What is RDBMS?

RDBMS stands for Relational Database Management System. RDBMS is the basis for SQL, and
for all modern database systems like MS SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle, MySQL, and Microsoft
Access.

A Relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system

(DBMS) that is based on the relational model as introduced by E. F. Codd.

What is table ?
The data in RDBMS is stored in database objects called tables. The table is a collection of
related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.

Remember, a table is the most common and simplest form of data storage in a relational
database. Following is the example of a CUSTOMERS table:

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| ID | NAME | AGE | ADDRESS | SALARY |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh | 32 | 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 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

What is field?
Every table is broken up into smaller entities called fields. The fields in the CUSTOMERS table
consist of ID, NAME, AGE, ADDRESS and SALARY.

A field is a column in a table that is designed to maintain specific information about every record
in the table.

What is record, or row?

A record, also called a row of data, is each individual entry that exists in a table. For example
there are 7 records in the above CUSTOMERS table. Following is a single row of data or record
in the CUSTOMERS table:
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+
| 1 | Ramesh | 32 | Ahmedabad | 2000.00 |
+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

A record is a horizontal entity in a table.

What is column?
A column is a vertical entity in a table that contains all information associated with a specific
field in a table.

For example, a column in the CUSTOMERS table is ADDRESS which represents location
description and would consist of the following:

+-----------+
| ADDRESS |
+-----------+
| Ahmedabad |
| Delhi |
| Kota |
| Mumbai |
| Bhopal |
| MP |
| Indore |
+----+------+

What is NULL value?

A NULL value in a table is a value in a field that appears to be blank which means A field with a
NULL value is a field with no value.

It is very important to understand that a NULL value is different than a zero value or a field that
contains spaces. A field with a NULL value is one that has been left blank during record
creation.

SQL Constraints:
Constraints are the rules enforced on data columns on table. These are used to limit the type of
data that can go into a table. This ensures the accuracy and reliability of the data in the database.

Contraints could be column level or table level. Column level constraints are applied only to one
column where as table level constraints are applied to the whole table.

Following are commonly used constraints available in SQL:

  NOT NULL Constraint: Ensures that a column cannot have NULL value.
 DEFAULT Constraint : Provides a default value for a column when none is specified.
 UNIQUE Constraint: Ensures that all values in a column are different.
 PRIMARY Key: Uniquely identified each rows/records in a database table.
 FOREIGN Key: Uniquely identified a rows/records in any another database table.
 CHECK Constraint: The CHECK constraint ensures that all values in a column satisfy
certain conditions.
 INDEX: Use to create and retrieve data from the database very quickly.

Data Integrity:
The following categories of the data integrity exist with each RDBMS:

 Entity Integrity : There are no duplicate rows in a table.

 Domain Integrity : Enforces valid entries for a given column by restricting the type, the
format, or the range of values.
 Referential integrity : Rows cannot be deleted, which are used by other records.
 User-Defined Integrity : Enforces some specific business rules that do not fall into
entity, domain, or referential integrity.

Database Normalization
Database normalization is the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are two
reasons of the normalization process:

1. Eliminating redundant data, for example, storing the same data in more than one tables.
2. Ensuring data dependencies make sense.

Both of these are worthy goals as they reduce the amount of space a database consumes and
ensure that data is logically stored. Normalization consists of a series of guidelines that help
guide you in creating a good database structure.

Normalization guidelines are divided into normal forms; think of form as the format or the way a
database structure is laid out. The aim of normal forms is to organize the database structure so
that it complies with the rules of first normal form, then second normal form, and finally third
normal form.

SQL data type is an attribute that specifies type of data of any object. Each column, variable and
expression has related data type in SQL.
You would use these data types while creating your tables. You would choose a particular data
type for a table column based on your requirement.

