SQL Basic

SQL Introduction Describes what SQL is, and how it can be used. SQL SELECT How to use the SELECT statement to select data from a table in SQL. SQL WHERE How to use the WHERE clause to specify a criterion for the selection. SQL INSERT INTO How to use the INSERT INTO statement to insert new rows into a table. SQL UPDATE How to use the UPDATE statement to update or change rows in a table. SQL DELETE How to use the DELETE statement to delete rows in a table.

SQL Demo
SQL Try It Test your SQL skills!

SQL Advanced
SQL ORDER BY How to use the ORDER BY keywords to return rows in a defined order. SQL AND & OR How to use AND and OR to join two or more conditions in a WHERE clause. SQL IN How to use the IN operator. SQL BETWEEN...AND How to use BETWEEN....AND to find data in a range. SQL Aliases How to use aliases for column names and table names. SQL JOIN How to select information from multiple tables. SQL UNION How to select information from two tables with the UNION and UNION ALL commands. SQL CREATE How to create databases, tables, and indices. SQL DROP How to delete databases, tables, and indices. SQL ALTER TABLE How to use the ALTER TABLE statement to add or drop columns in an existing table. SQL Functions How to use the built-in functions in SQL. SQL GROUP BY How to use the built-in GROUP BY function in SQL. SQL SELECT INTO How to use the SELECT INTO statement to create backup copies of tables.

SQL is a standard computer language for accessing and manipulating databases.

What is SQL?
SQL stands for Structured Query Language SQL allows you to access a database SQL is an ANSI standard computer language SQL can execute queries against a database SQL can retrieve data from a database SQL can insert new records in a database SQL can delete records from a database SQL can update records in a database 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). Note: Most of the SQL database programs also have their own proprietary extensions in addition to the SQL standard!

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 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

Select Some Columns

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

Ola Tove Kari

Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20

Sandnes Sandnes 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

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 Now "W3Schools" is listed only once in the result-set.

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 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 This is wrong: SELECT * FROM Persons For numeric values: This is correct: SELECT * FROM Persons This is wrong: SELECT * FROM Persons

WHERE FirstName='Tove' WHERE FirstName=Tove

WHERE Year>1965 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 Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 And this SQL statement: INSERT INTO Persons VALUES ('Hetland', 'Camilla', 'Hagabakka 24', 'Sandnes') Will give this result: LastName FirstName Address City Stavanger

City

Pettersen Hetland

Kari Camilla

Storgt 20 Hagabakka 24

Stavanger Sandnes

Insert Data in Specified Columns

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

City Stavanger Sandnes

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 Nilsen Rasmussen Fred FirstName Kirkegt 56 Storgt 67 Address Stavanger City

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 Nilsen Fred Kirkegt 56 Rasmussen Nina Storgt 67

City Stavanger

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 Rasmussen

Fred Nina

Kirkegt 56 Stien 12

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

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

City 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

Test your SQL Skills

On this page you can test your SQL skills. We will use the Customers table in the Northwind database: CompanyName ContactName Alfreds Futterkiste Maria Anders Antonio Moreno Taquera Antonio Moreno Berglunds snabbkp Christina Berglund Ernst Handel Roland Mendel North/South Simon Crowther Romero y tomillo Alejandra Camino Simons bistro Jytte Petersen The Big Cheese Liz Nixon Wolski Zajazd Zbyszek Piestrzeniewicz

Address Obere Str. 57 Mataderos 2312 Berguvsvgen 8 Kirchgasse 6 South House 300 Queensbridge Gran Va, 1 Vinbltet 34 89 Jefferson Way Suite 2 ul. Filtrowa 68

City Berlin Mxico D.F. Lule Graz London Madrid Kbenhavn Portland Warszawa

Try it Yourself
To see how SQL works, you can copy the SQL statements below and paste them into the textarea, or you can make your own SQL statements. SELECT * FROM customers SELECT CompanyName, ContactName FROM customers SELECT * FROM customers WHERE companyname LIKE 'a%' SELECT CompanyName, ContactName FROM customers WHERE CompanyName > 'g' AND ContactName > 'g'
SELECT * FROM customers

See the Result

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result.

