Chapter 5

The SQL Language

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 5.1. Data Definition Language
• The Data Definition Language (DDL) is used to create and
destroy databases and database objects
• These commands will primarily be used by database
administrators during the setup and removal phases of a
database project
• Let's take a look at the structure and usage of four basic
DDL commands:
1. CREATE
– Installing a database management system (DBMS)
such as SQL Server 2005 on a computer allows
you to create and manage many independent
databases

2
Cont.
– For example, you may want to maintain a database of customer
contacts for your sales department and a personnel database for
your Human Resource department
– The CREATE command can be used to establish each of these
databases on your platform
– For example, the command:

CREATE DATABASE Employees

creates an empty database named "Employees" on your DBMS

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Cont.
–After creating the database, your next step is to create tables that
will contain data
–Another variant of the CREATE command can be used for this
purpose
– The command:

CREATE TABLE personal_info(first_name varchar(20) NOT

NULL, last_name varchar(20) NOT NULL, employee_id int
NOT NULL)

Creates a table titled "personal_info" in the current database

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 Cont.
–The CREATE TABLE command specifies a new base relation by
giving it a name, and specifying each of its attributes and their data
types (INTEGER, FLOAT, DECIMAL(i,j), CHAR(n),
VARCHAR(n), etc.)
–A constraint NOT NULL may be specified on an attribute

CREATE TABLE dept_info

(DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
EMPLOYEE_ID int );

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Cont.
–The SQL language has many versions
– In SQL2, we can use the CREATE TABLE command for
specifying the primary key attributes, and referential integrity
constraints (foreign keys)
–Key attributes can be specified via the PRIMARY KEY,
FOREIGN KEY, REFERENCES and UNIQUE phrases
CREATE TABLE dept_info
(DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
EMPLOYEE_ID int ,
PRIMARY KEY (DNUMBER),
UNIQUE (DNAME),
FOREIGN KEY (EMPLOYEE_ID)
REFERENCES personal_info);

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Cont.
–We can specify CASCADE, SET NULL or SET DEFAULT on
referential integrity constraints (foreign keys)

CREATE TABLE dept_info

(DNAME VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
DNUMBER INTEGER NOT NULL,
EMPLOYEE_ID int,
PRIMARY KEY (DNUMBER),
UNIQUE (DNAME),
FOREIGN KEY (EMPLOYEE_ID) REFERENCES
personal_info
ON DELETE SET DEFAULT ON UPDATE CASCADE );

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Cont.
2. USE
– The USE command allows you to specify the
database you wish to work with within your DBMS
– For example, if we are currently working in the sales
database and if we want to issue some commands that
will affect the employees database, we would preface
them with the following SQL command:

USE Employees

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Cont.
– For example:
USE Employees
CREATE TABLE personal_info(first_name
varchar(20) NOT NULL, last_name
varchar(20) NOT NULL, employee_id int NOT
NULL)
CREATE TABLE dept_info(dept_name
varchar(20) NOT NULL, dept_id int NOT
NULL)
Create two tables named "personal_info" and
"dept_info“ under the Employee database while you
are working on the Sales database

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Cont.
– It's important to always be conscious of the
database you are working in before issuing SQL
commands that manipulate data
3. ALTER
– Once you have created a table within a database,
you may wish to modify its definition
– The ALTER command allows you to make
changes to the structure of a table without deleting
and recreating it

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Cont.
– Take a look at the following command:
ALTER TABLE personal_info
ADD salary money null
– This example adds a new attribute to the
personal_info table -- an employee's salary
– The "money" argument specifies that an employee's
salary will be stored using a dollars and cents format
– Finally, the "null" keyword tells the database that
it's OK for this field to contain no value for any
given employee

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Cont.
– Used to add an attribute to one of the base relations
– The new attribute will have NULLs in all the tuples of the
relation right after the command is executed; hence, the NOT
NULL constraint is not allowed for such an attribute
– Example:

ALTER TABLE personal_info ADD JOB

VARCHAR(12);

– The database users must still enter a value for the new attribute
JOB for each EMPLOYEE tuple
– This can be done using the UPDATE command

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Cont.
4. DROP
– The final command of the Data Definition
Language, DROP, allows us to remove entire
database objects from our DBMS
– For example, if we want to permanently remove the
personal_info table that we created, we'd use the
following command:
DROP TABLE personal_info
– Similarly, the command below would be used to
remove the entire employees database:
DROP DATABASE employees

