Lecture-3: Structured Query Language-SQL

Course CSB2204: Database Systems

Assoc. Prof. Mohammed Gadelrab

School of Artificial Intelligence & Data Management
Badr University in Assiut (BUA)
Outline

What is SQL?
 SQL as a Standard
 SQL as a Language

SQL Data Definition

SQL Query & Data Manipulation

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 2

What is SQL?

BUA-AI & DM School 3

 (1) SQL as a Standard

SQL has gone through many standards: starting with SQL-86 or SQL
1.A. SQL-92 is referred to as SQL-2.

Later standards (from SQL-1999) are divided into core specification
and specialized extensions. The extensions are implemented for
different applications – such as data mining, data warehousing,
multimedia etc.

SQL-2006 added XML features; In 2008 they added Object-oriented
features.

SQL-3 is the current standard which started with SQL-1999. It is not
fully implemented in any RDBMS.
Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 4
 (2) SQL as a Language

Structured Query language.

Considered one of the major reasons for the commercial success of relational databases.

SQL is an informal or practical rendering of the relational data model with syntax.

Features of SQL Language: DDL + DML and more:
 Data definition
 Data Manipulation
 Transaction control
 Security specification (Grant and Revoke)
 Active databases
 Multi-media
 Distributed databases
Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 5
SQL Data Definition

BUA-AI & DM School 6

 Schema & Catalog

We cover the basic standard SQL syntax – there are variations in existing RDB
MS systems.

SQL schema:
 Identified by a schema name.
 Includes an authorization identifier and descriptors for each element.

Schema elements include:
 Tables, constraints, views, domains, and other constructs.

Each statement in SQL ends with a semicolon.

Example of CREATE SCHEMA statement (COMPANY is the schema name):
CREATE SCHEMA COMPANY AUTHORIZATION ‘Hossam’;

Catalog: Named collection of schemas in an SQL environment
Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 7
 Basic Data Types in SQL

Character-string data types:
 char(n) Fixed length character string, with user-specified length n.
 varchar(n) Variable length character strings, with user-specified maximum length n.


Numeric data types:
 Int: Integer (a finite subset of the integers that is machine-dependent).
 smallint: Small integer (a machine-dependent subset of the integer domain type).
 numeric(p,d): Fixed point number, with user-specified precision of p digits, with d digits to the right of decimal point. (ex., numeric(3,1), allows 44.5 to be
stores exactly, but not 444.5 or 0.32)
 real, double precision: Floating point and double-precision floating point numbers, with machine-dependent precision.
 float(n): Floating point number, with user-specified precision of at least n digits.


Bit-string data types:
 Fixed length: BIT(n)
 Varying length: BIT VARYING(n)


Boolean data type: Values of TRUE or FALSE or NULL

DATE data type:
 Components are YEAR, MONTH, and DAY in the form YYYY-MM-DD
 DATE, TIME, Timestamp, INTERVAL data types can be cast or converted to string formats for comparison.

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 8

 CREATE TABLE

An SQL relation is defined using the create table command:
create table r (A1 D1, A2 D2, ..., An Dn,
(integrity-constraint1),
...,
(integrity-constraintk))

r is the name of the relation

each Ai is an attribute name in the schema of relation r

Di is the data type of values in the domain of attribute Ai

Can optionally specify schema:

CREATE TABLE COMPANY.EMPLOYEE …

OR: CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE ...

Example:

create table instructor (
ID char(5),
name var rchar(20),
dept_name varchar(20),
salary numeric(8,2))

ERROR!!!!

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 9

 Basic Constraints

Basic constraints: Relational Model has 3 basic constraint types that are supported in S QL:
 Key constraint: A primary key value cannot be duplicated
 Entity Integrity Constraint: A primary key value cannot be null
 Referential integrity constraints: The “foreign key “ must have a value that is already present as a
primary key, or may be null.

Implications of Allowing NULL Foreign Keys: Allowing NULL values in foreign keys can impact your
database in several ways:

 NULL values don’t violate rules but can affect how data is interpreted. Clearly define what NULL
represents in your database to avoid confusion.
 NULL values indicate optional or missing links. Ensure your application handles these cases correctly
to avoid errors.
 Queries involving NULL can be more complex. Ensure your SQL queries handle NULL values properly
for accurate results.

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 10

 Integrity Constraints in CREATE TABLE

Types of integrity constraints
 primary key (A1, ..., An )
 foreign key (Am, ..., An ) references r
 not null

SQL prevents any update to the database that violates an integrity constraint.