Sort the Rows

The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the rows. Orders: Company OrderNumber Sega 3412 ABC Shop 5678 W3Schools 2312 W3Schools 6798

Example
To display the companies in alphabetical order: SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company Result: Company OrderNumber ABC Shop 5678 Sega 3412 W3Schools 6798 W3Schools 2312

Example
To display the companies in alphabetical order AND the ordernumbers in numerical order: SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company, OrderNumber Result: Company OrderNumber ABC Shop 5678 Sega 3412 W3Schools 2312 W3Schools 6798

Example
To display the companies in reverse alphabetical order: SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company DESC Result: Company OrderNumber W3Schools 6798 W3Schools 2312 Sega 3412 ABC Shop 5678

Example
To display the companies in reverse alphabetical order AND the ordernumbers in numerical order: SELECT Company, OrderNumber FROM Orders ORDER BY Company DESC, OrderNumber ASC Result: Company OrderNumber W3Schools 2312 W3Schools 6798 Sega 3412 ABC Shop 5678

AND & OR
AND and OR join two or more conditions in a WHERE clause. The AND operator displays a row if ALL conditions listed are true. The OR operator displays a row if ANY of the conditions listed are true.

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName Hansen Svendson Svendson Ola Tove Stephen FirstName Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Kaivn 18 City Sandnes Sandnes Sandnes

Example
Use AND to display each person with the first name equal to "Tove", and the last name equal to "Svendson":

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Tove' AND LastName='Svendson' Result: LastName Svendson Tove

FirstName Borgvn 23

Address Sandnes

City

Example
Use OR to display each person with the first name equal to "Tove", or the last name equal to "Svendson": SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE firstname='Tove' OR lastname='Svendson' Result: LastName FirstName Address City Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18 Sandnes

Example
You can also combine AND and OR (use parentheses to form complex expressions): SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE (FirstName='Tove' OR FirstName='Stephen') AND LastName='Svendson' Result: LastName FirstName Address Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Svendson Stephen Kaivn 18

City Sandnes Sandnes

IN
The IN operator may be used if you know the exact value you want to return for at least one of the columns. SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name IN (value1,value2,..)

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName Hansen Nordmann Pettersen Svendson FirstName Ola Anna Kari Tove Address Timoteivn 10 Neset 18 Storgt 20 Borgvn 23 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger Sandnes

Example 1
To display the persons with LastName equal to "Hansen" or "Pettersen", use the following SQL: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName IN ('Hansen','Pettersen') Result: LastName FirstName Address Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes

City

Pettersen

Kari

Storgt 20

Stavanger

BETWEEN ... AND

The BETWEEN ... AND operator selects a range of data between two values. These values can be numbers, text, or dates. SELECT column_name FROM table_name WHERE column_name BETWEEN value1 AND value2

Original Table (used in the examples)

LastName Hansen Nordmann Pettersen Svendson Ola Anna Kari Tove FirstName Address Timoteivn 10 Neset 18 Storgt 20 Borgvn 23 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger Sandnes

Example 1
To display the persons alphabetically between (and including) "Hansen" and exclusive "Pettersen", use the following SQL: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen' Result: LastName FirstName Address City Hansen Ola Timoteivn 10 Sandnes Nordmann Anna Neset 18 Sandnes IMPORTANT! The BETWEEN...AND operator is treated differently in different databases. With some databases a person with the LastName of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will not be listed (BETWEEN..AND only selects fields that are between and excluding the test values). With some databases a person with the last name of "Hansen" or "Pettersen" will be listed (BETWEEN..AND selects fields that are between and including the test values). With other databases a person with the last name of "Hansen" will be listed, but "Pettersen" will not be listed (BETWEEN..AND selects fields between the test values, including the first test value and excluding the last test value). Therefore: Check how your database treats the BETWEEN....AND operator!

Example 2
To display the persons outside the range used in the previous example, use the NOT operator: SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName NOT BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen' Result: LastName FirstName Address City Pettersen Kari Storgt 20 Stavanger Svendson Tove Borgvn 23 Sandnes With SQL, aliases can be used for column names and table names.

