SQL
Structured Query Language (SQL) is a language that provides an interface to relational database systems. The proper pronunciation of SQL, and the preferred pronunciation within Oracle Corp, is "sequel" and not "ess cue ell".
SQL was developed by IBM in the 1970s for use in System R, and is a de facto standard, as well as an ISO and ANSI standard.
DDL
Data Definition Language: statements used to define the database structure or schema. Some examples:
- CREATE - to create objects in the database
- ALTER - alters the structure of the database
- DROP - delete objects from the database
- TRUNCATE - remove all records from a table, including all spaces allocated for the records are removed
- COMMENT - add comments to the data dictionary
- RENAME - rename an object
DML
Data Manipulation Language: statements used for managing data within schema objects. Some examples:
- SELECT - retrieve data from the a database
- INSERT - insert data into a table
- UPDATE - updates existing data within a table
- DELETE - deletes all records from a table, the space for the records remain
- MERGE - UPSERT operation (insert or update)
- CALL - call a PL/SQL or Java subprogram
- EXPLAIN PLAN - explain access path to the data
- LOCK TABLE - controls concurrency
DCL
Data Control Language
- GRANT - gives user's access privileges to database
- REVOKE - withdraw access privileges given with the GRANT command
TCL
Transaction Control: statements used to manage the changes made by DML statements. It allows statements to be grouped together into logical transactions.
- COMMIT - save work done
- SAVEPOINT - identify a point in a transaction to which you can later roll back
- ROLLBACK - undo the modification I made since the last COMMIT
- SET TRANSACTION - Change transaction options like isolation level and what rollback segment to use
- SET ROLE - set the current active roles
Difference between TRUNCATE, DELETE and DROP
The DELETE command is used to remove some or all rows from a table. A WHERE clause can be used to only remove some rows. If no WHERE condition is specified, all rows will be removed. After performing a DELETE operation you need to COMMIT or ROLLBACK the transaction to make the change permanent or to undo it. Note that this operation will cause all DELETE triggers on the table to fire.
SQL> SELECT COUNT (*) FROM emp;
COUNT (*)
----------
14
SQL> DELETE FROM emp WHERE job = 'CLERK';
4 rows deleted.
SQL> COMMIT;
Commit complete.
SQL> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM emp;
COUNT(*)
----------
10
TRUNCATE removes all rows from a table. The operation cannot be rolled back and no triggers will be fired. As such, TRUNCATE is faster and doesn't use as much undo space as a DELETE.
SQL> TRUNCATE TABLE emp;
Table truncated.
SQL> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM emp;
COUNT(*)
----------
0
The DROP command removes a table from the database. All the tables' rows, indexes and privileges will also be removed. No DML triggers will be fired. The operation cannot be rolled back.
SQL> DROP TABLE emp;
Table dropped.
SQL> SELECT * FROM emp;
SELECT * FROM emp
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00942: table or view does not exist
DROP and TRUNCATE are DDL commands, whereas DELETE is a DML command. Therefore DELETE operations can be rolled back (undone), while DROP and TRUNCATE operations cannot be rolled back.
Select a random collection of rows from a table
The SAMPLE Clause
From Oracle 8i, the easiest way to randomly select rows from a table is to use the SAMPLE clause with a SELECT statement. Examples:
SELECT * FROM emp SAMPLE(10);
In the above example, Oracle is instructed to randomly return 10% of the rows in the table.
SELECT * FROM emp SAMPLE(5) BLOCKS;
This example will sample 5% of all formatted database blocks instead of rows.
This clause only works for single table queries on local tables. If you include the SAMPLE clause within a multi-table or remote query, you will get a parse error or "ORA-30561: SAMPLE option not allowed in statement with multiple table references". One way around this is to create an inline view on the driving table of the query with the SAMPLE clause. Example:
SELECT t1.dept, t2.emp
FROM (SELECT * FROM dept SAMPLE(5)) t1,
emp t2 WHERE t1.dep_id = t2.dep_id;
ORDER BY dbms_random.value()
This method orders the data by a random column number. Example:
SQL> SELECT * FROM (SELECT ename
2 FROM emp
3 ORDER BY dbms_random.value())
4 WHERE rownum <= 3;
ENAME
----------
WARD
MILLER
TURNER
How does one eliminate duplicates rows from a table
Choose one of the following queries to identify or remove duplicate rows from a table leaving only unique records in the table:
Method 1:
Delete all rowids that is BIGGER than the SMALLEST rowid value (for a given key):
SQL> DELETE FROM table_name A
2 WHERE ROWID > ( SELECT min(rowid)
3 FROM table_name B
4 WHERE A.key_values = B.key_values );
Method 2:
This method is usually faster. However, remember to recreate all indexes, constraints, triggers, etc. on the table when done.