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Cont.
– Use this command with care!
– Remember that the DROP command removes entire data
structures from your database
– If you want to remove individual records, use the DELETE
command of the Data Manipulation Language

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 5.2. Data Manipulation Language
• The Data Manipulation Language (DML) is used to retrieve,
insert and modify database information
• These commands will be used by all database users during
the routine operation of the database
• Let's take a brief look at the basic DML commands:
1. INSERT
– The INSERT command in SQL is used to add
records to an existing table
– Returning to the personal_info example from the
previous section, let's imagine that our HR
department needs to add a new employee to their
database
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Cont.
– They could use a command similar to the one shown
below:
INSERT INTO personal_info
values('Abebe',
'Kebede',1,$2000.00)
– Note that there are four values specified for the
record
– These correspond to the table attributes in the order
they were defined: first_name, last_name,
employee_id, and salary

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Cont.
2. SELECT
– The SELECT command is the most commonly
used command in SQL
– It allows database users to retrieve the specific
information they desire from an operational
database
– Let's take a look at a few examples, again using the
personal_info table from our employees database
– The command shown below retrieves all of the
information contained within the personal_info
table
SELECT *
FROM personal_info
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Cont.
– Note that the asterisk (*) is used as a wildcard in
SQL
– This literally means "Select everything from the
personal_info table."
– Alternatively, users may want to limit the attributes
that are retrieved from the database
– For example, the Human Resources department may
require a list of the last names of all employees in
the company
– The following SQL command would retrieve only
that information:
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Cont.
SELECT last_name
FROM personal_info
– Finally, the WHERE clause can be used to limit the
records that are retrieved to those that meet
specified criteria
– The CEO might be interested in reviewing the
personnel records of all highly paid employees
– The following command retrieves all of the data
contained within personal_info for records that have
a salary value greater than $50,000:
SELECT *
FROM personal_info
WHERE salary > $50,000
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Cont.
3. UPDATE
– The UPDATE command can be used to modify
information contained within a table, either in bulk
or individually
– Each year, our company gives all employees a 3%
cost-of-living increase in their salary
– The following SQL command could be used to
quickly apply this to all of the employees stored in
the database:
UPDATE personal_info
SET salary = salary *
1.03
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Cont.
– On the other hand, our new employee Almaz Tiku
has demonstrated performance above and beyond the
call of duty
– Management wishes to recognize her stellar
accomplishments with a $5,000 raise
– The WHERE clause could be used to single out Bart
for this raise:
UPDATE personal_info
SET salary = salary +
$5000
WHERE employee_id = 2

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Cont.
4. DELETE
– Finally, let's take a look at the DELETE command
– You'll find that the syntax of this command is
similar to that of the other DML commands
– Unfortunately, our latest corporate earnings report
didn't quite meet expectations and poor Almaz has
been laid off
– The DELETE command with a WHERE clause
can be used to remove his record from the
personal_info table:

DELETE FROM personal_info

WHERE employee_id = 2
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 5.3. Basic Queries in SQL
• SQL has one basic statement for retrieving information from a database;
the SELECT statement
• SQL relations can be constrained to be sets by specifying PRIMARY KEY
or UNIQUE attributes, or by using the DISTINCT option in a query
• Basic form of the SQL SELECT statement is called a mapping or a
SELECT-FROM-WHERE block

SELECT <attribute list>

FROM <table list>
WHERE <condition>

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Cont.
• <attribute list> is a list of attribute names whose values are to
be retrieved by the query
• <table list> is a list of the relation names required to process
the query
• <condition> is a conditional (Boolean) expression that
identifies the tuples to be retrieved by the query

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Cont.
• Consider the following relational database schema
corresponding to a COMPANY database

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 Populated database
for the relational schema 26
Cont.
• Basic SQL queries correspond to using the SELECT, PROJECT, and JOIN
operations of the relational algebra
• All subsequent examples use the COMPANY database
• Example of a simple query on one relation
• Query 0: Retrieve the birthdate and address of the employee whose name is
'John B. Smith'.

