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Practical SQL Handbook, The: Using SQL Variants, 4th Edition
- By Judith S. Bowman, Marcy Darnovsky, Sandra L. Emerson
- Published Jun 26, 2001 by Addison-Wesley Professional.
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- Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
About
Features
Judith S. Bowman has been a database professional since the early 1980s. She is currently an independent consultant specializing in SQL and relational database issues and is the author of Practical SQL: The Sequel (Addison-Wesley, 2001). Sandra L. Emerson is an independent consultant and former Vice President of Publishing Programs for Sybase. Marcy Darnovsky, teaches at colleges throughout the San Francisco Bay area. She was formerly at Sybase.
0201703092AB04062001
Description
- Copyright 2001
- Dimensions: 7-3/8" x 9-1/4"
- Pages: 512
- Edition: 4th
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-201-70309-2
- ISBN-13: 978-0-201-70309-2
This latest edition of the best-selling implementation guide to the Structured Query Language teaches SQL fundamentals while providing practical solutions for critical business applications. The Practical SQL Handbook, Fourth Edition now includes expanded platform SQL coverage and extensive real-world examples based on feedback from actual SQL users.
The Practical SQL Handbook begins with a step-by-step introduction to SQL basics and examines the issues involved in designing SQL-based database applications. It fully explores SQL’s most popular implementations from industry leaders, Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, and Informix.
Highlights include:
- Detailed coverage of SQL commands for creating databases, tables, and indexes, and for
- adding, changing, and deleting data
- Using the SELECT command to retrieve specific data
- Handling NULL values (missing information) in a relational database
- Joining tables, including self joins and outer joins (ANSI and WHERE-clause syntax)
- Working with nested queries (subqueries) to get data from multiple tables
- Creating views (virtual tables) to provide customized access to data
- Using SQL functions
A bonus CD-ROM contains a time-limited, full-feature version of the Sybase® Adaptive Server Anywhere™ software as well as the sample database, scripts, and examples included in the book.
The Practical SQL Handbook is the most complete reference available for day-to-day SQL implementations.
0201703092B05222001
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Comparing Autonumbering Methods in Different Relational Database Management Systems
Practical SQL: Finding and Changing Words ("&" to "and")
Practical SQL: Making the Best Use of Views
Practical SQL: Selecting Data from the Database
Practical SQL: Subqueries in FROM and SELECT Clauses
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Table of Contents
Preface.
Introduction.
1.SQL and Relational Database Management.
2. Designing Datases.
3. Creating and Filling a Database.
4. Selecting Data from the Database.
5. Sorting Data and Other Selection Techniques.
6. Grouping Data and Reporting from it.
7. Joining Tables for Comprehensive Data Analysis.
8. Structuring Queries with Subqueries.
9. Creating and Using Views.
10. Security, Transactions, Performance, and Integrity.
11. Solving Business Problems.
Appendix A: Syntax Summary for the SQL Used in This Book.
Appendix B: Industry SQL Equivalents.
Appendix C: Glossary.
Appendix D: The 'bookbiz' Sample Database.
Preface
Why New Editions?
Many things have changed since this book was first published in 1989, and SQL is no exception. The SQL language has expanded tremendously, both in numbers of users and in numbers of commands. Sales of relational databases continue to rise at a strong and steady rate.When we wrote the first edition of The Practical SQL Handbook, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) had already approved the 1986 SQL standard. The International Standards Organization (ISO) adopted it in 1987. Both ANSI and ISO helped create the 1989 version. The 1986 standards were skimpy, lacking features that most commercial vendors offered. The 1989 standards were more complete but still left many important elements undefined.
For the first edition, we felt we should focus on industry practice: As always, each vendor was keeping a wary eye on what the others were doing and making core offerings similar enough to attract both customers migrating from competitors, as well as new users looking for database systems they could build on. Because of this, we left both the not-quite-jelled ANSI standards and particular vendor implementations to the experts in those fields and concentrated on the common ground: generic or "industry-practice" SQL. Our goal was to offer the intelligent amateur practical information on how to use the actually available SQL of that time.
The 1992 ANSI standard (often called SQL-2 or SQL-92) represented a new stage in SQL development. This standard was more comprehensive than the 1989 standard: In written form it contained more than four times as many pages as the earlier version. Database vendors have adopted large parts of the 1992 standard. With the widespread adoption of the SQL-92 standard, the industry practice and the ANSI/ISO standards began to converge.
Despite vendor-specific differences, there is a general, industrywide core of SQL commands that all users need to understand. Adopting standards doesn’t happen overnight; it is a long process. At any point, vendors will have varying levels of conformance and will continue to produce vendor-specific variations. This book aims to give SQL users a mastery of the fundamentals of the language, with a side glance at the specifics of particular implementations.