SQL> create table table_name2 as select distinct * from table_name1;
SQL> drop table table_name1;
SQL> rename table_name2 to table_name1;
Method 3:
SQL> DELETE FROM my_table t1
2 WHERE EXISTS ( SELECT 'x' FROM my_table t2
3 WHERE t2.key_value1 = t1.key_value1
4 AND t2.key_value2 = t1.key_value2
4 AND t2.rowid > t1.rowid );
Note: One can eliminate N^2 unnecessary operations by creating an index on the joined fields in the inner loop (no need to loop through the entire table on each pass by a record). This will speed-up the deletion process.
Note 2: If you are comparing NULL columns, use the NVL function. Remember that NULL is not equal to NULL. This should not be a problem as all key columns should be NOT NULL by definition.
Method 4:
This method collects the first row (order by rowid) for each key values and delete the rows that are not in this set:
SQL> DELETE FROM my_table t1
1 WHERE rowid NOT IN ( SELECT min(rowid)
2 FROM my_table t2
3 GROUP BY key_value1, key_value2 );
Note: IF key_value1 is null or key_value2 is null, this still works correctly
How does one get the time difference between two date columns?
Oracle allows two date values to be subtracted from each other returning a numeric value indicating the number of days between the two dates (may be a fraction). This example will show how to relate it back to a time value.
Let's investigate some solutions. Test data:
SQL> CREATE TABLE dates (date1 DATE, date2 DATE);
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> INSERT INTO dates VALUES (SYSDATE, SYSDATE-1);
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO dates VALUES (SYSDATE, SYSDATE-1/24);
1 row created.
SQL> INSERT INTO dates VALUES (SYSDATE, SYSDATE-1/60/24);
1 row created.
SQL> SELECT (date1 - date2) FROM dates;
DATE1-DATE2
-----------
1
.041666667
.000694444
Solution 1
SQL> SELECT floor(((date1-date2)*24*60*60)/3600)
2 || ' HOURS ' ||
3 floor((((date1-date2)*24*60*60) -
4 floor(((date1-date2)*24*60*60)/3600)*3600)/60)
5 || ' MINUTES ' ||
6 round((((date1-date2)*24*60*60) -
7 floor(((date1-date2)*24*60*60)/3600)*3600 -
8 (floor((((date1-date2)*24*60*60) -
9 floor(((date1-date2)*24*60*60)/3600)*3600)/60)*60) ))
10 || ' SECS ' time_difference
11 FROM dates;
TIME_DIFFERENCE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------24 HOURS 0 MINUTES 0 SECS
1 HOURS 0 MINUTES 0 SECS
0 HOURS 1 MINUTES 0 SECS
Solution 2
If you don't want to go through the floor and ceiling maths, try this method:
SQL> SELECT to_number( to_char(to_date('1','J') +
2 (date1 - date2), 'J') - 1) days,
3 to_char(to_date('00:00:00','HH24:MI:SS') +
4 (date1 - date2), 'HH24:MI:SS') time
5 FROM dates;
DAYS TIME
---------- --------
1 00:00:00
0 01:00:00
0 00:01:00
Solution 3
Here is a simpler method:
SQL> SELECT trunc(date1-date2) days,
2 to_char(trunc(sysdate) + (date1 - date2),
3 'HH24 "Hours" MI "Minutes" SS "Seconds"') time
4 FROM dates;
DAYS TIME
---------- ------------------------------
1 00 Hours 00 Minutes 00 Seconds
0 01 Hours 00 Minutes 00 Seconds
0 00 Hours 01 Minutes 00 Seconds
How does one add a day/hour/minute/second to a date value?
