Module 1

Chapter 3: Introduction to SQL
Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
Outline
 Overview of The SQL Query Language
 Data Definition
 Basic Query Structure
 Additional Basic Operations
 Set Operations
 Null Values
 Aggregate Functions
 Nested Subqueries
 Modification of the Database
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 3.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
History
 IBM Sequel language developed as part of System R project at the
IBM San Jose Research Laboratory
 Renamed Structured Query Language (SQL)
 ANSI and ISO standard SQL:
 SQL-86
 SQL-89
 SQL-92
 SQL:1999 (language name became Y2K compliant!)
 SQL:2003
 Commercial systems offer most, if not all, SQL-92 features, plus
varying feature sets from later standards and special proprietary
features.
 Not all examples here may work on your particular system.
Data Definition Language
The SQL data-definition language (DDL) allows the specification
of information about relations, including:
 The schema for each relation.

 The domain of values associated with each attribute.
 Integrity constraints
 And as we will see later, also other information such as
 The set of indices to be maintained for each relations.
 Security and authorization information for each relation.
 The physical storage structure of each relation on disk.
Domain Types in SQL
 char(n). Fixed length character string, with user-specified length n.
 varchar(n). Variable length character strings, with user-specified
maximum length n.
 int. Integer (a finite subset of the integers that is machine-dependent).
 smallint. Small integer (a machine-dependent subset of the integer
domain type).
 numeric(p,d). Fixed point number, with user-specified precision of p
digits, with d digits to the right of decimal point. (ex., numeric(3,1),
allows 44.5 to be stores exactly, but not 444.5 or 0.32)
 real, double precision. Floating point and double-precision floating
point numbers, with machine-dependent precision.
 float(n). Floating point number, with user-specified precision of at least
n digits.
 More are covered in Chapter 4.
Create Table Construct
 An SQL relation is defined using the create table command:
create table r (A1 D1, A2 D2, ..., An Dn,
(integrity-constraint1),
...,
(integrity-constraintk))
 r is the name of the relation
 each Ai is an attribute name in the schema of relation r
 Di is the data type of values in the domain of attribute Ai
 Example:
create table instructor (
ID char(5),
name varchar(20),
dept_name varchar(20),
salary numeric(8,2))
Integrity Constraints in Create Table
 not null
 primary key (A1, ..., An )
 foreign key (Am, ..., An ) references r
Example:
create table instructor (

ID char(5),
name varchar(20) not null,
salary numeric(8,2),
primary key (ID),
foreign key (dept_name) references department);
primary key declaration on an attribute automatically ensures not null
And a Few More Relation Definitions
 create table student (
ID varchar(5),
name varchar(20) not null,
tot_cred numeric(3,0),
primary key (ID),
 create table takes (

ID varchar(5),
course_id varchar(8),
sec_id varchar(8),
semester varchar(6),
year numeric(4,0),
grade varchar(2),
primary key (ID, course_id, sec_id, semester, year) ,
foreign key (ID) references student,
foreign key (course_id, sec_id, semester, year) references section);
 Note: sec_id can be dropped from primary key above, to ensure a
student cannot be registered for two sections of the same course in the
same semester
And more still
 create table course (
course_id varchar(8),
title varchar(50),
credits numeric(2,0),
primary key (course_id),
Updates to tables
 Insert
insert into instructor values (‘10211’, ’Smith’, ’Biology’, 66000);

 Delete

Remove all tuples from the student relation
 delete from student
 Drop Table
 drop table r
 Alter
 alter table r add A D
 where A is the name of the attribute to be added to relation
r and D is the domain of A.
 All exiting tuples in the relation are assigned null as the
value for the new attribute.
 alter table r drop A
 where A is the name of an attribute of relation r
 Dropping of attributes not supported by many databases.
Basic Query Structure
 A typical SQL query has the form:
select A1, A2, ..., An

from r1, r2, ..., rm
where P
 Ai represents an attribute
 Ri represents a relation
 P is a predicate.
 The result of an SQL query is a relation.
The select Clause
 The select clause lists the attributes desired in the result of a query
 corresponds to the projection operation of the relational algebra
 Example: find the names of all instructors:
select name
from instructor
 NOTE: SQL names are case insensitive (i.e., you may use upper- or
lower-case letters.)
 E.g., Name ≡ NAME ≡ name
 Some people use upper case wherever we use bold font.
The select Clause (Cont.)
 SQL allows duplicates in relations as well as in query results.
 To force the elimination of duplicates, insert the keyword distinct
after select.
 Find the department names of all instructors, and remove duplicates
select distinct dept_name
from instructor
 The keyword all specifies that duplicates should not be removed.
select all dept_name