Column Name Alias

The syntax is:

SELECT column AS column_alias FROM table

Table Name Alias

The syntax is: SELECT column FROM table AS table_alias

Example: Using a Column Alias

This table (Persons): LastName FirstName Hansen Ola Svendson Tove Pettersen Kari And this SQL: SELECT LastName AS Family, FirstName FROM Persons Returns this result: Family Name Hansen Ola Svendson Tove Pettersen Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20 AS Name City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger

Example: Using a Table Alias

This table (Persons): LastName FirstName Hansen Ola Svendson Tove Pettersen Kari And this SQL: SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM Persons AS Employees Returns this result: Table Employees: LastName FirstName Hansen Ola Svendson Tove Pettersen Kari Address Timoteivn 10 Borgvn 23 Storgt 20 City Sandnes Sandnes Stavanger

Joins and Keys

Sometimes we have to select data from two or more tables to make our result complete. We have to perform a join. Tables in a database can be related to each other with keys. A primary key is a column with a unique value for each row. The purpose is to bind data together, across tables, without repeating all of the data in every table. In the "Employees" table below, the "Employee_ID" column is the primary key, meaning that no two rows can have the same Employee_ID. The Employee_ID distinguishes two persons even if they have the same name. When you look at the example tables below, notice that: The "Employee_ID" column is the primary key of the "Employees" table The "Prod_ID" column is the primary key of the "Orders" table

The "Employee_ID" column in the "Orders" table is used to refer to the persons in the "Employees" table without using their names

Employees: Employee_ID 01 Hansen, Ola 02 Svendson, Tove 03 Svendson, Stephen 04 Pettersen, Kari Orders: Prod_ID Product 234 Printer 657 Table 865 Chair

Name

Employee_ID 01 03 03

Referring to Two Tables

We can select data from two tables by referring to two tables, like this:

Example
Who has ordered a product, and what did they order? SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees, Orders WHERE Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID Result Name Product Hansen, Ola Printer Svendson, Stephen Table Svendson, Stephen Chair

Example
Who ordered a printer? SELECT Employees.Name FROM Employees, Orders WHERE Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID AND Orders.Product='Printer' Result Name Hansen, Ola

Using Joins
OR we can select data from two tables with the JOIN keyword, like this:

Example INNER JOIN

Syntax SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table INNER JOIN second_table ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield Who has ordered a product, and what did they order?

SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID The INNER JOIN returns all rows from both tables where there is a match. If there are rows in Employees that do not have matches in Orders, those rows will not be listed. Result Name Product Hansen, Ola Printer Svendson, Stephen Table Svendson, Stephen Chair

Example LEFT JOIN

Syntax SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table LEFT JOIN second_table ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield List all employees, and their orders - if any. SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees LEFT JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID The LEFT JOIN returns all the rows from the first table (Employees), even if there are no matches in the second table (Orders). If there are rows in Employees that do not have matches in Orders, those rows also will be listed. Result Name Product Hansen, Ola Printer Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Table Svendson, Stephen Chair Pettersen, Kari

Example RIGHT JOIN

Syntax SELECT field1, field2, field3 FROM first_table RIGHT JOIN second_table ON first_table.keyfield = second_table.foreign_keyfield List all orders, and who has ordered - if any. SELECT Employees.Name, Orders.Product FROM Employees RIGHT JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID The RIGHT JOIN returns all the rows from the second table (Orders), even if there are no matches in the first table (Employees). If there had been any rows in Orders that did not have matches in Employees, those rows also would have been listed. Result Name Product Hansen, Ola Printer Svendson, Stephen Table

Svendson, Stephen

Chair

Example
Who ordered a printer? SELECT Employees.Name FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID WHERE Orders.Product = 'Printer' Result Name Hansen, Ola

UNION
The UNION command is used to select related information from two tables, much like the JOIN command. However, when using the UNION command all selected columns need to be of the same data type. Note: With UNION, only distinct values are selected. SQL Statement 1 UNION SQL Statement 2 Employees_Norway: Employee_ID E_Name 01 Hansen, Ola 02 Svendson, Tove 03 Svendson, Stephen 04 Pettersen, Kari Employees_USA: Employee_ID E_Name 01 Turner, Sally 02 Kent, Clark 03 Svendson, Stephen 04 Scott, Stephen

Using the UNION Command Example

List all different employee names in Norway and USA: SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway UNION SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA Result Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Pettersen, Kari Turner, Sally

Kent, Clark Scott, Stephen Note: This command cannot be used to list all employees in Norway and USA. In the example above we have two employees with equal names, and only one of them is listed. The UNION command only selects distinct values.