The SYSDATE pseudo-column shows the current system date and time. Adding 1 to SYSDATE will advance the date by 1 day. Use fractions to add hours, minutes or seconds to the date. Look at these examples:
SQL> select sysdate, sysdate+1/24, sysdate +1/1440, sysdate + 1/86400 from dual;
SYSDATE SYSDATE+1/24 SYSDATE+1/1440 SYSDATE+1/86400
-------------------- -------------------- -------------------- --------------------
03-Jul-2002 08:32:12 03-Jul-2002 09:32:12 03-Jul-2002 08:33:12 03-Jul-2002 08:32:13
The following format is frequently used with Oracle Replication:
select sysdate NOW, sysdate+30/(24*60*60) NOW_PLUS_30_SECS from dual;
NOW NOW_PLUS_30_SECS
-------------------- --------------------
03-JUL-2005 16:47:23 03-JUL-2005 16:47:53
Here are a couple of examples:
| Description | Date Expression |
| Now | SYSDATE |
| Tomorow/ next day | SYSDATE + 1 |
| Seven days from now | SYSDATE + 7 |
| One hour from now | SYSDATE + 1/24 |
| Three hours from now | SYSDATE + 3/24 |
| A half hour from now | SYSDATE + 1/48 |
| 10 minutes from now | SYSDATE + 10/1440 |
| 30 seconds from now | SYSDATE + 30/86400 |
| Tomorrow at 12 midnight | TRUNC(SYSDATE + 1) |
| Tomorrow at 8 AM | TRUNC(SYSDATE + 1) + 8/24 |
| Next Monday at 12:00 noon | NEXT_DAY(TRUNC(SYSDATE), 'MONDAY') + 12/24 |
| First day of the month at 12 midnight | TRUNC(LAST_DAY(SYSDATE ) + 1) |
| The next Monday, Wednesday or Friday at 9 a.m | TRUNC(LEAST(NEXT_DAY(sysdate, 'MONDAY'), NEXT_DAY(sysdate, 'WEDNESDAY'), NEXT_DAY(sysdate, 'FRIDAY'))) + 9/24 |
Newbies frequently ask how one can display "rows as columns" or "columns as rows". Look at these example crosstab queries (also sometimes called transposed, matrix or pivot queries):
SELECT *
FROM (SELECT job,
sum(decode(deptno,10,sal)) DEPT10,
sum(decode(deptno,20,sal)) DEPT20,
sum(decode(deptno,30,sal)) DEPT30,
sum(decode(deptno,40,sal)) DEPT40
FROM scott.emp
GROUP BY job)
ORDER BY 1;
JOB DEPT10 DEPT20 DEPT30 DEPT40
--------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
ANALYST 6000
CLERK 1300 1900 950
MANAGER 2450 2975 2850
PRESIDENT 5000
SALESMAN 5600
Here is the same query with some fancy headers and totals:
SQL> ttitle "Crosstab Report"
SQL> break on report;
SQL> compute sum of dept10 dept20 dept30 dept40 total on report;
SQL>
SQL> SELECT *
2 FROM (SELECT job,
3 sum(decode(deptno,10,sal)) DEPT10,
4 sum(decode(deptno,20,sal)) DEPT20,
5 sum(decode(deptno,30,sal)) DEPT30,
6 sum(decode(deptno,40,sal)) DEPT40,
7 sum(sal) TOTAL
8 FROM emp
9 GROUP BY job)
10 ORDER BY 1;
Mon Aug 23 page 1
Crosstab Report
JOB DEPT10 DEPT20 DEPT30 DEPT40 TOTAL
--------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
ANALYST 6000 6000
CLERK 1300 1900 950 4150
MANAGER 2450 2975 2850 8275
PRESIDENT 5000 5000
SALESMAN 5600 5600
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
sum 8750 10875 9400 29025
Here's another variation on the theme:
SQL> SELECT DECODE(MOD(v.row#,3)
2 ,1, 'Number: ' ||deptno
3 ,2, 'Name: ' ||dname
4 ,0, 'Location: '||loc
5 ) AS "DATA"
6 FROM dept,
7 (SELECT rownum AS row# FROM user_objects WHERE rownum < 4) v
8 WHERE deptno = 30
9 /
DATA
--------------------------------------- ---------
Number: 30
Name: SALES
Location: CHICAGO
From Oracle 11g, we can use pivot option
Can one retrieve only rows X to Y from a table
SELECT * FROM (
SELECT ename, rownum rn
FROM emp WHERE rownum < 101
) WHERE RN between 91 and 100 ;
Note: the 101 is just one greater than the maximum row of the required rows (means x= 90, y=100, so the inner values is y+1).
SELECT rownum, f1 FROM t1
GROUP BY rownum, f1 HAVING rownum BETWEEN 2 AND 4;
Another solution is to use the MINUS operation. For example, to display rows 5 to 7, construct a query like this:
SELECT *
FROM tableX
WHERE rowid in (
SELECT rowid FROM tableX
WHERE rownum <= 7
MINUS
SELECT rowid FROM tableX
WHERE rownum < 5);
"this one was faster for me and allowed for sorting before filtering by rownum. The inner query (table A) can be a series of tables joined together with any operation before the filtering by rownum is applied."
SELECT *
FROM (SELECT a.*, rownum RN
FROM (SELECT *
FROM t1 ORDER BY key_column) a
WHERE rownum <=7)
WHERE rn >=5;
Please note, there is no explicit row order in a relational database. However, this query is quite fun and may even help in the odd situation.