from instructor
 An asterisk in the select clause denotes “all attributes”
select *
from instructor
 An attribute can be a literal with no from clause
select ‘437’
 Results is a table with one column and a single row with value “437”
 Can give the column a name using:
select ‘437’ as FOO
 An attribute can be a literal with from clause
select ‘A’
from instructor
 Result is a table with one column and N rows (number of tuples in the
instructors table), each row with value “A”
 The select clause can contain arithmetic expressions involving the
operation, +, –, , and /, and operating on constants or attributes of
tuples.
 The query:
select ID, name, salary/12
from instructor
would return a relation that is the same as the instructor relation,
except that the value of the attribute salary is divided by 12.
 Can rename “salary/12” using the as clause:
select ID, name, salary/12 as monthly_salary
The where Clause
 The where clause specifies conditions that the result must satisfy
 Corresponds to the selection predicate of the relational algebra.
 To find all instructors in Comp. Sci. dept
select name
from instructor
where dept_name = ‘Comp. Sci.'
 Comparison results can be combined using the logical connectives
and, or, and not
 To find all instructors in Comp. Sci. dept with salary > 80000
select name
from instructor
where dept_name = ‘Comp. Sci.' and salary > 80000
 Comparisons can be applied to results of arithmetic expressions.
The from Clause
 The from clause lists the relations involved in the query
 Corresponds to the Cartesian product operation of the relational
algebra.
 Find the Cartesian product instructor X teaches
select 
from instructor, teaches
 generates every possible instructor – teaches pair, with all attributes
from both relations.
 For common attributes (e.g., ID), the attributes in the resulting table
are renamed using the relation name (e.g., instructor.ID)
 Cartesian product not very useful directly, but useful combined with
where-clause condition (selection operation in relational algebra).
Cartesian Product
instructor teaches
Examples
 Find the names of all instructors who have taught some course and the
course_id
 select name, course_id
from instructor , teaches
where instructor.ID = teaches.ID
 Find the names of all instructors in the Art department who have taught
some course and the course_id
from instructor , teaches
where instructor.ID = teaches.ID and instructor. dept_name = ‘Art’
The Rename Operation
 The SQL allows renaming relations and attributes using the as clause:
old-name as new-name
 Find the names of all instructors who have a higher salary than
some instructor in ‘Comp. Sci’.
 select distinct T.name
from instructor as T, instructor as S
where T.salary > S.salary and S.dept_name = ‘Comp. Sci.’
 Keyword as is optional and may be omitted

instructor as T ≡ instructor T
Self Join Example
 Relation emp-super
person supervisor
Bob Alice
Mary Susan
Alice David
David Mary
 Find the supervisor of “Bob”

 Find the supervisor of the supervisor of “Bob”
 Find ALL the supervisors (direct and indirect) of “Bob
String Operations
 SQL includes a string-matching operator for comparisons on character
strings. The operator like uses patterns that are described using two
special characters:
 percent ( % ). The % character matches any substring.
 underscore ( _ ). The _ character matches any character.
 Find the names of all instructors whose name includes the substring
“dar”.
select name
from instructor
where name like '%dar%'
 Match the string “100%”
like ‘100 \%' escape '\'
in that above we use backslash (\) as the escape character.
String Operations (Cont.)
 Patterns are case sensitive.
 Pattern matching examples:
 ‘Intro%’ matches any string beginning with “Intro”.
 ‘%Comp%’ matches any string containing “Comp” as a substring.
 ‘_ _ _’ matches any string of exactly three characters.
 ‘_ _ _ %’ matches any string of at least three characters.
 SQL supports a variety of string operations such as

 concatenation (using “||”)
 converting from upper to lower case (and vice versa)
 finding string length, extracting substrings, etc.
Ordering the Display of Tuples
 List in alphabetic order the names of all instructors
select distinct name
from instructor
order by name
 We may specify desc for descending order or asc for ascending
order, for each attribute; ascending order is the default.
 Example: order by name desc
 Can sort on multiple attributes
 Example: order by dept_name, name
Where Clause Predicates
 SQL includes a between comparison operator
 Example: Find the names of all instructors with salary between $90,000
and $100,000 (that is,  $90,000 and  $100,000)
 select name
from instructor
where salary between 90000 and 100000
 Tuple comparison
from instructor, teaches
where (instructor.ID, dept_name) = (teaches.ID, ’Biology’);
Duplicates
 In relations with duplicates, SQL can define how many copies of
tuples appear in the result.
 Multiset versions of some of the relational algebra operators – given
multiset relations r1 and r2:
1.  (r1): If there are c1 copies of tuple t1 in r1, and t1 satisfies

