Sams Teach Yourself SQL in One Hour a Day Book

The Fifth Edition of Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days

More than 48,000 sold!

In just one hour a day, you’ll have all the skills you need to begin creating effective SQL queries, reports, and database applications. With this complete tutorial, you’ll quickly master the basics and then move on to more advanced features and concepts:

• Quickly apply essential SQL techniques in useful, real-world queries
• Design trustworthy, high-performance databases
• Manipulate your data with views and transactions
• Leverage powerful features including stored procedures, triggers, and cursors
• Work with new objects introduced with the latest SQL standards
• Get practical, expert tips on implementing SQL in your business environment

Learn on your own time, at your own pace

• No previous SQL or database experience required
• Learn techniques that work with any current version of SQL
• Discover how to write faster, more efficient queries
• Secure your data using best practices from experienced database administrators
• Build more powerful databases with features exclusive to Oracle SQL*Plus, Oracle PL/SQL, and Microsoft Transact-SQL
• Write queries for the free, open source MySQL database
• Embed your SQL code in other applications

Ryan Stephens and Ron Plew are President and VP of Perpetual Technologies, Inc. (PTI) in Indianapolis, IN, providing managed services and consulting for top database implementations running Oracle, SQL Server, and other leading technologies. They taught for 5+ years as adjunct professors at Indiana University-Purdue University. Their books include Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours, First through Fourth Editions, Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Second through Fourth Editions, and Database Design.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

PART I: Introducing SQL

LESSON 1: Getting Started with SQL 5

A Brief History of SQL 5

A Brief History of Databases 6

Today’s Database Landscape 11

A Cross-Product Language 12

Early Implementations 12

SQL and Client/Server Application Development 13

An Overview of SQL 13

Popular SQL Implementations 14

MySQL 14

Oracle 14

Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase 15

IBM DB2 16

Open Database Connectivity 16

Embedding SQL in Application Programming 17

LESSON 2: Introducing the Query 21

Exploring SQL’s Background 21

Learning Basic Query Syntax 22

The Building Blocks of Data Retrieval: SELECT and FROM 23

Applying Query Concepts 25

Writing Your First Query 26

Terminating a SQL Statement 28

Selecting Individual Columns 28

Changing the Order of the Columns 29

Selecting Different Tables 31

Selecting Distinct Values 31

Exercises 37

LESSON 3: Expressions, Conditions, and Operators 39

Working with Query Expressions 40

Placing Conditions on Queries 40

Learning How to Use Operators 42

Arithmetic Operators 42

Comparison Operators 55

Character Operators 63

Logical Operators 70

Set Operators 75

Miscellaneous Operators: IN and BETWEEN 78

LESSON 4: Clauses in SQL Queries 85

Specifying Criteria with the WHERE Clause 87

Order from Chaos: The ORDER BY Clause 89

The GROUP BY Clause 98

The HAVING Clause 105

Combining Clauses 112

Example 4.1 112

Example 4.2 113

Example 4.3 113

Example 4.4 115

LESSON 5: Joining Tables 121

Joining Multiple Tables in a Single SELECT Statement 121

Cross Joining Tables 123

Finding the Correct Column 128

Joining Tables Based on Equality 129

Joining Tables Based on Nonequality 137

OUTER JOINs Versus INNER JOINs 139

Joining a Table to Itself: The Self Join 143

LESSON 6: Embedding Subqueries into Queries 151

Building a Subquery 153

Using Aggregate Functions with Subqueries 160

Nesting Subqueries 162

Referencing Outside with Correlated Subqueries 166

Using EXISTS, ANY, and ALL 169

LESSON 7: Molding Data with Built-in Functions 179

Using Aggregate Functions to Summarize Data 180

COUNT 180

SUM 181

AVG 182

MAX 184

MIN 185

&nb...