UNION ALL
The UNION ALL command is equal to the UNION command, except that UNION ALL selects all values. SQL Statement 1 UNION ALL SQL Statement 2

Using the UNION ALL Command Example

List all employees in Norway and USA: SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_Norway UNION ALL SELECT E_Name FROM Employees_USA Result Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Svendson, Stephen Pettersen, Kari Turner, Sally Kent, Clark Svendson, Stephen Scott, Stephen

Create a Database
To create a database: CREATE DATABASE database_name

Create a Table
To create a table in a database: CREATE TABLE table_name ( column_name1 data_type, column_name2 data_type, ....... )

Example
This example demonstrates how you can create a table named "Person", with four columns. The column names will be "LastName", "FirstName", "Address", and "Age": CREATE TABLE Person (

LastName varchar, FirstName varchar, Address varchar, Age int ) This example demonstrates how you can specify a maximum length for some columns: CREATE TABLE Person ( LastName varchar(30), FirstName varchar, Address varchar, Age int(3) ) The data type specifies what type of data the column can hold. The table below contains the most common data types in SQL: Data Type Description integer(size) Hold integers only. The maximum number of digits are specified in parenthesis. int(size) smallint(size) tinyint(size) decimal(size,d) Hold numbers with fractions. The maximum number of digits are specified in numeric(size,d) "size". The maximum number of digits to the right of the decimal is specified in "d". char(size) Holds a fixed length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special characters). The fixed size is specified in parenthesis. varchar(size) Holds a variable length string (can contain letters, numbers, and special characters). The maximum size is specified in parenthesis. date(yyyymmdd) Holds a date

Create Index
Indices are created in an existing table to locate rows more quickly and efficiently. It is possible to create an index on one or more columns of a table, and each index is given a name. The users cannot see the indexes, they are just used to speed up queries. Note: Updating a table containing indexes takes more time than updating a table without, this is because the indexes also need an update. So, it is a good idea to create indexes only on columns that are often used for a search. A Unique Index Creates a unique index on a table. A unique index means that two rows cannot have the same index value. CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index_name ON table_name (column_name) The "column_name" specifies the column you want indexed. A Simple Index Creates a simple index on a table. When the UNIQUE keyword is omitted, duplicate values are allowed. CREATE INDEX index_name ON table_name (column_name) The "column_name" specifies the column you want indexed.

Example
This example creates a simple index, named "PersonIndex", on the LastName field of the Person table: CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName)

If you want to index the values in a column in descending order, you can add the reserved word DESC after the column name: CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName DESC) If you want to index more than one column you can list the column names within the parentheses, separated by commas: CREATE INDEX PersonIndex ON Person (LastName, FirstName)

Drop Index
You can delete an existing index in a table with the DROP statement. DROP INDEX table_name.index_name

Delete a Table or Database

To delete a table (the table structure, attributes, and indexes will also be deleted): DROP TABLE table_name To delete a database: DROP DATABASE database_name

Truncate a Table
What if we only want to get rid of the data inside a table, and not the table itself? Use the TRUNCATE TABLE command (deletes only the data inside the table): TRUNCATE TABLE table_name

ALTER TABLE
The ALTER TABLE statement is used to add or drop columns in an existing table. ALTER TABLE table_name ADD column_name datatype ALTER TABLE table_name DROP COLUMN column_name Note: Some database systems don't allow the dropping of a column in a database table (DROP COLUMN column_name). Person: LastName Pettersen Kari FirstName Storgt 20 Address

Example
To add a column named "City" in the "Person" table: ALTER TABLE Person ADD City varchar(30) Result: LastName FirstName Pettersen Kari

Address Storgt 20

City

Example
To drop the "Address" column in the "Person" table: ALTER TABLE Person DROP COLUMN Address Result: LastName FirstName Pettersen Kari

City

SQL has a lot of built-in functions for counting and calculations.

Function Syntax
The syntax for built-in SQL functions is: SELECT function(column) FROM table

Types of Functions
There are several basic types and categories of functions in SQL. The basic types of functions are: Aggregate Functions Scalar functions

Aggregate functions
Aggregate functions operate against a collection of values, but return a single value. Note: If used among many other expressions in the item list of a SELECT statement, the SELECT must have a GROUP BY clause!!