selections ,, then there are c1 copies of t1 in  (r1).
2. A (r ): For each copy of tuple t1 in r1, there is a copy of tuple
A (t1) in A (r1) where A (t1) denotes the projection of the single
tuple t1.
3. r1 x r2: If there are c1 copies of tuple t1 in r1 and c2 copies of tuple
t2 in r2, there are c1 x c2 copies of the tuple t1. t2 in r1 x r2
Duplicates (Cont.)
 Example: Suppose multiset relations r1 (A, B) and r2 (C) are as
follows:
r1 = {(1, a) (2,a)} r2 = {(2), (3), (3)}
 Then B(r1) would be {(a), (a)}, while B(r1) x r2 would be
{(a,2), (a,2), (a,3), (a,3), (a,3), (a,3)}
 SQL duplicate semantics:
select A1,, A2, ..., An
where P
is equivalent to the multiset version of the expression:
 A ,A ,,A ( P (r1  r2    rm ))
1 2 n
Set Operations
 Find courses that ran in Fall 2009 or in Spring 2010
(select course_id from section where sem = ‘Fall’ and year = 2009)
union
(select course_id from section where sem = ‘Spring’ and year = 2010)
 Find courses that ran in Fall 2009 and in Spring 2010
intersect
 Find courses that ran in Fall 2009 but not in Spring 2010
except
Set Operations (Cont.)
 Find the salaries of all instructors that are less than the largest salary.
 select distinct T.salary
where T.salary < S.salary
 Find all the salaries of all instructors

 select distinct salary
from instructor
 Find the largest salary of all instructors.

 (select “second query” )
except
(select “first query”)
Set Operations (Cont.)
 Set operations union, intersect, and except
 Each of the above operations automatically eliminates duplicates
 To retain all duplicates use the corresponding multiset versions union
all, intersect all and except all.
 Suppose a tuple occurs m times in r and n times in s, then, it occurs:

 m + n times in r union all s
 min(m,n) times in r intersect all s
 max(0, m – n) times in r except all s
Null Values
 It is possible for tuples to have a null value, denoted by null, for
some of their attributes
 null signifies an unknown value or that a value does not exist.
 The result of any arithmetic expression involving null is null
 Example: 5 + null returns null
 The predicate is null can be used to check for null values.
 Example: Find all instructors whose salary is null.
select name
from instructor
where salary is null
Null Values and Three Valued Logic
 Three values – true, false, unknown
 Any comparison with null returns unknown
 Example: 5 < null or null <> null or null = null
 Three-valued logic using the value unknown:
 OR: (unknown or true) = true,
(unknown or false) = unknown
(unknown or unknown) = unknown
 AND: (true and unknown) = unknown,
(false and unknown) = false,
(unknown and unknown) = unknown
 NOT: (not unknown) = unknown
 “P is unknown” evaluates to true if predicate P evaluates to
unknown
 Result of where clause predicate is treated as false if it evaluates to
unknown
Aggregate Functions
 These functions operate on the multiset of values of a column of
a relation, and return a value
avg: average value
min: minimum value
max: maximum value
sum: sum of values
count: number of values
Aggregate Functions (Cont.)
 Find the average salary of instructors in the Computer Science
department
 select avg (salary)
from instructor
where dept_name= ’Comp. Sci.’;
 Find the total number of instructors who teach a course in the Spring
2010 semester
 select count (distinct ID)
from teaches
where semester = ’Spring’ and year = 2010;
 Find the number of tuples in the course relation
 select count (*)
from course;
Aggregate Functions – Group By
 Find the average salary of instructors in each department
 select dept_name, avg (salary) as avg_salary
from instructor
group by dept_name;
avg_salary
Aggregation (Cont.)
 Attributes in select clause outside of aggregate functions must appear
in group by list
 /* erroneous query */
select dept_name, ID, avg (salary)
from instructor
group by dept_name;
Aggregate Functions – Having Clause
 Find the names and average salaries of all departments whose

average salary is greater than 42000
select dept_name, avg (salary)

from instructor
group by dept_name
having avg (salary) > 42000;
Note: predicates in the having clause are applied after the

formation of groups whereas predicates in the where
clause are applied before forming groups
Null Values and Aggregates
 Total all salaries
select sum (salary )
from instructor
 Above statement ignores null amounts
 Result is null if there is no non-null amount
 All aggregate operations except count(*) ignore tuples with null values
on the aggregated attributes
 What if collection has only null values?
 count returns 0
 all other aggregates return null
Nested Subqueries
 SQL provides a mechanism for the nesting of subqueries. A subquery
is a select-from-where expression that is nested within another query.
 The nesting can be done in the following SQL query
select A1, A2, ..., An

where P
as follows:
 Ai can be replaced be a subquery that generates a single value.
 ri can be replaced by any valid subquery
 P can be replaced with an expression of the form:
B <operation> (subquery)
Where B is an attribute and <operation> to be defined later.
Subqueries in the Where Clause
Subqueries in the Where Clause
 A common use of subqueries is to perform tests:
 For set membership
 For set comparisons
 For set cardinality.
Set Membership
 Find courses offered in Fall 2009 and in Spring 2010
select distinct course_id

from section
where semester = ’Fall’ and year= 2009 and
course_id in (select course_id
from section
where semester = ’Spring’ and year= 2010);
 Find courses offered in Fall 2009 but not in Spring 2010
select distinct course_id

from section
where semester = ’Fall’ and year= 2009 and
course_id not in (select course_id
from section
where semester = ’Spring’ and year= 2010);
Set Membership (Cont.)
 Find the total number of (distinct) students who have taken course
sections taught by the instructor with ID 10101
select count (distinct ID)

from takes
where (course_id, sec_id, semester, year) in
(select course_id, sec_id, semester, year
from teaches
where teaches.ID= 10101);
 Note: Above query can be written in a much simpler manner.

