Basic SQL Queries

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 Why SQL?
§  SQL is a very-high-level language
§  Say “what to do” rather than “how to do it”
§  Avoid a lot of data-manipulation details
needed in procedural languages like C++ or
Java
§  Database management system figures
out “best” way to execute query
§  Called “query optimization”

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Select-From-Where Statements
SELECT desired attributes
FROM one or more tables
WHERE condition about tuples of
the tables

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 Our Running Example
§  All our SQL queries will be based on the
following database schema.
§  Underline indicates key attributes.
Beers(name, manf)
Bars(name, addr, license)
Drinkers(name, addr, phone)
Likes(drinker, beer)
Sells(bar, beer, price)
Frequents(drinker, bar)

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 Example

§  Using Beers(name, manf), what beers are

made by Albani Bryggerierne?
SELECT name
FROM Beers
WHERE manf = ’Albani’;

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 Result of Query
name
Od. Cl.
Eventyr
Blålys
...
The answer is a relation with a single attribute,
name, and tuples with the name of each beer
by Albani Bryggerierne, such as Odense Classic.
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Meaning of Single-Relation Query
§  Begin with the relation in the FROM
clause
§  Apply the selection indicated by the
WHERE clause
§  Apply the extended projection indicated
by the SELECT clause

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 Operational Semantics

name manf

Blålys Albani Include t.name

in the result, if so
Check if
Albani

Tuple-variable t
loops over all
tuples 8
Operational Semantics – General
§  Think of a tuple variable visiting each
tuple of the relation mentioned in FROM
§  Check if the “current” tuple satisfies the
WHERE clause
§  If so, compute the attributes or
expressions of the SELECT clause using
the components of this tuple

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 * In SELECT clauses

§  When there is one relation in the FROM

clause, * in the SELECT clause stands for
“all attributes of this relation”
§  Example: Using Beers(name, manf):
SELECT *
FROM Beers
WHERE manf = ’Albani’;

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 Result of Query:
name manf
Od.Cl. Albani
Eventyr Albani
Blålys Albani
... ...

Now, the result has each of the attributes

of Beers
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 Renaming Attributes

§  If you want the result to have different

attribute names, use “AS <new name>” to
rename an attribute
§  Example: Using Beers(name, manf):
SELECT name AS beer, manf
FROM Beers
WHERE manf = ’Albani’
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 Result of Query:
beer manf
Od.Cl. Albani
Eventyr Albani
Blålys Albani
... ...

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 Expressions in SELECT Clauses

§  Any expression that makes sense can

appear as an element of a SELECT clause
§  Example: Using Sells(bar, beer, price):
SELECT bar, beer,
price*0.134 AS priceInEuro
FROM Sells;

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 Result of Query
bar beer priceInEuro
C.Ch. Od.Cl. 2.68
C.Ch. Er.Wei. 4.69
… … …

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Example: Constants as Expressions

§  Using Likes(drinker, beer):

SELECT drinker, ’ likes Albani ’

AS whoLikesAlbani
FROM Likes
WHERE beer = ’Od.Cl.’;

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 Result of Query
drinker whoLikesAlbani
Peter likes Albani
Kim likes Albani
… …

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Example: Information Integration
§  We often build “data warehouses” from
the data at many “sources”
§  Suppose each bar has its own relation
Menu(beer, price)
§  To contribute to Sells(bar, beer, price)
we need to query each bar and insert
the name of the bar

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 Information Integration

§  For instance, at the Cafe Biografen we

can issue the query:
SELECT ’Cafe Bio’, beer, price
FROM Menu;

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 Complex Conditions in WHERE
Clause
§  Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT
§  Comparisons =, <>, <, >, <=, >=
§  And many other operators that produce
boolean-valued results

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 Example: Complex Condition

§  Using Sells(bar, beer, price), find the price

Cafe Biografen charges for Odense Classic:

SELECT price
FROM Sells
WHERE bar = ’Cafe Bio’ AND
beer = ’Od.Cl.’;
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 Patterns