Q0: SELECT BDATE, ADDRESS

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE FNAME='John' AND
MINIT='B’
AND LNAME='Smith'

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Cont.
• Query 1: Retrieve the name and address of all employees who
work for the 'Research' department

Q1: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS

FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND
DNUMBER=DNO

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Cont.
• Query 2: For every project located in 'Stafford', list the project
number, the controlling department number, and the
department manager's last name, address, and birthdate
Q2: SELECT PNUMBER, DNUM, LNAME, BDATE,
ADDRESS
FROM PROJECT, DEPARTMENT,
EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNUM=DNUMBER AND
MGRSSN=SSN
AND
PLOCATION='Stafford'
In Q2, there are two join conditions

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Cont.
• The join condition DNUM=DNUMBER relates a project to its
controlling department
• The join condition MGRSSN=SSN relates the controlling
department to the employee who manages that department
• A missing WHERE-clause indicates no condition; hence, all
tuples of the relations in the FROM-clause are selected
• This is equivalent to the condition WHERE TRUE
• Query 3: Retrieve the SSN values for all employees
Q3: SELECT SSN
FROM EMPLOYEE

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Cont.
• If more than one relation is specified in the FROM-clause and
there is no join condition, then the CARTESIAN PRODUCT of
tuples is selected
• Example:

Q4: SELECT SSN,DNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE,DEPARTMENT

• It is extremely important not to overlook specifying

any selection and join conditions in the WHERE-
clause; otherwise, incorrect and very large relations
may result
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Cont.
• To retrieve all the attribute values of the selected tuples, a * is used, which stands for
all the attributes

• Examples:

Q5: SELECT *
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNO=5

Q6: SELECT *
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND
DNO=DNUMBER

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Cont.
• SQL does not treat a relation as a set; duplicate tuples can appear
• To eliminate duplicate tuples in a query result, the keyword DISTINCT is
used
• For example, the result of Q7 may have duplicate SALARY values
whereas Q8 does not have any duplicate values

Q7: SELECT SALARY

FROM EMPLOYEE

Q8: SELECT DISTINCT SALARY

FROM EMPLOYEE

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Cont.
• SQL has directly incorporated some set operations
• There is a union operation (UNION), and in some versions of
SQL there are set difference (MINUS) and intersection
(INTERSECT) operations
• The resulting relations of these set operations are sets of
tuples; duplicate tuples are eliminated from the result
• The set operations apply only to union compatible relations ;
the two relations must have the same attributes and the
attributes must appear in the same order

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Cont.
• Query 9: Make a list of all project numbers for projects that
involve an employee whose last name is 'Smith' as a worker or
as a manager of the department that controls the project

Q9: (SELECT PNAME

FROM PROJECT,
DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNUM=DNUMBER AND
MGRSSN=SSN AND
LNAME='Smith')
UNION (SELECT PNAME
FROM PROJECT,
WORKS_ON, EMPLOYEE
WHERE PNUMBER=PNO AND
ESSN=SSN AND LNAME='Smith')
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Cont.
• A complete SELECT query, called a nested query , can be specified within
the WHERE-clause of another query, called the outer query
• Many of the previous queries can be specified in an alternative form using
nesting
• Query 10: Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for
the 'Research' department
Q10:SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE DNO IN (SELECT
DNUMBER
FROM DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research')

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Cont.
• The nested query selects the number of the 'Research'
department
• The outer query select an EMPLOYEE tuple if its DNO value
is in the result of either nested query
• The comparison operator IN compares a value v with a set (or
multi-set) of values V, and evaluates to TRUE if v is one of
the elements in V
• In general, we can have several levels of nested queries
• A reference to an unqualified attribute refers to the relation
declared in the innermost nested query
• In this example, the nested query is not correlated with the
outer query
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Cont.
• If a condition in the WHERE-clause of a nested query references an
attribute of a relation declared in the outer query , the two queries are said
to be correlated
• The result of a correlated nested query is different for each tuple (or
combination of tuples) of the relation(s) the outer query

• Query 11: Retrieve the name of each employee who has a dependent with
the same first name as the employee.
Q11: SELECT E.FNAME,E.LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE AS E
WHERE E.SSN IN (SELECT ESSN
FROM DEPENDENT
WHERE ESSN=E.SSN AND
E.FNAME=DEPENDENT_NAME)

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Cont.
• In Q11, the nested query has a different result for each tuple in the outer
query
• A query written with nested SELECT... FROM... WHERE... blocks and
using the = or IN comparison operators can always be expressed as a
single block query
• For example, Q11 may be written as in Q12

Q12: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE E,
DEPENDENT D
WHERE E.SSN=D.ESSN AND

E.FNAME=D.DEPENDENT_NAME
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Cont.
• EXISTS function is used to check whether the result of a correlated nested
query is empty (contains no tuples) or not
• Query 13: Retrieve the name of each employee who has a
dependent with the same first name as the employee.