The formulation above is simply to illustrate SQL features.
Set Comparison – “some” Clause
 Find names of instructors with salary greater than that of some (at
least one) instructor in the Biology department.
select distinct T.name

where T.salary > S.salary and S.dept name = ’Biology’;
 Same query using > some clause
select name
from instructor
where salary > some (select salary
from instructor
where dept name = ’Biology’);
Definition of “some” Clause
 F <comp> some r t  r such that (F <comp> t )

Where <comp> can be:     
0
(5 < some 5 ) = true
(read: 5 < some tuple in the relation)
6
0
(5 < some 5 ) = false
0
(5 = some 5 ) = true
0
(5  some 5 ) = true (since 0  5)
(= some)  in
However, ( some)  not in
Set Comparison – “all” Clause
 Find the names of all instructors whose salary is greater than the
salary of all instructors in the Biology department.
select name
from instructor
where salary > all (select salary
from instructor
where dept name = ’Biology’);
Definition of “all” Clause
 F <comp> all r t  r (F <comp> t)
0
(5 < all 5 ) = false
6
6
(5 < all 10 ) = true
4
(5 = all 5 ) = false
4
(5  all 6 ) = true (since 5  4 and 5  6)
( all)  not in
However, (= all)  in
Test for Empty Relations
 The exists construct returns the value true if the argument
subquery is nonempty.
 exists r  r  Ø
 not exists r  r = Ø
Use of “exists” Clause
 Yet another way of specifying the query “Find all courses taught in
both the Fall 2009 semester and in the Spring 2010 semester”
select course_id
from section as S
where semester = ’Fall’ and year = 2009 and
exists (select *
from section as T
where semester = ’Spring’ and year= 2010
and S.course_id = T.course_id);
 Correlation name – variable S in the outer query

 Correlated subquery – the inner query
Use of “not exists” Clause
 Find all students who have taken all courses offered in the Biology
department.
select distinct S.ID, S.name

from student as S
where not exists ( (select course_id
from course
where dept_name = ’Biology’)
except
(select T.course_id
from takes as T
where S.ID = T.ID));
• First nested query lists all courses offered in Biology

• Second nested query lists all courses a particular student took
 Note that X – Y = Ø  X Y
 Note: Cannot write this query using = all and its variants
Test for Absence of Duplicate Tuples
 The unique construct tests whether a subquery has any
duplicate tuples in its result.
 The unique construct evaluates to “true” if a given subquery
contains no duplicates .
 Find all courses that were offered at most once in 2009
select T.course_id
from course as T
where unique (select R.course_id
from section as R
where T.course_id= R.course_id
and R.year = 2009);
Subqueries in the Form Clause
Subqueries in the Form Clause
 SQL allows a subquery expression to be used in the from clause
 Find the average instructors’ salaries of those departments where the
average salary is greater than $42,000.”
select dept_name, avg_salary
from (select dept_name, avg (salary) as avg_salary
from instructor
group by dept_name)
where avg_salary > 42000;
 Note that we do not need to use the having clause
 Another way to write above query
select dept_name, avg_salary
from (select dept_name, avg (salary)
from instructor
group by dept_name) as dept_avg (dept_name, avg_salary)
where avg_salary > 42000;
With Clause
 The with clause provides a way of defining a temporary relation
whose definition is available only to the query in which the with
clause occurs.
 Find all departments with the maximum budget
with max_budget (value) as

(select max(budget)
from department)
select department.name
from department, max_budget
where department.budget = max_budget.value;
Complex Queries using With Clause
 Find all departments where the total salary is greater than the
average of the total salary at all departments
with dept _total (dept_name, value) as

(select dept_name, sum(salary)
from instructor
group by dept_name),
dept_total_avg(value) as
(select avg(value)
from dept_total)
select dept_name
from dept_total, dept_total_avg
where dept_total.value > dept_total_avg.value;
Subqueries in the Select Clause
Scalar Subquery
 Scalar subquery is one which is used where a single value is
expected
 List all departments along with the number of instructors in each
department
select dept_name,
(select count(*)
from instructor
where department.dept_name = instructor.dept_name)
as num_instructors
from department;
 Runtime error if subquery returns more than one result tuple
Modification of the Database
 Deletion of tuples from a given relation.