SQL Server offers six categories of data types for your use:

Exact Numeric Data Types:

DATA TYPE FROM TO

bigint -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 9,223,372,036,854,775,807

int -2,147,483,648 2,147,483,647

smallint -32,768 32,767

tinyint 0 255

bit 0 1

decimal -10^38 +1 10^38 .1

numeric -10^38 +1 10^38 .1

money -922,337,203,685,477.5808 +922,337,203,685,477.5807

smallmoney -214,748.3648 +214,748.3647

Approximate Numeric Data Types:

DATA TYPE FROM TO

float -1.79E + 308 1.79E + 308

real -3.40E + 38 3.40E + 38

Date and Time Data Types:

DATA TYPE FROM TO

datetime Jan 1, 1753 Dec 31, 9999

smalldatetime Jan 1, 1900 Jun 6, 2079

date Stores a date like June 30, 1991

time Stores a time of day like 12:30 P.M.

Note: Here datetime has 3.33 milliseconds accuracy where as smalldatetime has 1 minute
accuracy.

Character Strings Data Types:

DATA TYPE FROM TO

Maximum length of 8,000 characters.

char char
( Fixed length non-Unicode characters)

Maximum of 8,000 characters.

varchar varchar
(Variable-length non-Unicode data).

Maximum length of 231characters,

varchar(max) varchar(max) Variable-length non-Unicode data (SQL
Server 2005 only).

Variable-length non-Unicode data with

text text a maximum length of 2,147,483,647
characters.

Unicode Character Strings Data Types:

DATA TYPE Description

nchar Maximum length of 4,000 characters.( Fixed length Unicode)

nvarchar Maximum length of 4,000 characters.(Variable length Unicode)

Maximum length of 231characters (SQL Server 2005 only).( Variable

nvarchar(max)
length Unicode)

ntext Maximum length of 1,073,741,823 characters. ( Variable length

 Unicode )

Binary Data Types:

DATA TYPE Description

binary Maximum length of 8,000 bytes(Fixed-length binary data )

varbinary Maximum length of 8,000 bytes.(Variable length binary data)

Maximum length of 231 bytes (SQL Server 2005 only). ( Variable length
varbinary(max)
Binary data)

image Maximum length of 2,147,483,647 bytes. ( Variable length Binary Data)

Misc Data Types:

DATA TYPE Description

Stores values of various SQL Server-supported data types, except text,

sql_variant
ntext, and timestamp.

Stores a database-wide unique number that gets updated every time a

timestamp
row gets updated

uniqueidentifier Stores a globally unique identifier (GUID)

Stores XML data. You can store xml instances in a column or a variable
xml
(SQL Server 2005 only).

cursor Reference to a cursor object

table Stores a result set for later processing

What is an Operator in SQL?

An operator is a reserved word or a character used primarily in an SQL statement's WHERE

clause to perform operation(s), such as comparisons and arithmetic operations.

Operators are used to specify conditions in an SQL statement and to serve as conjunctions for
multiple conditions in a statement.

 Arithmetic operators

 Comparison operators

 Logical operators

 Operators used to negate conditions

SQL Arithmetic Operators:

Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20 then:

Show Examples

Operator Description Example

Addition - Adds values on either side of the

+ a + b will give 30
operator

Subtraction - Subtracts right hand operand

- a - b will give -10
from left hand operand

Multiplication - Multiplies values on either

* a * b will give 200
side of the operator

Division - Divides left hand operand by right

/ b / a will give 2
hand operand

Modulus - Divides left hand operand by right

% b % a will give 0
hand operand and returns remainder

SQL Comparison Operators:

Assume variable a holds 10 and variable b holds 20 then:

Show Examples

Operator Description Example

Checks if the value of two operands are

= equal or not, if yes then condition becomes (a = b) is not true.
true.

Checks if the value of two operands are

!= equal or not, if values are not equal then (a != b) is true.
condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of two operands are

<> equal or not, if values are not equal then (a <> b) is true.
condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is greater

> than the value of right operand, if yes then (a > b) is not true.
condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is less

< than the value of right operand, if yes then (a < b) is true.
condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is greater

>= than or equal to the value of right operand, (a >= b) is not true.
if yes then condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is less

<= than or equal to the value of right operand, (a <= b) is true.
if yes then condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is not less

!< than the value of right operand, if yes then (a !< b) is false.
condition becomes true.