Example:
create table instructor (
ID char(5),
name varchar(20) not null,
dept_name varchar(20),
salary numeric(8,2),
primary key (ID),
foreign key (dept_name) references department);

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 11

 Examples on Relation Definitions
1) create table student (
ID varchar(5),
name varchar(20) not null,
dept_name varchar(20),
tot_cred numeric(3,0),
primary key (ID),
foreign key (dept_name) references department);

2) create table course (

course_id varchar(8),
title varchar(50),
dept_name varchar(20),
credits numeric(2,0),
primary key (course_id),
foreign key (dept_name) references department);

3) create table takes (

ID varchar(5),
course_id varchar(8),
sec_id varchar(8),
semester varchar(6),
year numeric(4,0),
grade varchar(2),
primary key (ID, course_id, sec_id, semester, year)
foreign key (ID) references student,
foreign key (course_id, sec_id, semester, year) references section);

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 12

 Specifying Attribute Constraints

Default value of an attribute
DEFAULT <value>


NULL is not permitted for a particular attribute (NOT NULL)


CHECK clause
Dnumber INT NOT NULL CHECK (Dnumber > 0 AND Dnumber < 21);


PRIMARY KEY clause


Specifies one or more attributes that make up the primary key of a relation

Dnumber INT PRIMARY KEY;


UNIQUE clause


Specifies alternate (secondary) keys (called CANDIDATE keys in the relational model).

Dname VARCHAR(15) UNIQUE;


FOREIGN KEY clause: Default operation: reject update on violation


Attach referential triggered action clause:

Options include SET NULL, CASCADE, and SET DEFAULT

Action taken by the DBMS for SET NULL or SET DEFAULT is the same for both ON DELETE and ON UPDATE

CASCADE option suitable for “relationship” relations

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 13

 Example of Create Table with Constraints

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 14

 SQL Queries & Data Manipulation

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 15

 Basic Retrieval Queries in SQL

SELECT statement
 One basic statement for retrieving information from a database.
 SELECT lists the attributes desired in the result. It corresponds to “Projection” in relational algebra.

SELECT <Attribute List>

FROM <Table List>
[WHERE <Conditions>]

[ORDER BY <Attribute List>]

 <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.

 Use ORDER BY clause:


Keyword D E S C to see result in a descending order of values

Keyword A S C to specify ascending order explicitly

Typically placed at the end of the query
Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 16
 SELECT (cont.)

Example: find the names of all instructors:
select name
from instructor
 NOTE: SQL names are case insensitive (i.e., you may use upper- or lower-case letters.)
e.g., Name ≡ NAME ≡ name

Some people use UPPER CASE while others use bold font for SQL Keywords.

SQL allows duplicates in relations as well as in query results.

An asterisk in the select clause denotes “all attributes”
select * from instructor

To force the elimination of duplicates, insert the keyword distinct after select.

Find the department names of all instructors, and remove duplicates
select distinct dept_name
from instructor

The keyword all specifies that duplicates should not be removed.

select all dept_name

from instructor

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 17

 Aggregate Functions
●
These functions operate on the multiset of values of a column of a relation, and return a scaler value.
●
The returned value is a scaler not a set not a relation.

avg: average value

min: minimum value

max: maximum value

sum: sum of values

count: number of values

●
Examples:

(1) Find the average salary of instructors in the Computer Science department

select avg (salary)

from instructor
where dept_name= 'Comp. Sci.';

(2) Find the total number of instructors who teach a course in the Spring 2018 semester

select count (distinct ID)

from teaches
where semester = 'Spring' and year = 2018;

(3) Find the number of tuples in the course relation

select count (*)

from course;

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 18

 Aggregate Functions- Group by
●
Find the average salary of instructors in each department
select dept_name, avg (salary) as avg_salary
from instructor
group by dept_name
●
Attributes in select clause outside of aggregate functions must appear in group by list
/* Bad query */
select dept_name, ID, avg (salary)
from instructor
group by dept_name;

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 19

 Aggregate Functions- Having Clause
●
Find the names and average salaries of all departments whose average salary is greater than
42000
select dept_name, avg (salary) as avg_salary
from instructor
group by dept_name
having avg (salary) > 42000;

●
Note: predicates in the having clause are applied after the formation of groups whereas
predicates in the where clause are applied before forming groups

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 20

 Nested Subqueries

Subquery: a query inside another query.

Keywords IN & NOT IN:
SELECT *
FROM students
WHERE student_ID IN (SELECT students_ID
FROM students
WHERE GPA > 3.4 AND Level = 2);

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 21

 WHERE Clause

SQL allows the use of the logical connectives and, or, and not

The operands of the logical connectives can be expressions involving the comparison operators <, <=, >, >=, =, and <>.