 Insertion of new tuples into a given relation
 Updating of values in some tuples in a given relation
Deletion
 Delete all instructors

delete from instructor
 Delete all instructors from the Finance department

where dept_name= ’Finance’;
 Delete all tuples in the instructor relation for those instructors

associated with a department located in the Watson building.
where dept name in (select dept name
from department
where building = ’Watson’);
Deletion (Cont.)
 Delete all instructors whose salary is less than the average salary of
instructors

where salary < (select avg (salary)
from instructor);
 Problem: as we delete tuples from deposit, the average salary
changes
 Solution used in SQL:
1. First, compute avg (salary) and find all tuples to delete
2. Next, delete all tuples found above (without

recomputing avg or retesting the tuples)
Insertion
 Add a new tuple to course
insert into course
values (’CS-437’, ’Database Systems’, ’Comp. Sci.’, 4);
 or equivalently
insert into course (course_id, title, dept_name, credits)

values (’CS-437’, ’Database Systems’, ’Comp. Sci.’, 4);
 Add a new tuple to student with tot_creds set to null

insert into student
values (’3003’, ’Green’, ’Finance’, null);
Insertion (Cont.)
 Add all instructors to the student relation with tot_creds set to 0
insert into student
select ID, name, dept_name, 0
from instructor
 The select from where statement is evaluated fully before any of its
results are inserted into the relation.
Otherwise queries like
insert into table1 select * from table1
would cause problem
Updates
 Increase salaries of instructors whose salary is over $100,000

by 3%, and all others by a 5%
 Write two update statements:
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.03
where salary > 100000;
update instructor
set salary = salary * 1.05
where salary <= 100000;
 The order is important
 Can be done better using the case statement (next slide)
Case Statement for Conditional Updates
 Same query as before but with case statement
update instructor
set salary = case
when salary <= 100000 then salary * 1.05
else salary * 1.03
end
Updates with Scalar Subqueries
 Recompute and update tot_creds value for all students
update student S
set tot_cred = (select sum(credits)
from takes, course
where takes.course_id = course.course_id and
S.ID= takes.ID.and
takes.grade <> ’F’ and
takes.grade is not null);
 Sets tot_creds to null for students who have not taken any course
 Instead of sum(credits), use:
case
when sum(credits) is not null then sum(credits)
else 0
end
Chapter 4: Intermediate SQL
 Join Expressions
 Views
 Transactions
 Integrity Constraints
 SQL Data Types and Schemas
 Authorization
Joined Relations
 Join operations take two relations and return as a result

another relation.
 A join operation is a Cartesian product which requires that
tuples in the two relations match (under some condition).
It also specifies the attributes that are present in the result
of the join
 The join operations are typically used as subquery
expressions in the from clause
Join operations – Example
 Relation course
 Relation prereq
 Observe that
prereq information is missing for CS-315 and
course information is missing for CS-437
Here are the different types of the JOINs in SQL:
•(INNER) JOIN: Returns records that have matching values in both
tables
•LEFT (OUTER) JOIN: Returns all records from the left table, and
the matched records from the right table
•RIGHT (OUTER) JOIN: Returns all records from the right table,
and the matched records from the left table
•FULL (OUTER) JOIN: Returns all records when there is a match in
either left or right table
Outer Join
 An extension of the join operation that avoids loss of

information.
 Computes the join and then adds tuples form one relation
that does not match tuples in the other relation to the result
of the join.
 Uses null values.
Left Outer Join
 course natural left outer join prereq
Right Outer Join
 course natural right outer join prereq
Joined Relations
 Join operations take two relations and return as a result
another relation.
 These additional operations are typically used as subquery
expressions in the from clause
 Join condition – defines which tuples in the two relations
match, and what attributes are present in the result of the join.
 Join type – defines how tuples in each relation that do not
match any tuple in the other relation (based on the join
condition) are treated.
Full Outer Join
 course natural full outer join prereq
Joined Relations – Examples
 course inner join prereq on

course.course_id = prereq.course_id
 What is the difference between the above, and a natural join?

 course left outer join prereq on
course.course_id = prereq.course_id
Joined Relations – Examples
 course natural right outer join prereq
 course full outer join prereq using (course_id)
Views
 In some cases, it is not desirable for all users to see the entire
logical model (that is, all the actual relations stored in the
database.)
 Consider a person who needs to know an instructors name
and department, but not the salary. This person should see a
relation described, in SQL, by
select ID, name, dept_name

from instructor
 A view provides a mechanism to hide certain data from the

view of certain users.
 Any relation that is not of the conceptual model but is made
visible to a user as a “virtual relation” is called a view.
View Definition
 A view is defined using the create view statement which has
the form
create view v as < query expression >
where <query expression> is any legal SQL expression. The

