Introduction to 

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

What is SQL?
 SQL stands for Structured Query Language
 SQL lets you access and manipulate databases
 SQL became a standard of the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) in 1986, and of the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) in 1987

What Can SQL do?

 SQL can execute queries against a database
 SQL can retrieve data from a database
 SQL can insert records in a database
 SQL can update records in a database
 SQL can delete records from a database
 SQL can create new databases
 SQL can create new tables in a database
 SQL can create stored procedures in a database
 SQL can create views in a database
 SQL can set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

SQL is a Standard - BUT....

Although SQL is an ANSI/ISO standard, there are different versions of the SQL
language.

However, to be compliant with the ANSI standard, they all support at least the
major commands (such as SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, INSERT, WHERE) in a similar
manner.
Using SQL in Your Web Site
To build a web site that shows data from a database, you will need:

 An RDBMS database program (i.e. MS Access, SQL Server, MySQL)

 To use a server-side scripting language, like PHP or ASP
 To use SQL to get the data you want
 To use HTML / CSS to style the page

Example
SELECT * FROM Customers;

Every table is broken up into smaller entities called fields. The fields in the
Customers table consist of CustomerID, CustomerName, ContactName,
Address, City, PostalCode and Country. A field is a column in a table that is
designed to maintain specific information about every record in the table.

A record, also called a row, is each individual entry that exists in a table. For
example, there are 91 records in the above Customers table. A record is a
horizontal entity in a table.

A column is a vertical entity in a table that contains all information associated

with a specific field in a table.

SQL Syntax
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.

In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database (included
in MS Access and MS SQL Server).

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City Post

 1 Alfreds Futterkiste Maria Anders Obere Str. 57 Berlin 1220

2 Ana Trujillo Ana Trujillo Avda. de la México 0502

Emparedados y Constitución D.F.
helados 2222

3 Antonio Moreno Antonio Moreno Mataderos 2312 México 0502

Taquería D.F.

4 Around the Horn Thomas Hardy 120 Hanover Sq. London WA1

5 Berglunds snabbköp Christina Berguvsvägen 8 Luleå S-95

Berglund

The table above contains five records (one for each customer) and seven
columns (CustomerID, CustomerName, ContactName, Address, City,
PostalCode, and Country).

SQL Statements
Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL
statements.

The following SQL statement selects all the records in the "Customers" table:
Example
SELECT * FROM Customers;

Semicolon after SQL Statements?

Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of each SQL statement.

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.

In this tutorial, we will use semicolon at the end of each SQL statement.

Some of The Most Important SQL

Commands
 SELECT - extracts data from a database
 UPDATE - updates data in a database
 DELETE - deletes data from a database
 INSERT INTO - inserts new data into a database
 CREATE DATABASE - creates a new database
 ALTER DATABASE - modifies a database
 CREATE TABLE - creates a new table
 ALTER TABLE - modifies a table
 DROP TABLE - deletes a table
 CREATE INDEX - creates an index (search key)
 DROP INDEX - deletes an index

SQL SELECT Statement
The SQL SELECT Statement
The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

The data returned is stored in a result table, called the result-set.

SELECT Syntax
SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name;

Here, column1, column2, ... are the field names of the table you want to select
data from. If you want to select all the fields available in the table, use the
following syntax:

SELECT * FROM table_name;

SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement
he SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement
The SELECT DISTINCT statement is used to return only distinct (different) values.

Inside a table, a column often contains many duplicate values; and sometimes
you only want to list the different (distinct) values.

SELECT DISTINCT Syntax

SELECT DISTINCT column1,  column2, ...
FROM table_name;

SQL WHERE Clause
The SQL WHERE Clause
The WHERE clause is used to filter records.

It is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified condition.

WHERE Syntax
SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;
Demo Database
Below is a selection from the "Customers" table in the Northwind sample
database:

Operators in The WHERE Clause

The following operators can be used in the WHERE clause:

Operator Description

= Equal

> Greater than

< Less than

>= Greater than or equal

<= Less than or equal

<> Not equal. Note: In some versions of SQL this operator may be writte
=

BETWEEN Between a certain range

 LIKE Search for a pattern

IN To specify multiple possible values for a column

SQL AND, OR and
NOT Operators
❮ PreviousNext ❯

The SQL AND, OR and NOT Operators

The WHERE clause can be combined with AND, OR, and NOT operators.

The AND and OR operators are used to filter records based on more than one

condition:

 The AND operator displays a record if all the conditions separated

by AND are TRUE.
 The OR operator displays a record if any of the conditions separated
by OR is TRUE.

The NOT operator displays a record if the condition(s) is NOT TRUE.

AND Syntax
SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition1 AND condition2 AND condition3 ...;

OR Syntax
SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition1 OR condition2 OR condition3 ...;
NOT Syntax
SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE NOT condition;

SQL ORDER BY Keyword
The SQL ORDER BY Keyword
The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set in ascending or descending
order.

The ORDER BY keyword sorts the records in ascending order by default. To sort

the records in descending order, use the DESC keyword.

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2, ... ASC|DESC;