Introduction to SQL Commands

In today’s world of increased digitization, big data, and cloud computing, data management is amongst the most important skills a software engineer can have. To this end, one of the most powerful database tools is SQL.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is the standard programming language used to manipulate data structure objects. They operate upon data that is contained in a relational database management system (RDBMS). Some well-known RDBMS are MySQL and PostgreSQL.

In this guide, you learn about the subsets of the SQL language and how to use some fundamental SQL commands, like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE.

Subsets of SQL

The list below includes the different language subsets of various SQL commands. Each subset has its own function and purpose.

• Data Definition Language (DDL): This allows you to create, delete, and update database schema definitions (namely, tables and indexes), without actually manipulating the data within the database tables.
• Data Query Language (DQL): DQL is used to retrieve data from the database using the SELECT statement.
• Data Manipulation Language (DML): This sublanguage allows for data manipulation in the database using the INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements.

This guide uses an example database for a school to further demonstrate the SQL commands for each subset listed above. The school database has several tables, for students, courses, grades, and so forth. The definition of the Student table contains columns for the student’s SSNumber, Firstname, and Lastname, and the definition of the CourseTaken table contains columns for SSNumber, CourseId, NumericGrade, and YearTaken.

The example assumes that there are three students in the school, each of which has completed two courses. The sample data is shown in the table below:

Create, Alter, and Drop Tables using SQL Commands

From the command line, use the CREATE TABLE command followed by the name of the table and the table data. The command below creates the Student table.

CREATE TABLE Student (
  SSNumber CHAR(9) NOT NULL,
  LastName VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
  FirstName VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL
);

The parenthesis encloses the table data, starting with a column that labels each row’s data. The next column indicates the data type that this row holds. CHAR indicates a fixed-length string data type and VARCHAR indicates a variable-length string data type. In the final column, the NOT NULL attribute ensures that a record cannot be added to the table if any of the NOT NULL columns do not have data associated with them.

To create the CourseTaken table, execute the following command:

CREATE TABLE CourseTaken (
  SSNumber CHAR(9) NOT NULL,
  CourseId CHAR(6) NOT NULL,
  NumericGrade INT NOT NULL
);

The YearTaken column is intentionally not included in the CourseTaken table to demonstrate the usage of the ALTER TABLE command. To add the YearTaken column in the CourseTaken table, you don’t need to drop the CourseTaken table entirely. Instead, you can use the DDL ALTER TABLE command. The following command alters the CourseTaken table by adding the missing column to the table.

ALTER TABLE CourseTaken
  ADD (YearTaken INT NOT NULL);

The command above follows a similar syntax as before. It requires the table name as well as three arguments: row name, row data type, and NOT NULL attribute. If you want to delete the CourseTaken table entirely, issue the DDL DROP TABLE command followed by the table name.

DROP TABLE CourseTaken;

How to Insert Data Into a Table in SQL

To insert the data into the table, use the SQL INSERT INTO statement. To call this command, provide the table name and the list of row names (in parenthesis) that you want to insert the data into. This is followed by the VALUES keyword and the actual values (in parenthesis) that you wish to insert. The values are inserted into the rows in order of which they are called.

The following INSERT commands insert three rows into the Student table. These commands use multiple INSERT statements.

INSERT INTO Student (SSNumber, LastName, FirstName) VALUES
('111111111', 'Smith', 'John');

INSERT INTO Student (SSNumber, LastName, FirstName) VALUES
('222222222', 'Jones', 'Mary');

INSERT INTO Student (SSNumber, LastName, FirstName) VALUES
('333333333', 'Hansen', 'Robert');

Similarly, you can also insert multiple rows into the table in a single SQL query as shown below:

INSERT INTO CourseTaken
(SSNumber, CourseId, NumericGrade, YearTaken)
VALUES
('111111111', 'CSC101', 98, 2021),
('111111111', 'ENG101', 95, 2022),
('222222222', 'CSC101', 100, 2022);

INSERT INTO student VALUES ('111111111', 'Smith', 'John');

Delete Data From a Table

To delete data from a table, use the SQL DELETE FROM statement. Use the WHERE clause to specify the condition, and if there is more than one condition, use the AND clause along with WHERE.

For example, the following command deletes a record from the CourseTaken table with SSNumber 333333333 and CourseId POL101.

DELETE FROM CourseTaken WHERE SSNumber = '333333333' AND CourseId = 'POL101';

SQL Command to Update Data in a Table

To update the existing record in a table, use the SQL UPDATE command. The SET clause is used to set (update) a new value to a particular column and the WHERE clause is used to update the selected rows.

For example, the following command updates the NumericGrade column of the CourseTaken table for records with SSNumber 222222222 and CourseId EEE101.

UPDATE CourseTaken
SET NumericGrade = 95
WHERE SSNumber = '222222222' AND CourseId = 'EEE101';

SQL Command to Retrieve Data From a Table

The true power of relational database systems is in its ability to retrieve information in a multi-table schema, via the SQL SELECT command, and the ability to join tables via common keys. Although this introductory guide does not examine the creation of keys and indexes utilizing those keys, it utilizes the SSNumber column of each table as a vehicle (key) to relate (or join) the tables to generate information. The following examples provide different use cases of using the SQL SELECT command from the command line.

Example 1: To fetch the list of all students in the school.

SELECT * from Student;

Output:

+-----------+----------+-----------+
| SSNumber  | LastName | FirstName |
+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 111111111 | Smith    | John      |
| 222222222 | Jones    | Mary      |
| 333333333 | Hansen   | Robert    |
+-----------+----------+-----------+

Example 2: To fetch the list of all students and courses they have taken.

SELECT Student.SSNumber, Student.LastName,
       Student.FirstName, CourseTaken.CourseId
FROM Student, CourseTaken
WHERE Student.SSNumber = CourseTaken.SSNumber;

Output:

+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| SSNumber  | LastName | FirstName | CourseId |
+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| 111111111 | Smith    | John      | CSC101   |
| 111111111 | Smith    | John      | ENG101   |
| 222222222 | Jones    | Mary      | CSC101   |
+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+

Example 3: Retrieve the list of students with CourseId CSC101 and the year that they took this course.

SELECT Student.LastName, Student.FirstName,
       CourseTaken.CourseId, CourseTaken.YearTaken
FROM Student, CourseTaken
WHERE Student.SSNumber = CourseTaken.SSNumber
AND CourseTaken.CourseId = 'CSC101';

Output:

+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| LastName | FirstName | CourseId | YearTaken |
+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+
| Smith    | John      | CSC101   |      2021 |
| Jones    | Mary      | CSC101   |      2022 |
+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+

Example 4: Retrieve the list of student names, courses taken and grades received, for those that had course grades above 90.

SELECT Student.LastName, Student.FirstName,
       CourseTaken.CourseId, CourseTaken.NumericGrade
FROM Student, CourseTaken
WHERE Student.SSNumber = CourseTaken.SSNumber
AND CourseTaken.NumericGrade > 90;

Output:

+----------+-----------+----------+--------------+
| LastName | FirstName | CourseId | NumericGrade |
+----------+-----------+----------+--------------+
| Smith    | John      | ENG101   |           95 |
| Smith    | John      | CSC101   |           98 |
| Jones    | Mary      | CSC101   |          100 |
+----------+-----------+----------+--------------+

Conclusion

This guide on SQL commands is an introductory primer on how to create database schemas and manipulate data within those databases. Although the concepts introduced here merely scratch the surface in regard to relational database systems’ usage, it as a good starting point for basic and essential commands and concepts.