view name is represented by v.
 Once a view is defined, the view name can be used to refer to
the virtual relation that the view generates.
 View definition is not the same as creating a new relation by
evaluating the query expression
 Rather, a view definition causes the saving of an expression;
the expression is substituted into queries using the view.
Example Views
 A view of instructors without their salary
create view faculty as
select ID, name, dept_name
from instructor
 Find all instructors in the Biology department
select name
from faculty
where dept_name = ‘Biology’
 Create a view of department salary totals
create view departments_total_salary(dept_name, total_salary) as
select dept_name, sum (salary)
from instructor
group by dept_name;
Views Defined Using Other Views
 create view physics_fall_2009 as
select course.course_id, sec_id, building, room_number
from course, section
where course.course_id = section.course_id
and course.dept_name = ’Physics’
and section.semester = ’Fall’
and section.year = ’2009’;
 create view physics_fall_2009_watson as
select course_id, room_number
from physics_fall_2009
where building= ’Watson’;
View Expansion
 Expand use of a view in a

query/another view
create view physics_fall_2009_watson as
(select course_id, room_number
from (select course.course_id, building, room_number
from course, section
where course.course_id = section.course_id
and course.dept_name = ’Physics’
and section.semester = ’Fall’
and section.year = ’2009’)
where building= ’Watson’;
Views Defined Using Other Views
 One view may be used in the expression defining another view
 A view relation v1 is said to depend directly on a view relation
v2 if v2 is used in the expression defining v1
 A view relation v1 is said to depend on view relation v2 if either
v1 depends directly to v2 or there is a path of dependencies
from v1 to v2
 A view relation v is said to be recursive if it depends on itself.
View Expansion
 A way to define the meaning of views defined in terms of other
views.
 Let view v1 be defined by an expression e1 that may itself
contain uses of view relations.
 View expansion of an expression repeats the following
replacement step:
repeat
Find any view relation vi in e1
Replace the view relation vi by the expression defining vi
until no more view relations are present in e1
 As long as the view definitions are not recursive, this loop will
terminate
Some Updates cannot be Translated Uniquely
 create view instructor_info as

select ID, name, building
from instructor, department
where instructor.dept_name= department.dept_name;
 insert into instructor_info values (’69987’, ’White’, ’Taylor’);

 which department, if multiple departments in Taylor?
 what if no department is in Taylor?
 Most SQL implementations allow updates only on simple views

 The from clause has only one database relation.
 The select clause contains only attribute names of the
relation, and does not have any expressions, aggregates, or
distinct specification.
 Any attribute not listed in the select clause can be set to null
And Some Not at All
 create view history_instructors as
select *
from instructor
where dept_name= ’History’;
Materialized Views
 Materializing a view: create a physical

table containing all the tuples in the
result of the query defining the view
 If relations used in the query are
updated, the materialized view result
becomes out of date
 Need to maintain the view, by updating
the view whenever the underlying
relations are updated.
Transactions
 A transaction consists of a sequence of query and/or update statements.
The SQL standard specifies that a transaction begins implicitly when an
SQL statement is executed.
 One of the following SQL statements must end the transaction:
 Commit work commits the current transaction; that is, it makes the
updates performed by the transaction become permanent in the
database. After the transaction is committed, a new transaction is
automatically started.
 Rollback work causes the current transaction to be rolled back; that is,
it undoes all the updates performed by the SQL statements in the
transaction. Thus, the database state is restored to what it was before
the first statement of the transaction was executed
 But default on most databases: each SQL statement commits
automatically
 Can turn off auto commit for a session (e.g. using API)
 In SQL:1999, can use: begin atomic …. end
 Not supported on most databases
Integrity Constraints
 Integrity constraints ensure that changes

made to the database by authorized users
do not result in a loss of data consistency.
 Integrity constraints guard against accidental
damage to the database, by ensuring that
authorized changes to the database do not
result in a loss of data consistency.
 A checking account must have a balance
greater than $10,000.00
 A salary of a bank employee must be at
least $4.00 an hour
 A customer must have a (non-null) phone
number
Integrity Constraints on a Single Relation
 not null
 primary key
 unique
 check (P), where P is a predicate
Not Null and Unique Constraints
 not null
 Declare name and budget to be not null
name varchar(20) not null

budget numeric(12,2) not null
 unique ( A1, A2, …, Am)
 The unique specification states that the attributes A1, A2, …
Am
form a candidate key.
 Candidate keys are permitted to be null (in contrast to primary
keys).
The check clause
 check (P)
where P is a predicate
Example: ensure that semester is one of fall, winter, spring
or summer:
create table section (

course_id varchar (8),
sec_id varchar (8),
semester varchar (6),
year numeric (4,0),
building varchar (15),
room_number varchar (7),
time slot id varchar (4),
primary key (course_id, sec_id, semester, year),
check (semester in (’Fall’, ’Winter’, ’Spring’, ’Summer’))
);
Referential Integrity
 Ensures that a value that appears in one relation for a given