Changes for Recent Editions
The changes for recent editions have been threefold:Include More Real-World Examples
In talking to new and developing SQL users, we heard over and over of their need for more examples to follow, change, narrow, and broaden. Accordingly, the bulk of the added material in the second edition consisted of code "recipes." Chapter 11, Solving Business Problems, is a selection of code samples based on questions and answers that came over computer newsgroups. We reproduce interesting problems and solutions in terms of the sample bookbiz database used throughout the book. The chapter includes examples of using the CASE function for conditional logic, formatting results, and finding date data. A few samples fall into a different category. They aren’t so much solutions to problems as indications of common errors. They include issues with DISTINCT and misunderstandings of what SQL can do.Emphasize SQL-92
With the third edition, we revised the book to incorporate the SQL-92 features that most vendors had adopted. These include new datatypes, additions to the CREATE TABLE statement that allow built-in integrity constraints, modifications to the ORDER BY and GROUP BY clauses, the new escape character for the LIKE keyword, and changes to GRANT and REVOKE, among others.Provide Software for Hands-On Practice
With the fully usable trial version of Sybase’s Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA) on the CD that accompanies this book, you can run the examples (and your variants) on a PC. We’ve always felt that the secret to learning SQL is practice. Now you can experiment to your heart’s content, trying out code samples with data you know and checking the results to see if they are what you expect. When you’re stumped by complicated code, break it into small, meaningful pieces and run the pieces separately to make sure you understand what each segment does. Then put them together in increasingly complex combinations–and have fun!The Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere software on the CD is a 60-day full-feature version that allows you to create objects as well as to query existing objects. ASA is built with an updated version of the bookbiz database: For the fourth edition, we increased book prices and made dates more recent. Also included on the CD are scripts to create the database on ASA (in case you damage the original) and on the other systems discussed in the book.
The Fourth Edition
The Practical SQL Handbook, Fourth Edition, continues to focus on industry-practice SQL, but the information included is at once more general and more specific than earlier editions. For the fourth edition, we had two objectives:Test on More Systems
For the fourth edition, all examples were run on five systems (Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere, Adaptive Server Enterprise, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Informix), rather than on Sybase systems only, as in the third edition. This expanded test base makes the information more universal. We are no longer limited to what we can explore or verify on a particular system. If an important feature doesn’t exist on Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA, the RDBMS included on the CD), we can show code and results from Oracle or SQL Server.Show Examples of Vendor-Specific Differences
On the other hand, this edition is more specific. It includes information on specific idiosyncrasies of the five SQL dialects, warning readers where to look for differences. In this, it reflects the real world–lots of database users are working with multiple systems, either sequentially or simultaneously. Interesting SQL differences are flagged as SQL Variants, in-text sections that show details of differences in SQL use by different vendors. For example, how single and double quotes are used, or database users added, or outer joins specified. You won’t see code for every one of the five systems every time, but you’ll get an introduction to the kind of differences that are likely in a particular area.Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the following people for their contributions to this book: Donna Jeker and Stu Schuster for supplying timely support and encouragement; Jeff Lichtman and Howard Torf for offering advice, examples, anecdotes, and reality checks; Tom Bondur, Susie Bowman, John Cooper, and Wayne Duquesne for providing resource materials and other information; Paul Winsberg for reviewing the database design chapter in the first edition; Robert Garvey for technical review of the second edition; Karen Ali for facilitating the third edition’s SQL Anywhere CD; and Theo Posselt for technical review of the third edition.For the fourth edition, we would like to acknowledge Mike Radencich of iAnywhere Solutions (a Sybase Company), for providing the software and permissions for the Adaptive Server Anywhere CD; Lance Batten of Tilden Park Software and Sanford Jacobs of Paragon Software for comments and corrections; our reviewers, on whom we rely for timely and detailed feedback: Vijayanandan Venkatachalam, curriculum director of Oracle Corporation; David McGoveran of Alternative Technologies; Roger Snowden; Amy Sticksel of Sticksel Data Systems; Paul Irvine of Emerald Solutions; and Karl Batten-Bowman.