§  A condition can compare a string to a

pattern by:
§  <Attribute> LIKE <pattern> or
<Attribute> NOT LIKE <pattern>
§  Pattern is a quoted string with
% = “any string”
_ = “any character”

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 Example: LIKE

§  Using Drinkers(name, addr, phone) find

the drinkers with address in Fynen:

SELECT name
FROM Drinkers
WHERE address LIKE ’%, 5___ %’;

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 NULL Values

§  Tuples in SQL relations can have NULL

as a value for one or more components
§  Meaning depends on context
§  Two common cases:
§  Missing value: e.g., we know Cafe Chino has
some address, but we don’t know what it is
§  Inapplicable: e.g., the value of attribute
spouse for an unmarried person
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 Comparing NULL’s to Values

§  The logic of conditions in SQL is really

3-valued logic: TRUE, FALSE,
UNKNOWN
§  Comparing any value (including NULL
itself) with NULL yields UNKNOWN
§  A tuple is in a query answer iff the
WHERE clause is TRUE
(not FALSE or UNKNOWN)
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 Three-Valued Logic

§  To understand how AND, OR, and NOT

work in 3-valued logic, think of TRUE = 1,
FALSE = 0, and UNKNOWN = ½
§  AND = MIN; OR = MAX; NOT(x) = 1-x
§  Example:
TRUE AND (FALSE OR NOT(UNKNOWN)) =
MIN(1, MAX(0, (1 - ½ ))) =
MIN(1, MAX(0, ½ )) = MIN(1, ½ ) = ½
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 Surprising Example
§  From the following Sells relation:
bar beer price
C.Ch. Od.Cl. NULL
SELECT bar
FROM Sells
WHERE price < 20 OR price >= 20;
UNKNOWN UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN 27
2-Valued Laws != 3-Valued Laws
§  Some common laws, like commutativity
of AND, hold in 3-valued logic
§  But not others, e.g., the law of the
excluded middle: p OR NOT p = TRUE
§  When p = UNKNOWN, the left side is
MAX( ½, (1 – ½ )) = ½ != 1

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 Multirelation Queries
§  Interesting queries often combine data
from more than one relation
§  We can address several relations in one
query by listing them all in the FROM
clause
§  Distinguish attributes of the same name
by “<relation>.<attribute>”

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 Example: Joining Two Relations
§  Using relations Likes(drinker, beer) and
Frequents(drinker, bar), find the beers liked
by at least one person who frequents C. Ch.
SELECT beer
FROM Likes, Frequents
WHERE bar = ’C.Ch.’ AND
Frequents.drinker =
Likes.drinker;

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 Formal Semantics
§  Almost the same as for single-relation
queries:
1.  Start with the product of all the relations
in the FROM clause
2.  Apply the selection condition from the
WHERE clause
3.  Project onto the list of attributes and
expressions in the SELECT clause

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 Operational Semantics
§  Imagine one tuple-variable for each
relation in the FROM clause
§  These tuple-variables visit each
combination of tuples, one from each
relation
§  If the tuple-variables are pointing to
tuples that satisfy the WHERE clause,
send these tuples to the SELECT clause

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 Example

drinker bar drinker beer

t1 t2
Peter Od.Cl.
Peter C.Ch.

check
For C.Ch. Likes
Frequents
check these to output
are equal
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 Explicit Tuple-Variables

§  Sometimes, a query needs to use two

copies of the same relation
§  Distinguish copies by following the
relation name by the name of a
tuple-variable, in the FROM clause
§  It’s always an option to rename
relations this way, even when not
essential
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 Example: Self-Join
§  From Beers(name, manf), find all pairs
of beers by the same manufacturer
§  Do not produce pairs like (Od.Cl., Od.Cl.)
§  Produce pairs in alphabetic order, e.g.,
(Blålys, Eventyr), not (Eventyr, Blålys)
SELECT b1.name, b2.name
FROM Beers b1, Beers b2
WHERE b1.manf = b2.manf AND
b1.name < b2.name;
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 Subqueries
§  A parenthesized SELECT-FROM-WHERE
statement (subquery) can be used as a
value in a number of places, including
FROM and WHERE clauses
§  Example: in place of a relation in the
FROM clause, we can use a subquery
and then query its result
§  Must use a tuple-variable to name tuples of
the result
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 Example: Subquery in FROM