set of attributes also appears for a certain set of attributes in
another relation.
 Example: If “Biology” is a department name appearing in
one of the tuples in the instructor relation, then there exists
a tuple in the department relation for “Biology”.
 Let A be a set of attributes. Let R and S be two relations that
contain attributes A and where A is the primary key of S. A is
said to be a foreign key of R if for any values of A appearing
in R these values also appear in S.
Cascading Actions in Referential Integrity

course_id char(5) primary key,
title varchar(20),
dept_name varchar(20) references department
)
…
foreign key (dept_name) references department
on delete cascade
on update cascade,
...
)
 alternative actions to cascade: set null, set default
Integrity Constraint Violation During
Transactions
 E.g.
create table person (
ID char(10),
name char(40),
mother char(10),
father char(10),
primary key ID,
foreign key father references person,
foreign key mother references person)
 How to insert a tuple without causing constraint violation ?
 insert father and mother of a person before inserting person
 OR, set father and mother to null initially, update after
inserting all persons (not possible if father and mother
attributes declared to be not null)
 OR defer constraint checking

Complex Check Clauses
 check (time_slot_id in (select time_slot_id from time_slot))
 why not use a foreign key here?
 Every section has at least one instructor teaching the section.
 how to write this?
 Unfortunately: subquery in check clause not supported by
pretty much any database
 Alternative: triggers (later)
 create assertion <assertion-name> check <predicate>;
 Also not supported by anyone
Built-in Data Types in SQL
 date: Dates, containing a (4 digit) year, month and date
 Example: date ‘2005-7-27’
 time: Time of day, in hours, minutes and seconds.
 Example: time ‘09:00:30’ time ‘09:00:30.75’
 timestamp: date plus time of day
 Example: timestamp ‘2005-7-27 09:00:30.75’
 interval: period of time
 Example: interval ‘1’ day
 Subtracting a date/time/timestamp value from another gives
an interval value
 Interval values can be added to date/time/timestamp values
Index Creation
 create table student
(ID varchar (5),
name varchar (20) not null,
dept_name varchar (20),
tot_cred numeric (3,0) default 0,
primary key (ID))
 create index studentID_index on student(ID)
 Indices are data structures used to speed up access to records
with specified values for index attributes
 e.g. select *
from student
where ID = ‘12345’
can be executed by using the index to find the required
record, without looking at all records of student
User-Defined Types
 create type construct in SQL creates user-defined type
create type Dollars as numeric (12,2) final
 create table department

(dept_name varchar (20),
building varchar (15),
budget Dollars);
Domains
 create domain construct in SQL-92 creates user-defined
domain types
create domain person_name char(20) not null
 Types and domains are similar. Domains can have

constraints, such as not null, specified on them.
 create domain degree_level varchar(10)
constraint degree_level_test
check (value in (’Bachelors’, ’Masters’, ’Doctorate’));
Large-Object Types
 Large objects (photos, videos, CAD files, etc.) are stored as a
large object:
 blob: binary large object -- object is a large collection of
uninterpreted binary data (whose interpretation is left to an
application outside of the database system)
 clob: character large object -- object is a large collection of
character data
 When a query returns a large object, a pointer is returned
rather than the large object itself.
Authorization
Forms of authorization on parts of the database:
 Read - allows reading, but not modification of data.
 Insert - allows insertion of new data, but not modification of existing

data.
 Update - allows modification, but not deletion of data.
 Delete - allows deletion of data.
Forms of authorization to modify the database schema

 Index - allows creation and deletion of indices.
 Resources - allows creation of new relations.
 Alteration - allows addition or deletion of attributes in a relation.
 Drop - allows deletion of relations.
Authorization Specification in SQL
 The grant statement is used to confer authorization
grant <privilege list>
on <relation name or view name> to <user list>

 <user list> is:
 a user-id
 public, which allows all valid users the privilege granted
 A role (more on this later)
 Granting a privilege on a view does not imply granting any
privileges on the underlying relations.
 The grantor of the privilege must already hold the privilege on
the specified item (or be the database administrator).
Privileges in SQL
 select: allows read access to relation,or the ability to query

using the view
 Example: grant users U1, U2, and U3 select
authorization on the instructor relation:
grant select on instructor to U1, U2, U3

 insert: the ability to insert tuples
 update: the ability to update using the SQL update
statement
 delete: the ability to delete tuples.
 all privileges: used as a short form for all the allowable
privileges
Revoking Authorization in SQL
 The revoke statement is used to revoke authorization.

