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Hands-on Lab : String Patterns, Sorting and Grouping
Estimated time needed: 35 minutes
In this lab, you will go through some SQL practice problems that will provide hands-on experience with string patterns, sorting result sets and grouping result sets.
Software Used in this Lab
In this lab, you will use an IBM Db2 Database. Db2 is a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) from IBM, designed to store, analyze and retrieve data
efficiently.
To complete this lab you will utilize a Db2 database service on IBM Cloud. If you did not already complete this lab task earlier in this module, you will not yet have
access to Db2 on IBM Cloud, and you will need to follow the lab below first:
Hands-on Lab : Sign up for IBM Cloud, Create Db2 service instance and Get started with the Db2 console
Database Used in this Lab
The database used in this lab is an internal database. You will be working on a sample HR database. This HR database schema consists of 5 tables called
EMPLOYEES, JOB_HISTORY, JOBS, DEPARTMENTS and LOCATIONS. Each table has a few rows of sample data. The following diagram shows the tables
for the HR database:
NOTE: This lab requires you to have all 5 of these tables of the HR database populated with sample data on Db2. If you didn’t complete the earlier lab in this
module, you won’t have the tables above populated with sample data on Db2, so you will need to go through the lab below first:
Hands-on Lab : Create tables using SQL scripts and Load data into tables
Objectives
After completing this lab, you will be able to:
Simplify a SELECT statement by using string patterns, ranges, or sets of values
Sort the result set in either ascending or descending order and identify which column to use for the sorting order
Eliminate duplicates from a result set and further restrict a result set
NOTE : Make sure that you are using the CSV file and datasets from the same instruction file.
Instructions
When you approach the exercises in this lab, follow the instructions to run the queries on Db2:
Go to the Resource List of IBM Cloud by logging in where you can find the Db2 service instance that you created in a previous lab under Services section.
Click on the Db2-xx service. Next, open the Db2 Console by clicking on Open Console button. Click on the 3-bar menu icon in the top left corner and go to
the Run SQL page. The Run SQL tool enables you to run SQL statements.
If needed, follow Hands-on Lab : Sign up for IBM Cloud, Create Db2 service instance and Get started with the Db2 console
Exercise 1: String Patterns
In this exercise, you will go through some SQL problems on String Patterns.
1. Problem:
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Retrieve all employees whose address is in Elgin,IL.
Hint
Solution
Output
2. Problem:
Retrieve all employees who were born during the 1970’s.
Hint
Solution
Output
3. Problem:
Retrieve all employees in department 5 whose salary is between 60000 and 70000.
Hint
Solution
Output
Exercise 2: Sorting
In this exercise, you will go through some SQL problems on Sorting.
1. Problem:
Retrieve a list of employees ordered by department ID.
Hint
Solution
Output
2. Problem:
Retrieve a list of employees ordered in descending order by department ID and within each department ordered alphabetically in descending order
by last name.
Hint
Solution
Output
3. (Optional) Problem:
In SQL problem 2 (Exercise 2 Problem 2), use department name instead of department ID. Retrieve a list of employees ordered by department
name, and within each department ordered alphabetically in descending order by last name.
Hint
Solution
Output
Exercise 3: Grouping
In this exercise, you will go through some SQL problems on Grouping.
NOTE: The SQL problems in this exercise involve usage of SQL Aggregate functions AVG and COUNT. COUNT has been covered earlier. AVG is a function that
can be used to calculate the Average or Mean of all values of a specified column in the result set. For example, to retrieve the average salary for all employees in the
EMPLOYEES table, issue the query: SELECT AVG(SALARY) FROM EMPLOYEES;. You will learn more about AVG and other aggregate functions later in the lecture Built-
in Database Functions.
1. Problem:
For each department ID retrieve the number of employees in the department.
Hint
Solution
Output
2. Problem:
For each department retrieve the number of employees in the department, and the average employee salary in the department..
Hint
Solution
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Output
3. Problem:
Label the computed columns in the result set of SQL problem 2 (Exercise 3 Problem 2) as NUM_EMPLOYEES and AVG_SALARY.
Hint
Solution
Output
4. Problem:
In SQL problem 3 (Exercise 3 Problem 3), order the result set by Average Salary..
Hint
Solution
Output
5. Problem:
In SQL problem 4 (Exercise 3 Problem 4), limit the result to departments with fewer than 4 employees.
Hint
Solution
Output
Solution Script
If you would like to run all the solution queries of the SQL problems of this lab with a script, download the script below. Upload the script to the Db2 console and
run. Follow Hands-on Lab : Create tables using SQL scripts and Load data into tables on how to upload a script to Db2 console and run it.
StringPattern-Sorting-Grouping_Solution_Script.sql
Congratulations! You have completed this lab, and you are ready for the next topic.
Author(s)
Rav Ahuja
Sandip Saha Joy
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