Q13: SELECT FNAME, LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM DEPENDENT
WHERE SSN=ESSN AND
FNAME=DEPENDENT_NAME)

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Cont.
• Query 14: Retrieve the names of employees who have no
dependents.

Q14: SELECT FNAME, LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM DEPENDENT
WHERE SSN=ESSN)

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Cont.
• SQL allows queries that check if a value is NULL (missing or
undefined or not applicable)
• SQL uses IS or IS NOT to compare NULLs because it
considers each NULL value distinct from other NULL values,
so equality comparison is not appropriate
• Query 15: Retrieve the names of all employees who do not
have supervisors
Q15: SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE SUPERSSN IS NULL

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Cont.
• Note: If a join condition is specified, tuples with NULL values
for the join attributes are not included in the result
• In SQL2 we can specify a "joined relation" in the FROM-
clause
• Looks like any other relation but is the result of a join
• Allows the user to specify different types of joins (regular
"theta" JOIN, NATURAL JOIN, LEFT OUTER JOIN,
RIGHT OUTER JOIN, CROSS JOIN, etc)

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Cont.
•Examples:
Q16: SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME, S.FNAME,
S.LNAME
FROM EMPLOYEE E S
WHERE E.SUPERSSN=S.SSN
can be written as:
SELECT E.FNAME, E.LNAME, S.FNAME,
S.LNAME
FROM (EMPLOYEE E LEFT OUTER JOIN
EMPLOYEES
ON E.SUPERSSN=S.SSN)
Q17: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNAME='Research' AND
DNUMBER=DNO

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Cont.
• could be written as:

– SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS

FROM (EMPLOYEE JOIN
DEPARTMENT
ON DNUMBER=DNO)
WHERE DNAME='Research’
or as:
SELECT FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS
FROM (EMPLOYEE NATURAL JOIN
DEPARTMENT
AS DEPT(DNAME, DNO, MSSN,
MSDATE)
WHERE DNAME='Research’
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Cont.
• Aggregate functions include COUNT, SUM, MAX, MIN,
and AVG
• They are used to summarize data in tables
• Query 18: Find the maximum salary, the minimum salary, and
the average salary among all employees
Q18: SELECT MAX(SALARY),
MIN(SALARY),
AVG(SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEE

• Some SQL implementations may not allow more than

one function in the SELECT-clause
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Cont.
• Query 19: Find the maximum salary, the minimum
salary, and the average salary among employees who
work for the 'Research' department

Q19: SELECT MAX(SALARY), MIN(SALARY),

AVG(SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNO=DNUMBER AND
DNAME='Research'

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Cont.
• Queries 20: Retrieve the total number of employees in the
company
Q20: SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM EMPLOYEE

• Queries 21: Retrieve the total number of employees in the

'Research' department
Q21: SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM EMPLOYEE,
DEPARTMENT
WHERE DNO=DNUMBER AND
DNAME='Research'

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Cont.
• In many cases, we want to apply the aggregate functions to
subgroups of tuples in a relation
• Each subgroup of tuples consists of the set of tuples that have
the same value for the grouping attribute(s)
• The function is applied to each subgroup independently
• SQL has a GROUP BY-clause for specifying the grouping
attributes, which must also appear in the SELECT-clause
• Query 22: For each department, retrieve the department
number, the number of employees in the department, and their
average salary

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Cont.
Q22: SELECT DNO, COUNT (*), AVG
(SALARY)
FROM EMPLOYEE
GROUP BY DNO

• In Q22, the EMPLOYEE tuples are divided into groups--each

group having the same value for the grouping attribute DNO
• The COUNT and AVG functions are applied to each such
group of tuples separately
• The SELECT-clause includes only the grouping attribute and
the functions to be applied on each group of tuples
• A join condition can be used in conjunction with grouping

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Cont.
• Query 23: For each project, retrieve the project number,
project name, and the number of employees who work on that
project.

Q23: SELECT PNUMBER, PNAME,

COUNT (*)
FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE PNUMBER=PNO
GROUP BY PNUMBER, PNAME

• In this case, the grouping and functions are applied after the
joining of the two relations

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Cont.
• Sometimes we want to retrieve the values of these functions
for only those groups that satisfy certain conditions
• The HAVING-clause is used for specifying a selection
condition on groups (rather than on individual tuples)
•
Query 24: For each project on which more than two employees
work , retrieve the project number, project name, and the
number of employees who work on that project.