revoke <privilege list>
on <relation name or view name> from <user list>
 Example:
revoke select on branch from U1, U2, U3
 <privilege-list> may be all to revoke all privileges the revokee
may hold.
 If <revokee-list> includes public, all users lose the privilege
except those granted it explicitly.
 If the same privilege was granted twice to the same user by
different grantees, the user may retain the privilege after the
revocation.
 All privileges that depend on the privilege being revoked are
also revoked.
Roles
 create role instructor;
 grant instructor to Amit;
 Privileges can be granted to roles:
 grant select on takes to instructor;
 Roles can be granted to users, as well as to other roles
 create role teaching_assistant
 grant teaching_assistant to instructor;
 Instructor inherits all privileges of teaching_assistant
 Chain of roles
 create role dean;
 grant instructor to dean;
 grant dean to Satoshi;
Authorization on Views
 create view geo_instructor as
(select *
from instructor
where dept_name = ’Geology’);
 grant select on geo_instructor to geo_staff
 Suppose that a geo_staff member issues
 select *
from geo_instructor;
 What if
 geo_staff does not have permissions on instructor?
 creator of view did not have some permissions on
instructor?
Database Programming and Techniques
 Objective: To access a database from an application

program (as opposed to interactive interfaces)
 Why?
• An interactive interface is convenient but not
sufficient.
• A majority of database operations are made thru
application programs (increasingly thru web
applications)
 Embedded commands:
 Database commands are embedded in a general-
purpose programming language
 Library of database functions:
 Available to the host language for
database calls; known as an API
 API standards for Application Program
Interface.
 A brand new, full-fledged language.
 Minimizes impedance mismatch
Impedance Mismatch
 Incompatibilities between a host
programming language and the database
model, e.g.,
 type mismatch and incompatibilities;
requires a new binding for each
language
 set vs. record-at-a-time processing.
 Client program opens a connection to the
database server
 Client program submits queries to and/or
updates the database
 When database access is no longer needed,
client program closes (terminates) the
connection
Embedded SQL
 Most SQL statements can be embedded in a general-purpose
host programming language such as COBOL, C, Java.
 An embedded SQL statement is distinguished from the host
language statements by enclosing it between EXEC SQL or
EXEC SQL BEGIN and a matching END-EXEC or EXEC SQL
END (or semicolon)
 Syntax may vary with language
 Shared variables (used in both languages) usually prefixed with
a colon (:) in SQL.
 Variables inside DECLARE are shared and can appear (while
prefixed by a colon) in SQL statements
 SQLCODE is used to communicate errors/exceptions between
the database and the program
int loop;
EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
varchar dname[16], fname[16], …;
char ssn[10], bdate[11], …;
int dno, dnumber, SQLCODE, …;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
 Connection (multiple connections are possible but only
one is active)
CONNECT TO server-name AS connection-name
AUTHORIZATION user-account-info;
 Change from an active connection to another one
SET CONNECTION connection-name;
 Disconnection
DISCONNECT connection-name;
End of Module-3
Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use

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Chapter 3: Introduction to SQL

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

 The schema for each relation.

create table instructor (

primary key declaration on an attribute automatically ensures not null

 create table takes (

select A1, A2, ..., An

select all dept_name

 Comparisons can be applied to results of arithmetic expressions.

 Keyword as is optional and may be omitted

 Find the supervisor of “Bob”

 SQL supports a variety of string operations such as

1.  (r1): If there are c1 copies of tuple t1 in r1, and t1 satisfies

 Find courses that ran in Fall 2009 or in Spring 2010

 Find courses that ran in Fall 2009 and in Spring 2010

 Find all the salaries of all instructors

 Find the largest salary of all instructors.

 Suppose a tuple occurs m times in r and n times in s, then, it occurs:

 Find the names and average salaries of all departments whose

select dept_name, avg (salary)

Note: predicates in the having clause are applied after the

select A1, A2, ..., An

select distinct course_id

 Find courses offered in Fall 2009 but not in Spring 2010

select distinct course_id

select count (distinct ID)

 Note: Above query can be written in a much simpler manner.

select distinct T.name

 Same query using > some clause

 F <comp> some r t  r such that (F <comp> t )

 Correlation name – variable S in the outer query

select distinct S.ID, S.name

• First nested query lists all courses offered in Biology

 Note that X – Y = Ø  X Y

with max_budget (value) as

with dept _total (dept_name, value) as

 Deletion of tuples from a given relation.

 Delete all instructors

 Delete all instructors from the Finance department

 Delete all tuples in the instructor relation for those instructors

delete from instructor

2. Next, delete all tuples found above (without

insert into course (course_id, title, dept_name, credits)

 Add a new tuple to student with tot_creds set to null

 Increase salaries of instructors whose salary is over $100,000

 Join operations take two relations and return as a result

 An extension of the join operation that avoids loss of

 course natural left outer join prereq

 course natural right outer join prereq

 course natural full outer join prereq

 course inner join prereq on

 What is the difference between the above, and a natural join?

 course full outer join prereq using (course_id)

select ID, name, dept_name

 A view provides a mechanism to hide certain data from the

create view v as < query expression >

where <query expression> is any legal SQL expression. The

 Expand use of a view in a

 create view instructor_info as

 insert into instructor_info values (’69987’, ’White’, ’Taylor’);