The generic solution to get full information of rows between x and y
SELECT * FROM emp WHERE empno in (SELECT empno FROM emp GROUP BY rownum,empno HAVING rownum BETWEEN &x AND &y);
"select particular rows from a table : select for rownum = 4, 15 and 17."
select * from (
select rownum myrownum, emp.* from employees emp
) mytable
where myrownum in (4,15,17);
"selecting row between range of rownum: select for rownum between (12, 20)."
select * from (
select rownum myrownum, emp.* from employees emp
) mytable
where myrownum between 12 and 20;
"Replace 12 and 20 with &x and &y respectively to assign range dynamically."
select * from (
select rownum myrownum, emp.* from employees emp
) mytable
where myrownum between &x and &y;
"Combined query to give complete flexibility to pick particular rows and also a given range."
select * from (
select rownum myrownum, emp.* from employees emp
) mytable
where myrownum between 12 and 17
or myrownum in ( 3, 18, 25);
Can one retrieve only the Nth row from a table?
SELECT * FROM t1 a
WHERE n = (SELECT COUNT(rowid)
FROM t1 b
WHERE a.rowid >= b.rowid);
SELECT * FROM (
SELECT ENAME,ROWNUM RN FROM EMP WHERE ROWNUM < 101 )
WHERE RN = 100;
Note: In this first query we select one more than the required row number, then we select the required one. Its far better than using a MINUS operation.
SELECT f1 FROM t1 WHERE rowid = (SELECT rowid FROM t1 WHERE rownum <= 10 MINUS
SELECT rowid FROM t1 WHERE rownum < 10);
SELECT rownum,empno FROM scott.emp a
GROUP BY rownum,empno HAVING rownum = 4;
Alternatively...
SELECT * FROM emp WHERE rownum=1 AND rowid NOT IN
(SELECT rowid FROM emp WHERE rownum < 10);
Please note, there is no explicit row order in a relational database. However, this query is quite fun and may even help in the odd situation.
How does one add a column to the middle of a table?
Oracle only allows columns to be added to the end of an existing table. Example:
SQL> CREATE TABLE tab1 ( col1 NUMBER );
Table created.
SQL> ALTER TABLE tab1 ADD (col2 DATE);
Table altered.
SQL> DESC tab1
Name Null? Type
----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------
COL1 NUMBER
COL2 DATE
Nevertheless, some databases also allow columns to be added to an existing table after a particular column (i.e. in the middle of the table). For example, in MySQL the following syntax is valid:
ALTER TABLE tablename ADD columnname AFTER columnname;
Oracle does not support this syntax. However, it doesn't mean that it cannot be done.
Workarounds:
1. Create a new table and copy the data across.
SQL> RENAME tab1 TO tab1_old;
Table renamed.
SQL> CREATE TABLE tab1 AS SELECT 0 AS col1, col1 AS col2 FROM tab1_old;
Table created.
2. Rename the table and create a view upon it with its former name and with the columns in the order you want.
3. Use the DBMS_REDEFINITION package to change the structure on-line while users are working.
How does one count/sum data values in a column?
Count/sum FIX values:
Use this simple query to count the number of data values in a column:
select my_table_column, count(*)
from my_table
group by my_table_column;
A more sophisticated example...
select dept, count(decode(sex,'M',1)) MALE,
count(decode(sex,'F',1)) FEMALE,
count(decode(sex,'M',null,'F',null,1)) OTHER,
count(*) TOTAL
from my_emp_table
group by dept;
Adding an expression to the indexed column
SQL>select count(*) from t where empno+0=1000;
COUNT(*)
----------
1
Execution Plan
--------------------------------------------- ----- --------
0 SELECT STATEMENT Optimizer=CHOOSE (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=3)
1 0 SORT (AGGREGATE)
2 1 TABLE ACCESS (FULL) OF 'T' (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=3)
Specifying the FULL hint to force full table scan
SQL>select /*+ FULL(t) */ * from t where empno=1000;
EMPNO ENAME JOB MGR HIREDATE SAL COMM DEPTNO GRADE
---------- ---------- --------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
1000 Victor DBA 7839 20-MAY-03 11000 0 10 JUNIOR
Execution Plan
--------------------------------------------- ----- --------
0 SELECT STATEMENT Optimizer=CHOOSE (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=41)
1 0 TABLE ACCESS (FULL) OF 'T' (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=41)
Specifying NO_INDEX hint
SQL>select /*+ NO_INDEX(T) */ count(*) from t where empno=1000;
COUNT(*)
----------
1
Execution Plan
--------------------------------------------- ----- --------
0 SELECT STATEMENT Optimizer=CHOOSE (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=3)
1 0 SORT (AGGREGATE)
2 1 TABLE ACCESS (FULL) OF 'T' (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=3)
Using a function over the indexed column
SQL>select count(*) from t where to_number(empno)=1000;
COUNT(*)
----------
1
Execution Plan
--------------------------------------------- ----- --------
0 SELECT STATEMENT Optimizer=CHOOSE (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=3)
1 0 SORT (AGGREGATE)
2 1 TABLE ACCESS (FULL) OF 'T' (Cost=2 Card=1 Bytes=3)
How does one select EVERY Nth row from a table?