0201703092P06042001
Index
*, See asterisk
%, See wildcards
_, See wildcards
--, See comment marks
/*, See comment marks
*/, See comment marks
||, See concatenation
+, See concatenation
*=, See outer joins
=*, See outer joins
(+), See outer joins
. . ., See ellipses
— A —
access
in views, 325
permissions in, 15, 315
strategies in, 5, 387
Adaptive Server Enterprise, 178–179
adding
columns, 300–301
rows, 83–93
aggregate functions, 143, 162–172, 192, 387
AVG, 164, 165, 166
COUNT, 164, 165, 166
COUNT (*), 164, 165
datatypes and, 165–166
DISTINCT with, 166, 371, 373–375
GROUP BY clause, 175–192
with, 187–188
without, 186–187
grouping and, 175
in guaranteeing single value, 267–268
MAX, 164, 165, 166
MIN, 164, 165, 166
NULL values and, 170–171
scalar, 175–176
SUM, 164, 165, 166
syntax of, 164
vector, 175
views and, 308–309
WHERE clause and, 169–170
aliases, 150, 259, 387
in FROM clause table/view list, 216–217
in SELECT clause, 103
ALL, 100, 155–162, 253
comparing with IN and ANY, 263
subqueries with, 259–266
ALTER COLUMN, 80–81
ALTER commands, 79
ALTER SESSION SET EVENTS command,
388
ALTER TABLE command, 80–81
ALTER clause in, 80
DELETE (DROP) clause in, 80
joins and, 208
MODIFY clause in, 80, 81
ANALYZE, 334
AND, 121, 221
semantic issues with, 122–123
ANSI standard, 16, 32–33, 353
on views, 306–310
anti-join, 256, 387
ANY, 253, 259–266
comparing with IN and ALL, 263
subqueries with, 259–266
apostrophes, embedded, 106–107
argument, 388
arithmetic operators, 61, 100, 107–109, 388
precedence in, 111–114
AS, 284–285
in CREATE VIEW, 284
in display label, 103–104
ASC, 149
association, 36, 388
asterisk (*)
in asking for columns, 6
in comments, 225
with COUNT, 165
indiscriminate use of queries, 215
in outer joins, 226-227
in select_list, 100-101, 253
@ sign, as designated escape character, 138
attributes, 3, 388. See also column(s); fields
diagramming, 30–31
AUTOTRACE ON, 337
AVG, 100, 164–166
AVG (DISTINCT expression), 164, 166
— B —
base tables, 10, 388
BEGIN, 328
benchmarking, 330–332, 388
BETWEEN, 127
to specify inclusive range, 128
binary datatypes, 63, 388
bit datatypes, 63, 388
bookbiz database, 27–28, 46–49, 287
CREATE statements, 414–427
CREATE VIEW statements, 446–449
database details, 379
data entities, 29–33
defining tables in, 66–68
INSERT statements, 427–446
installing, 51–52
sample, 379–449
table charts, 379–414
Boolean operators, 120, 388
AND, 121
NOT, 124
OR, 121–122
braces ( { } ), 53, 54
brackets ( [ ] ), 53, 60, 61
business problems, 345–392
avoiding mistakes, 370–378
conditional thinking, 346–352
formatting and displaying data, 353–361
on the job uses of SQL, 345–346
playing with patterns, 361–370
— C —
Cartesian product, 230–232, 388
constraining, 233
using, 232–233
cascade, 342, 388
CASE function, 346–350, 391
CAST function, 358–360, 361, 368
changing
data, 83–93
databases, 79
table definitions, 79–81
CHARACTER (CHAR), 62, 63, 206, 388
character datatypes, 61, 62, 389
character functions, 384
character sets, 146, 389
character strings
matching, 134–139
in query results, 106–107
character values, comparing, 119
CHECK constraints, 73, 74, 78
compared to CREATE RULE command, 340
in CREATE TABLE command, 340
clustered index, 69, 71, 389
COALESCE, 201, 351–352
Codd, E. F., xxvii, 2, 14, 15, 16
twelve-rule test for relational systems, 2
COLLATE, 146
collating sequence. See sort order
collation, 146. See also sort order
COLLATION FROM, 146
column(s), 3, 389
adding, 300–301
assigning NOT NULL to, 64–65
assigning NULL to, 64–65
asterisk (*) in asking for, 6
choosing, 100–101
all, 101–102
specific, 102
choosing datatypes for, 61–65
combining, with display headings and text in SELECT list, 107
computed, 307–308
connecting, 205
display headings for, 109–110
displaying one as two, 353–356
displaying two as one, 356–358
DISTINCT with, 371, 372–373
implementing constraints
on individual, 75–77
on multiple, 77–79
indexes for, 69–72
inserting data into all
with SELECT, 86–87
with VALUES, 84–85
inserting data into some
with SELECT, 88–89
with VALUES, 85–86
join, 205
join-compatible, 206
limiting the width of the display, 214–216
rearranging result, 102–103
specifying, 89
column aliases, 103
column headings, 103. See also display labels
column names, 296–298
computations with, 110–111
duplicate, 297–298
qualifying, 246–247, 248–249
command, 5
commas (,), 53–54, 61
comment marks, 211, 225
COMMIT, 328, 330
comparison operators, 116–120, 389
correlated subqueries with, 259–266,
269–270
IS NULL and other, 134
unmodified, 266
comparisons, 381
character values, 119
datatypes, 382–383
functions, 384–386
imaginary values, 119–120
involving NULLs, 198–199
naming convention, 381–382
numbers, 118–119
complex expression, sorting by, 153
composite indexes, 69–70, 389
comprehensive data sublanguages, 5, 389
computations
with column names, 110–111
NULLs and, 199–201
computed columns, 307–308
display headings for, 109–110
concatenation, 356–358
concurrency and transactions, 326–327
concurrency control, 316, 390
conditional functions, 346–352, 385
conditions, connecting with logical operato