to Bob Williams. She has requested that her last name be updated to Weber-Williams.
2. Dirk Smith's birthday is today, add 1 to his age.
3. All secretaries are now called "Administrative Assistant". Update all titles accordingly.
4. Everyone that's making under 30000 are to receive a 3500 a year raise.
5. Everyone that's making over 33500 are to receive a 4500 a year raise.
6. All "Programmer II" titles are now promoted to "Programmer III".
7. All "Programmer" titles are now promoted to "Programmer II".

Create at least 5 of your own update statements and submit them.

Deleting Records

The delete statement is used to delete records or rows from the table.

delete from "tablename"

where "columnname" 
  OPERATOR "value" 
[and|or "column" 
  OPERATOR "value"];

[ ] = optional

[The above example was line wrapped for better viewing on this Web page.]
Examples:

delete from employee;

Note: if you leave off the where clause, all records will be deleted!

delete from employee
  where lastname = 'May';

delete from employee
  where firstname = 'Mike' or firstname = 'Eric';

To delete an entire record/row from a table, enter "delete from" followed by the table name, followed by the where clause which contains the conditions to delete. If you leave off the where clause, all records will be deleted.

Delete statement exercises

(Use the select statement to verify your deletes):

1. Jonie Weber-Williams just quit, remove her record from the table.
2. It's time for budget cuts. Remove all employees who are making over 70000 dollars.

Create at least two of your own delete statements, and then issue a command to delete all records from the table.

Drop a Table

The drop table command is used to delete a table and all rows in the table.
To delete an entire table including all of its rows, issue the drop table command followed by the tablename. drop table is different from deleting all of the records in the table. Deleting all of the records in the table leaves the table including column and constraint information. Dropping the table removes the table definition as well as all of its rows.

drop table "tablename"

Example:

drop table myemployees_ts0211;

Drop Table exercises

1. Drop your employee table.