"Persons" table (used in most examples)

Name Hansen, Ola Svendson, Tove Pettersen, Kari 34 45 19 Age

Aggregate functions in MS Access

Function AVG(column) COUNT(column) COUNT(*) FIRST(column) LAST(column) MAX(column) MIN(column) STDEV(column) STDEVP(column) SUM(column) VAR(column) VARP(column) Description Returns the average value of a column Returns the number of rows (without a NULL value) of a column Returns the number of selected rows Returns the value of the first record in the specified field Returns the value of the last record in the specified field Returns the highest value of a column Returns the lowest value of a column

Returns the total sum of a column

Aggregate functions in SQL Server

Function AVG(column) BINARY_CHECKSUM CHECKSUM CHECKSUM_AGG COUNT(column) COUNT(*) COUNT(DISTINCT column) FIRST(column) LAST(column) MAX(column) MIN(column) STDEV(column) STDEVP(column) SUM(column) VAR(column) VARP(column) Description Returns the average value of a column

Returns the number of rows (without a NULL value) of a column Returns the number of selected rows Returns the number of distinct results Returns the value of the first record in the specified field Returns the value of the last record in the specified field Returns the highest value of a column Returns the lowest value of a column

Returns the total sum of a column

Scalar functions
Scalar functions operate against a single value, and return a single value based on the input value.

Useful Scalar Functions in MS Access

Function UCASE(c) LCASE(c) MID(c,start[,end]) LEN(c) INSTR(c) LEFT(c,number_of_char) RIGHT(c,number_of_char) ROUND(c,decimals) MOD(x,y) NOW() FORMAT(c,format) DATEDIFF(d,date1,date2) Description Converts a field to upper case Converts a field to lower case Extract characters from a text field Returns the length of a text field Returns the numeric position of a named character within a text field Return the left part of a text field requested Return the right part of a text field requested Rounds a numeric field to the number of decimals specified Returns the remainder of a division operation Returns the current system date Changes the way a field is displayed Used to perform date calculations

Aggregate functions (like SUM) often need an added GROUP BY functionality.

GROUP BY...
GROUP BY... was added to SQL because aggregate functions (like SUM) return the aggregate of all column values every time they are called, and without the GROUP BY function it was impossible to find the sum for each individual group of column values. The syntax for the GROUP BY function is: SELECT column,SUM(column) FROM table GROUP BY column

GROUP BY Example
This "Sales" Table: Company Amount W3Schools 5500 IBM 4500 W3Schools 7100 And This SQL: SELECT Company, SUM(Amount) FROM Sales Returns this result: Company SUM(Amount) W3Schools 17100 IBM 17100 W3Schools 17100 The above code is invalid because the column returned is not part of an aggregate. A GROUP BY clause will solve this problem: SELECT Company,SUM(Amount) FROM Sales GROUP BY Company Returns this result: Company SUM(Amount) W3Schools 12600 IBM 4500

HAVING...
HAVING... was added to SQL because the WHERE keyword could not be used against aggregate functions (like SUM), and without HAVING... it would be impossible to test for result conditions. The syntax for the HAVING function is: SELECT column,SUM(column) FROM table GROUP BY column HAVING SUM(column) condition value This "Sales" Table: Company Amount W3Schools 5500 IBM 4500 W3Schools 7100 This SQL: SELECT Company,SUM(Amount) FROM Sales GROUP BY Company HAVING SUM(Amount)>10000 Returns this result Company SUM(Amount) W3Schools 12600

The SELECT INTO Statement

The SELECT INTO statement is most often used to create backup copies of tables or for archiving records.

Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) INTO newtable [IN externaldatabase]

FROM source

Make a Backup Copy

The following example makes a backup copy of the "Persons" table: SELECT * INTO Persons_backup FROM Persons The IN clause can be used to copy tables into another database: SELECT Persons.* INTO Persons IN 'Backup.mdb' FROM Persons If you only want to copy a few fields, you can do so by listing them after the SELECT statement: SELECT LastName,FirstName INTO Persons_backup FROM Persons You can also add a where clause. The following example creates a "Persons_backup" table with two columns (FirstName and LastName) by extracting the persons who lives in "Sandnes" from the "Persons" table: SELECT LastName,Firstname INTO Persons_sandnes FROM Persons WHERE City='Sandnes' Selecting data from more than one table is also possible. The following example creates a new table "Empl_Ord_backup" that contains data from the two tables Employees and Orders: SELECT Employees.Name,Orders.Product INTO Empl_Ord_backup FROM Employees INNER JOIN Orders ON Employees.Employee_ID=Orders.Employee_ID