SQL

CHEAT SHEET

created by
Tomi Mester
I originally created this cheat sheet for my SQL course and workshop participants.*
But I have decided to open-source it and make it available for everyone who wants
to learn SQL.

It's designed to give you a meaningful structure but also to let you add your own
notes (that's why the empty boxes are there). It starts from the absolute basics
(SELECT * FROM table_name;) and guides you to the intermediate level (JOIN,
HAVING, subqueries). I added everything that you will need as a data analyst/
scientist.

The ideal use case of this cheat sheet is that you print it in color and keep it next to
you while you are learning and practicing SQL on your computer.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Tomi Mester

*The workshops and courses I mentioned:

Online SQL tutorial (free): data36.com/sql-tutorial
Live SQL workshop: data36.com/sql-workshop
Practice SQL - an online SQL course for practicing: data36.com/practice-sql
 SQL CHEAT SHEET

BASE QUERY
SELECT * FROM table_name;
This query returns every column and every row of the table called table_name.

SELECT * FROM table_name LIMIT 10;

It returns every column and the first 10 rows from table_name.

SELECTING SPECIFIC COLUMNS

SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name;
This query returns every row of column1, column2 and column3 from table_name.

[your notes]

DATA TYPES IN SQL

In SQL we have more than 40 different data types. But these seven are the most
important ones:
1. Integer. A whole number without a fractional part. E.g. 1, 156, 2012412
2. Decimal. A number with a fractional part. E.g. 3.14, 3.141592654, 961.1241250
3. Boolean. A binary value. It can be either TRUE or FALSE.
4. Date. Speaks for itself. You can also choose the format. E.g. 2017-12-31
5. Time. You can decide the format of this, as well. E.g. 23:59:59
6. Timestamp. The date and the time together. E.g. 2017-12-31 23:59:59
7. Text. This is the most general data type. But it can be alphabetical letters only,
or a mix of letters and numbers and any other characters. E.g. hello, R2D2,
Tomi, 124.56.128.41

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !1

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

FILTERING (the WHERE CLAUSE)

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column1 = 'expression';
"Horizontal filtering." This query returns every column from table_name - but only
those rows where the value in column1 is 'expression'. Obviously this can be
something other than text: a number (integer or decimal), date or any other data
format, too.

ADVANCED FILTERING
Comparison operators help you compare two values. (Usually a value that you
define in your query and values that exist in your SQL table.) Mostly, they are
mathematical symbols, with a few exceptions:

Comparison operator What does it mean?

= Equal to
<> Not equal to
!= Not equal to
< Less than
<= Less than or equal to
> Greater than
>= Greater than or equal to
LIKE ‘%expression%’ Contains ‘expression’
IN (‘exp1’, ‘exp2’, ‘exp3’) Contains any of ‘exp1’, ‘exp2’, or ‘exp3’

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !2

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

A few examples:
SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column1 != 'expression';
This query returns every column from table_name, but only those rows where the
value in column1 is NOT 'expression'.

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column2 >= 10;

It returns every column from table_name, but only those rows where the value in
column2 is greater or equal to 10.

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column3 LIKE ‘%xzy%’;

It returns every column from table_name, but only those rows where the value in
column3 contains the 'xyz' string.

MULTIPLE CONDITIONS
You can use more than one condition to filter. For that, we have two logical
operators: OR, AND.

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column1 != ‘expression’ AND column3 LIKE

‘%xzy%’;
This query returns every column from table_name, but only those rows where the
value in column1 is NOT ‘expression’ AND the value in column3 contains the 'xyz'
string.

SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column1 != ‘expression’ OR column3 LIKE

‘%xzy%’;
This query returns every column from table_name, but only those rows where the
value in column1 is NOT ‘expression’ OR the value in column3 contains the 'xyz'
string.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !3

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

PROPER FORMATTING
You can use line breaks and indentations for nicer formatting. It won't have any
effect on your output. Be careful and put a semicolon at the end of the query
though!

SELECT *
FROM table_name
WHERE column1 != 'expression'
AND column3 LIKE '%xzy%'
LIMIT 10;

SORTING VALUES
SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY column1;
This query returns every row and column from table_name, ordered by column1, in
ascending order (by default).

SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY column1 DESC;

This query returns every row and column from table_name, ordered by column1, in
descending order.