Q24: SELECT PNUMBER, PNAME, COUNT (*)

FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE PNUMBER=PNO
GROUP BY PNUMBER, PNAME
HAVING COUNT (*) > 2

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Cont.
• The LIKE comparison operator is used to compare partial
strings
• Two reserved characters are used: '%' (or '*' in some
implementations) replaces an arbitrary number of characters,
and '_' replaces a single arbitrary character
Query 25: Retrieve all employees whose address is in
Houston, Texas. Here, the value of the ADDRESS attribute
must contain the substring 'Houston,TX'.

Q25: SELECT FNAME, LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE ADDRESS LIKE '%Houston,TX%'

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Cont.
Query 26: Retrieve all employees who were born during the
1950s. Here, '5' must be the 8th character of the string
(according to our format for date), so the BDATE value is
'_______5_', with each underscore as a place holder for a
single arbitrary character

Q26: SELECT FNAME, LNAME

FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE BDATE LIKE '_______5_’

• The LIKE operator allows us to get around the fact that each
value is considered atomic and indivisible; hence, in SQL,
character string attribute values are not atomic
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Cont.
• The standard arithmetic operators '+', '-'. '*', and '/' (for addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division, respectively) can be applied to
numeric values in an SQL query result
Query 27: Show the effect of giving all employees who work
on the 'ProductX' project a 10% raise.

Q27: SELECT FNAME, LNAME, 1.1*SALARY

FROM EMPLOYEE,
WORKS_ON, PROJECT
WHERE SSN=ESSN AND
PNO=PNUMBER AND
PNAME='ProductX’
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Cont.
• The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the tuples in a query
result based on the values of some attribute(s)
Query 28: Retrieve a list of employees and the projects each
works in, ordered by the employee's department, and within
each department ordered alphabetically by employee last name.

Q28: SELECT DNAME, LNAME, FNAME,

PNAME
FROM DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE,
WORKS_ON,
PROJECT
WHERE DNUMBER=DNO AND
SSN=ESSN AND
PNO=PNUMBER
ORDER BY DNAME, LNAME

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Cont.
• The default order is in ascending order of values
• We can specify the keyword DESC if we want a descending
order; the keyword ASC can be used to explicitly specify
ascending order, even though it is the default
• A query in SQL can consist of up to six clauses, but only the
first two, SELECT and FROM, are mandatory. The clauses are
specified in the following order:

SELECT <attribute list>

FROM <table list>
[WHERE <condition>]
[GROUP BY <grouping attribute(s)>]
[HAVING <group condition>]
[ORDER BY <attribute list>]

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 5.4. Views
• A view is a "virtual" table that is derived from other tables
• Allows for limited update operations (since the table may not
physically be stored)
• Allows full query operations
• A convenience for expressing certain operations
• Views can only select data
• Views have several advantages
• They enable you to:
– Join data so that users can work with it easily
– Aggregate data so that users can work with it easily
– Customize data to users' needs
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Cont.
– Hide underlying column names from users
– Limit the columns and rows with which a user works
– Easily secure data
• View specification consists of:
– SQL command CREATE VIEW
• a table (view) name
• a possible list of attribute names (for example, when
arithmetic operations are specified or when we want the
names to be different from the attributes in the base
relations)

59
Cont.
• a query to specify the table contents
• Example:
– Specify a different WORKS_ON table
CREATE TABLE WORKS_ON_NEW AS
SELECT FNAME, LNAME, PNAME, HOURS
FROM EMPLOYEE, PROJECT, WORKS_ON
WHERE SSN=ESSN AND PNO=PNUMBER
GROUP BY PNAME;

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Cont.
• We can specify SQL queries on a newly create table (view):
SELECT FNAME, LNAME
FROM WORKS_ON_NEW
WHERE PNAME=‘Seena’;
• When no longer needed, a view can be dropped:
DROP WORKS_ON_NEW;
• Update on a single view without aggregate operations: update
may map to an update on the underlying base table

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Cont.
• Views involving joins: an update may map to an update on the
underlying base relations
– not always possible
• Views defined using groups and aggregate functions are not
updateable
• Views defined on multiple tables using joins are generally not
updateable
• WITH CHECK OPTION: must be added to the definition of a
view if the view is to be updated
– to allow check for updatability and to plan for an execution
strategy
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Thank you!!!!

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