Checks if the value of left operand is not

!> greater than the value of right operand, if (a !> b) is true.
yes then condition becomes true.
SQL Logical Operators:

Here is a list of all the logical operators available in SQL.

Show Examples

Operator Description

ALL The ALL operator is used to compare a value to all values in another value set.

The AND operator allows the existence of multiple conditions in an SQL

AND
statement's WHERE clause.

The ANY operator is used to compare a value to any applicable value in the list
ANY
according to the condition.

The BETWEEN operator is used to search for values that are within a set of values,
BETWEEN
given the minimum value and the maximum value.

The EXISTS operator is used to search for the presence of a row in a specified
EXISTS
table that meets certain criteria.

The IN operator is used to compare a value to a list of literal values that have
IN
been specified.

The LIKE operator is used to compare a value to similar values using wildcard
LIKE
operators.

The NOT operator reverses the meaning of the logical operator with which it is
NOT
used. Eg. NOT EXISTS, NOT BETWEEN, NOT IN etc. This is negate operator.

The OR operator is used to combine multiple conditions in an SQL statement's

OR
WHERE clause.

IS NULL The NULL operator is used to compare a value with a NULL value.

The UNIQUE operator searches every row of a specified table for uniqueness (no
UNIQUE
duplicates).
SQL tutorial gives unique learning on Structured Query Language and it helps to make
practice on SQL commands which provides immediate results. SQL is a language of database, it
includes database creation, deletion, fetching rows and modifying rows etc.

SQL is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard but there are many different
versions of the SQL language.

What is SQL?
SQL is structured Query Language which is a computer language for storing, manipulating and
retrieving data stored in relational database.

SQL is the standard language for Relation Database System. All relational database management
systems like MySQL, MS Access, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, postgres and SQL Server uses SQL
as standard database language.

Also they are using different dialects, Such as:

 MS SQL Server using T-SQL,

 Oracle using PL/SQL,

 MS Access version of SQL is called JET SQL (native format )etc

Why SQL?
 Allow users to access data in relational database management systems.

 Allow users to describe the data.

 Allow users to define the data in database and manipulate that data.

 Allow to embed within other languages using SQL modules, libraries & pre-compilers.

 Allow users to create and drop databases and tables.

 Allow users to create view, stored procedure, functions in a database.

 Allow users to set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

History:
  1970 -- Dr. E.F. "Ted" of IBM is known as the father of relational databases. He
described a relational model for databases.

 1974 -- Structured Query Language appeared.

 1978 -- IBM worked to develop Codd's ideas and released a product named System/R.

 1986 -- IBM developed the first prototype of relational database and standardized by
ANSI. The first relational database was released by Relational Software and its later
becoming Oracle.

SQL Process:
When you are executing an SQL command for any RDBMS, the system determines the best way
to carry out your request and SQL engine figures out how to interpret the task.

There are various components included in the process. These components are Query Dispatcher,
Optimization engines, Classic Query Engine and SQL query engine etc. Classic query engine
handles all non-SQL queries but SQL query engine won't handle logical files.

Following is a simple digram showing SQL Architecture:

SQL Commands:
The standard SQL commands to interact with relational databases are CREATE, SELECT,
INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and DROP. These commands can be classified into groups based
on their nature:

DDL - Data Definition Language:

Command Description

CREATE Creates a new table, a view of a table, or other object in database

ALTER Modifies an existing database object, such as a table.

DROP Deletes an entire table, a view of a table or other object in the database.

DML - Data Manipulation Language:

Command Description

INSERT Creates a record

UPDATE Modifies records

DELETE Deletes records

DCL - Data Control Language:

Command Description

GRANT Gives a privilege to user

REVOKE Takes back privileges granted from user