Cheatsheets / SQL for Interview Prep

SQL Interview Prep

Column Constraints

Column constraints are the rules applied to the CREATE TABLE student (
values of individual columns:
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
PRIMARY KEY constraint can be used to
uniquely identify the row. name TEXT UNIQUE,
UNIQUE columns have a different value for grade INTEGER NOT NULL,
every row. age INTEGER DEFAULT 10
NOT NULL columns must have a value.
);
DEFAULT assigns a default value for the
column when no value is specified.
There can be only one PRIMARY KEY column per
table and multiple UNIQUE columns.

Outer Join

An outer join will combine rows from different SELECT column_name(s)

tables even if the join condition is not met. In a
FROM table1
LEFT JOIN , every row in the left table is
returned in the result set, and if the join condition LEFT JOIN table2
is not met, then NULL values are used to fill in the ON table1.column_name =
columns from the right table. table2.column_name;

ALTER TABLE Statement

The ALTER TABLE statement is used to modify ALTER TABLE table_name

the columns of an existing table. When combined
ADD column_name datatype;
with the ADD COLUMN clause, it is used to add a
new column.
Primary Key

A primary key column in a SQL table is used to

uniquely identify each record in that table. A
primary key cannot be NULL . In the example,
customer_id is the primary key. The same value
cannot re-occur in a primary key column. Primary
keys are often used in JOIN operations.

Inner Join

The JOIN clause allows for the return of results SELECT *

from more than one table by joining them
FROM books
together with other results based on common
column values specified using an ON clause. JOIN authors
INNER JOIN is the default JOIN and it will only ON books.author_id = authors.id;
return results matching the condition specified by
ON .

UPDATE Statement

The UPDATE statement is used to edit records UPDATE table_name

(rows) in a table. It includes a SET clause that SET column1 = value1, column2 = value2
indicates the column to edit and a WHERE clause
WHERE some_column = some_value;
for specifying the record(s).

Data Types As Constraints

Columns of a PostgreSQL database table must CREATE TABLE tablename (

have a data type, which constrains the type of
myNum integer,
information that can be entered into that column.
This is important in order to ensure data integrity myString varchar(50)
and consistency over time. Some common );
PostgreSQL types are integer , decimal ,
varchar , and boolean . Data types are defined
in a CREATE TABLE statement by indicating the
data type after each column name.
NOT NULL

In PostgreSQL, NOT NULL constraints can be CREATE TABLE table_name (

used to ensure that particular columns of a
column_1 integer NOT NULL,
database table do not contain missing data. This is
important for ensuring database integrity and column_2 text NOT NULL,
consistency over time. NOT NULL constraints can column_3 numeric
be enforced within a CREATE TABLE statement );
using NOT NULL .

UNIQUE

In PostgreSQL, UNIQUE constraints can be used CREATE TABLE table_name (

to ensure that elements of a particular column (or
column_1 integer UNIQUE,
group of columns) are unique (i.e., no two rows
have the same value or combination of values). column_2 text UNIQUE,
This is important for ensuring database integrity column_3 numeric,
and consistency over time. UNIQUE constraints column_4 text,
can be enforced within a CREATE TABLE
UNIQUE(column_3, column_4)
statement using the UNIQUE keyword.
);

Primary Keys

The primary key of a database table is a column or

group of columns that can be used to uniquely
identify every row of the table. For example, a
table of students might have a primary key named
student_id , which contains unique ID numbers
for each student.
One-to-One Database Relationships

In a relational database, two tables have a one-to-

one relationship if each row in one table links to
exactly one row in the other table, and vice versa.
For example, a table of employees and a table of
employee_contact_info might have a one-to-
one relationship if every employee listed in the
employees table has contact information listed
in the employee_contact_info table and vice
versa.

MAX() Aggregate Function

The MAX() aggregate function takes the name of SELECT MAX(amount)

a column as an argument and returns the largest
FROM transactions;
value in a column. The given query will return the
largest value from the amount column.

SELECT Statement

The SELECT * statement returns all columns SELECT *

from the provided table in the result set. The
FROM movies;
given query will fetch all columns and records
(rows) from the movies table.

ORDER BY Clause

The ORDER BY clause can be used to sort the SELECT *

result set by a particular column either
FROM contacts
alphabetically or numerically. It can be ordered in
two ways: ORDER BY birth_date DESC;
DESC is a keyword used to sort the results
in descending order.
ASC is a keyword used to sort the results
in ascending order (default).
COUNT() Aggregate Function

The COUNT() aggregate function returns the SELECT COUNT(*)

total number of rows that match the specified
FROM employees
criteria. For instance, to find the total number of
employees who have less than 5 years of WHERE experience < 5;
experience, the given query can be used.
Note: A column name of the table can also be
used instead of * . Unlike COUNT(*) , this
variation COUNT(column) will not count NULL
values in that column.

DISTINCT Clause

Unique values of a column can be selected using a SELECT DISTINCT city

DISTINCT query. For a table contact_details
FROM contact_details;
having five rows in which the city column
contains Chicago, Madison, Boston, Madison, and
Denver, the given query would return:
Chicago
Madison
Boston
Denver

LIMIT Clause

The LIMIT clause is used to narrow, or limit, a SELECT *

result set to the specified number of rows. The
FROM movies
given query will limit the result set to 5 rows.
LIMIT 5;

GROUP BY Clause

The GROUP BY clause will group records in a SELECT rating,

result set by identical values in one or more
COUNT(*)
columns. It is often used in combination with
aggregate functions to query information of FROM movies
similar records. The GROUP BY clause can come GROUP BY rating;
after FROM or WHERE but must come before any
ORDER BY or LIMIT clause.
The given query will count the number of movies
per rating.
MIN() Aggregate Function

The MIN() aggregate function returns the SELECT MIN(amount)

smallest value in a column. For instance, to find
FROM transactions;
the smallest value of the amount column from
the table named transactions , the given query
can be used.

CASE statement in SQL

The SQL CASE statement enables control flow in SELECT name,

SQL. It allows for one or more conditions ( WHEN CASE
condition THEN result) and an optional default
WHEN rating > 8 THEN "Excellent"
case ( ELSE ). The query above will provide each
rating a value for the specified ranges within the WHEN rating > 5 THEN "Good"
result set. WHEN rating > 3 THEN "Okay"
ELSE "Bad"
END
FROM movies;

HAVING Clause

The HAVING clause is used to further filter the SELECT year,

result set groups provided by the GROUP BY COUNT(*)
clause. HAVING is often used with aggregate
FROM movies
functions to filter the result set groups based on
an aggregate property. The given query will select GROUP BY year
only the records (rows) from only years where HAVING COUNT(*) > 5;
more than 5 movies were released per year.
The HAVING clause must always come after a
GROUP BY clause but must come before any
ORDER BY or LIMIT clause.

WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is used to filter records (rows) SELECT title

that match a certain condition. The given query
FROM library
will select all records where the pub_year
WHERE pub_year = 2017;
equals 2017 .