§  Find the beers liked by at least one person

who frequents Cafe Chino Drinkers who
frequent C.Ch.
SELECT beer
FROM Likes, (SELECT drinker
FROM Frequents
WHERE bar = ’C.Ch.’)CCD
WHERE Likes.drinker = CCD.drinker;
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Subqueries That Return One Tuple
§  If a subquery is guaranteed to produce
one tuple, then the subquery can be
used as a value
§  Usually, the tuple has one component
§  A run-time error occurs if there is no tuple
or more than one tuple

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Example: Single-Tuple Subquery
§  Using Sells(bar, beer, price), find the
bars that serve Pilsener for the same
price Cafe Chino charges for Od.Cl.
§  Two queries would surely work:
1.  Find the price Cafe Chino charges for Od.Cl.
2.  Find the bars that serve Pilsener at that
price

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 Query + Subquery Solution
SELECT bar
FROM Sells
WHERE beer = ’Pilsener’ AND
price = (SELECT price
FROM Sells
WHERE bar = ’Cafe Chino’
The price at
Which C.Ch. AND beer = ’Od.Cl.’);
sells Od.Cl.

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 The IN Operator
§  <tuple> IN (<subquery>) is true if and
only if the tuple is a member of the
relation produced by the subquery
§  Opposite: <tuple> NOT IN (<subquery>)
§  IN-expressions can appear in WHERE
clauses

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 Example: IN

§  Using Beers(name, manf) and Likes(drinker,

beer), find the name and manufacturer of
each beer that Peter likes
SELECT *
FROM Beers
WHERE name IN (SELECT beer
The set of FROM Likes
Beers Peter
likes
WHERE drinker =
’Peter’);
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 What is the difference?
R(a,b); S(b,c)

SELECT a
FROM R, S
WHERE R.b = S.b;

SELECT a
FROM R
WHERE b IN (SELECT b FROM S);
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IN is a Predicate About R’s Tuples
SELECT a Two 2’s
FROM R
WHERE b IN (SELECT b FROM S);

a b b c (1,2) satisfies
1 2 2 5 the condition;
One loop, over
3 4 2 6 1 is output once
the tuples of R
R S

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This Query Pairs Tuples from R, S
SELECT a
FROM R, S
WHERE R.b = S.b;

a b b c (1,2) with (2,5)

1 2 2 5 and (1,2) with
Double loop, over
3 4 2 6 (2,6) both satisfy
the tuples of R and S
R S the condition;
1 is output twice
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 The Exists Operator
§  EXISTS(<subquery>) is true if and only
if the subquery result is not empty
§  Example: From Beers(name, manf),
find those beers that are the unique
beer by their manufacturer

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 Example: EXISTS
SELECT name Notice scope rule: manf refers
to closest nested FROM with
FROM Beers b1 a relation having that attribute

WHERE NOT EXISTS (

Set of SELECT *
beers Notice the
with the FROM Beers SQL “not
same equals”
manf as WHERE manf = b1.manf AND operator
b1, but
not the name <> b1.name);
same
beer
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 The Operator ANY

§  x = ANY(<subquery>) is a boolean

condition that is true iff x equals at least
one tuple in the subquery result
§  = could be any comparison operator.
§  Example: x >= ANY(<subquery>) means x
is not the uniquely smallest tuple produced
by the subquery
§  Note tuples must have one component only
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 The Operator ALL

§  x <> ALL(<subquery>) is true iff for

every tuple t in the relation, x is not
equal to t
§  That is, x is not in the subquery result
§  <> can be any comparison operator
§  Example: x >= ALL(<subquery>)
means there is no tuple larger than x in
the subquery result
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