UNIQUE VALUES
SELECT DISTINCT(column1) FROM table_name;
It returns every unique value from column1 from table_name.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !4

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

CORRECT KEYWORD ORDER

SQL is extremely sensitive to keyword order.
So make sure you keep it right:

1. SELECT
2. FROM
3. WHERE
4. ORDER BY
5. LIMIT

SQL FUNCTIONS FOR AGGREGATION

In SQL, there are five important aggregate functions for data analysts/scientists:

• COUNT()
• SUM()
• AVG()
• MIN()
• MAX()

A few examples:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table_name WHERE column1 = 'something';
It counts the number of rows in the SQL table in which the value in column1 is
'something'.

SELECT AVG(column1) FROM table_name WHERE column2 > 1000;

It calculates the average (mean) of the values in column1, only including rows in
which the value in column2 is greater than 1000.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !5

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

SQL GROUP BY
The GROUP BY clause is usually used with an aggregate function (COUNT, SUM,
AVG, MIN, MAX). It groups the rows by a given column value (specified after
GROUP BY) then calculates the aggregate for each group and returns that to the
screen.

SELECT column1, COUNT(column2) FROM table_name GROUP BY column1;

This query counts the number of values in column2 - for each group of unique
column1 values.

SELECT column1, SUM(column2) FROM table_name GROUP BY column1;

This query sums the number of values in column2 - for each group of unique
column1 values.

SELECT column1, MIN(column2) FROM table_name GROUP BY column1;

This query finds the minimum value in column2 - for each group of unique column1
values.

SELECT column1, MAX(column2) FROM table_name GROUP BY column1;

This query finds the maximum value in column2 - for each group of unique column1
values.

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !6

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

SQL ALIASES
You can rename columns, tables, subqueries, anything.

SELECT column1, COUNT(column2) AS number_of_values FROM table_name

GROUP BY column1;
This query counts the number of values in column2 - for each group of unique
column1 values. Then it renames the COUNT(column2) column to
number_of_values.

SQL JOIN
You can JOIN two (or more) SQL tables based on column values.

SELECT *
FROM table1
JOIN table2
ON table1.column1 = table2.column1;
This joins table1 and table2 values - for every row where the value of column1 from
table1 equals the value of column1 from table2.

Detailed explanation here: https://data36.com/sql-join-data-analysis-tutorial-ep5/

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !7

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

SQL HAVING
The execution order of the different SQL keywords doesn't allow you to filter with
the WHERE clause on the result of an aggregate function (COUNT, SUM, etc.). This
is because WHERE is executed before the aggregate functions. But that's what
HAVING is for:

SELECT column1, COUNT(column2)

FROM table_name
GROUP BY column1
HAVING COUNT(column2) > 100;

This query counts the number of values in column2 - for each group of unique
column1 values. It returns only those results where the counted value is greater
than 100.

Detailed explanation and examples here: https://data36.com/sql-data-analysis-

advanced-tutorial-ep6/

CORRECT KEYWORD ORDER AGAIN

SQL is extremely sensitive to keyword order.
So make sure you keep it right:

1. SELECT
2. FROM
3. JOIN (ON)
4. WHERE
5. GROUP BY
6. HAVING
7. ORDER BY
8. LIMIT

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !8

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

SUBQUERIES
You can run SQL queries within SQL queries. (Called subqueries.) Even queries
within queries within queries. The point is to use the result of one query as an input
value of another query.
Example:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM

(SELECT column1, COUNT(column2) AS inner_number_of_values
FROM table_name
GROUP BY column1) AS inner_query
WHERE inner_number_of_values > 100;

The inner query counts the number of values in column2 - for each group of unique
column1 values. Then the outer query uses the inner query's results and counts the
number of values where inner_number_of_values are greater than 100. (The result
is one number.)

Detailed explanation here: https://data36.com/sql-data-analysis-advanced-

tutorial-ep6/

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !9

 SQL CHEAT SHEET

CREATED BY
Tomi Mester from Data36.com
Tomi Mester is a data analyst and researcher. He worked for Prezi, iZettle and
several smaller companies as an analyst/consultant. He’s the author of the Data36
blog where he writes posts and tutorials on a weekly basis about data science, AB-
testing, online research and data coding. He’s an O’Reilly author and presenter at
TEDxYouth, Barcelona E-commerce Summit, Stockholm Analyticsdagarna and
more.

WHERE TO GO NEXT
Find company workshops, online tutorials and online video courses on my website:
https://data36.com

Subscribe to my Newsletter list for useful stuff like this:

https://data36.com/newsletter

Online SQL tutorial (free): data36.com/sql-tutorial

Live SQL workshop: data36.com/sql-workshop
Practice SQL - an online SQL course for practicing: data36.com/practice-sql

CREATED BY TOMI MESTER | DATA36.COM !10