One can easily select all even, odd, or Nth rows from a table using SQL queries like this:
SELECT *
FROM emp
WHERE (ROWID,0) IN (SELECT ROWID, MOD(ROWNUM,4)
FROM emp);
Method 2: Use dynamic views (available from Oracle7.2):
SELECT *FROM ( SELECT rownum rn, empno, ename FROM emp) temp
WHERE MOD(temp.ROWNUM,4) = 0;
Method 3: Using GROUP BY and HAVING
SELECT rownum, f1 FROM t1
GROUP BY rownum, f1 HAVING MOD(rownum,n) = 0 OR rownum = 2-n;
Please note, there is no explicit row order in a relational database. However, these queries are quite fun and may even help in the odd situation.
How to generate a text graphs (histograms) using SQL?
SELECT d.dname AS "Department",
LPAD('+', COUNT(*), '+') as "Graph"
FROM emp e, dept d
WHERE e.deptno = d.deptno
GROUP BY d.dname;
Sample output:
Department Graph
-------------- --------------------------------------------------
ACCOUNTING +++
RESEARCH +++++
SALES ++++++
In the above example, the value returned by COUNT(*) is used to control the number of "*" characters to return for each department. We simply pass COUNT(*) as an argument to the string function LPAD (or RPAD) to return the desired number of *'s
What is the difference between VARCHAR, VARCHAR2 and CHAR data types?
Both CHAR and VARCHAR2 types are used to store character string values, however, they behave very differently. The VARCHAR type should not be used:
CHAR
CHAR should be used for storing fixed length character strings. String values will be space/blank padded before stored on disk. If this type is used to store variable length strings, it will waste a lot of disk space.
SQL> CREATE TABLE char_test (col1 CHAR(10));
Table created.
SQL> INSERT INTO char_test VALUES ('qwerty');
1 row created.
SQL> SELECT col1, length(col1), dump(col1) "ASCII Dump" FROM char_test;
COL1 LENGTH(COL1) ASCII Dump
---------- ------------ ------------------------------------------------------------
qwerty 10 Typ=96 Len=10: 113,119,101,114,116,121,32,32,32,32
Note: ASCII character 32 is a blank space.
VARCHAR
Currently VARCHAR behaves exactly the same as VARCHAR2. However, this type should not be used as it is reserved for future usage.
SQL> CREATE TABLE varchar_test (col1 VARCHAR2(10));
Table created.
SQL> INSERT INTO varchar_test VALUES ('qwerty');
1 row created.
SQL> SELECT col1, length(col1), dump(col1) "ASCII Dump" FROM varchar_test;
COL1 LENGTH(COL1) ASCII Dump
---------- ------------ ------------------------------------------------------------
qwerty 6 Typ=1 Len=6: 113,119,101,114,116,121
VARCHAR2
VARCHAR2 is used to store variable length character strings. The string value's length will be stored on disk with the value itself.
SQL> CREATE TABLE varchar2_test (col1 VARCHAR2(10));
Table created.
SQL> INSERT INTO varchar2_test VALUES ('qwerty');
1 row created.
SQL> SELECT col1, length(col1), dump(col1) "ASCII Dump" FROM varchar2_test;
COL1 LENGTH(COL1) ASCII Dump
---------- ------------ ------------------------------------------------------------
qwerty 6 Typ=1 Len=6: 113,119,101,114,116,121
Indexes
An index can be created in a table to find data more quickly and efficiently.
The users cannot see the indexes, they are just used to speed up searches/queries.
Note: Updating a table with indexes takes more time than updating a table without (because the indexes also need an update). So you should only create indexes on columns (and tables) that will be frequently searched against
DELETE- Notice the WHERE clause in the DELETE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which record or records that should be deleted. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be deleted!
UPDATE- Notice the WHERE clause in the UPDATE syntax. The WHERE clause specifies which record or records that should be updated. If you omit the WHERE clause, all records will be updated!
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