Comparisons can be applied to results of arithmetic expressions

To find all instructors in Comp. Sci. dept with salary > 70000
select name
from instructor
where dept_name = 'Comp. Sci.' and salary > 70000


LIKE comparison operator: Used for string pattern matching
 % replaces an arbitrary number of zero or more characters
 underscore (_) replaces a single character
 Examples:
WHERE Address LIKE ‘%Houston,TX%’;
WHERE Ssn LIKE ‘_ _ 1_ _ 8901’;

BETWEEN comparison operator:

WHERE(Salary BETWEEN 30000 AND 40000) AND Dno = 5;

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 22
 Qualifiers & Alias

Same name can be used for two (or more) attributes in different relations:
 As long as the attributes are in different relations
 Must qualify the attribute name with the relation name to prevent ambiguity
 Example:
SELECT Fname, EMPLOYEE.Name, Address
FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT
WHERE DEPARTMENT.Name=’Research’ AND DEPARTMENT.Dnumber=EMPLOYEE.Dnumber;

Using Aliases or renaming Table or Tuple Variables:
Example: For each employee, retrieve the employee’s first and last name and the first and last name of his or her
immediate supervisor.

SELECT E.Fname, E.Lname, S.Fname, S.Lname

FROM EMPLOYEE AS E, EMPLOYEE AS S
WHERE E.Super_ssn=S.Ssn;

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 23

 Database Modification

Insert new tuples into a given relation

Delete tuples from a given relation.

Update values in some tuples in a given relation

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 24

 Updates to Tables

Insert
insert into instructor values ('10211', 'Smith', 'Biology', 66000);

Delete
 Remove all tuples from the student relation
delete from student

Drop Table
drop table r

Alter
alter table r add A D
 where A is the name of the attribute to be added to relation r and D is the domain of A.
 All exiting tuples in the relation are assigned null as the value for the new attribute.
alter table r drop A
 where A is the name of an attribute of relation r
 Dropping of attributes not supported by many databases.
Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 25
 Delete

Delete all instructors

delete from instructor


Delete all instructors from the Finance department

delete from instructor

where dept_name= 'Finance’;

Delete all tuples in the instructor relation for those instructors associated with a department located in the Watson building.

delete from instructor

where dept name in (select dept name
from department
where building = 'Watson');

Delete all instructors whose salary is less than the average salary of instructors

delete from instructor

where salary < (select avg (salary) from instructor);
 Problem: as we delete tuples from instructor, the average salary changes
 Solution used in SQL:

First, compute avg (salary) and find all tuples to delete

Next, delete all tuples found above (without recomputing avg or retesting the tuples)

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 26

 Insert

Add a new tuple to course

insert into course

values ('CSB-2204', 'Database Systems', 'Comp. Sci.', 3);

or equivalently

insert into course (course_id, title, dept_name, credits)

values ('CSB-2204', 'Database Systems', 'Comp. Sci.', 3);

Add a new tuple to student with tot_creds set to null

insert into student

values ('3003', 'Green', 'Finance', null);

Make each student in the Music department who has earned more than 144 credit hours an instructor in the Music department with a
salary of $18,000.

insert into instructor

(select ID, name, dept_name, 18000
from student
where dept_name = 'Music' and total_cred > 144);
 The inner select from where statement is evaluated fully before any of its results are inserted into the relation.
 Otherwise queries like the following would cause problem:
insert into table1 select * from table1

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 27

 Update…..Set

Give a 5% salary raise to all instructors:

update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05

Give a 5% salary raise to those instructors who earn less than 70000
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05
where salary < 70000;

Give a 5% salary raise to instructors whose salary is less than average
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05
where salary < (select avg (salary)
from instructor);

Increase salaries of instructors whose salary is over $100,000 by 3%, and all others by a 5%. Write two update statements:

update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.03
where salary > 100000;

update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05
where salary <= 100000;

The order is important

Can be done better using the case statement (next slide)
Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 28
 Update…..Set

Give a 5% salary raise to all instructors:
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05

Give a 5% salary raise to those instructors who earn less than 70000
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05
where salary < 70000;

Give a 5% salary raise to instructors whose salary is less than average
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05
where salary < (select avg (salary)
from instructor);

Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 29

 Update…..Set

Increase salaries of instructors whose salary is over $100,000 by 3%, and all others by a 5%. By
writing two update statements:
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.03
where salary > 100000;

update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05
where salary <= 100000;

There is a problem because order is important. Some instructors can have boththe 3% and the 5%
increase.

Can be done better using the case statement:
update instructor
set salary = case
when salary <= 100000 then salary * 1.05
else salary * 1.03
end
Spring 2025 BUA-AI & DM School 30
 Example of CREATE, INSERT, SELECT
1) Create Tables:
CREATE TABLE Suppliers (
SupplierID INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
SupplierName VARCHAR(100)
);
CREATE TABLE Products (
ProductID INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
ProductName VARCHAR(100),
SupplierID INT,
FOREIGN KEY (SupplierID) REFERENCES Suppliers(SupplierID)
);

2) Insert Data into Tables:

INSERT INTO Suppliers (SupplierName) VALUES ('Acme Corp'), ('Global Supplies');

INSERT INTO Products (ProductName, SupplierID) VALUES ('Laptop', 1), ('Mouse', NULL);

(3) Select Data from Tables:

SELECT * FROM Suppliers;

SELECT * FROM Products;

BUA-AI & DM School 31

 ???

BUA-AI & DM School 32