SQL Functions Cheat Sheet
String Functions
Function Purpose Example
UPPER() Convert text to uppercase UPPER('hello') → 'HELLO'
LOWER() Convert text to lowercase LOWER('HELLO') → 'hello'
TRIM() Remove spaces from TRIM(' hello ') → 'hello'
start/end
LENGTH() Find length of string LENGTH('SQL') → 3
SUBSTRING() / SUBSTR() Extract part of string SUBSTRING('SQLWorld', 1, 3) → 'SQL'
LEFT() Get leftmost characters LEFT('SQLWorld', 3) → 'SQL'
RIGHT() Get rightmost characters RIGHT('SQLWorld', 5) → 'World'
INSTR() Find position of substring INSTR('SQLWorld', 'World') → 4
POSITION() Find position of substring POSITION('World' IN 'SQLWorld') → 4
CONCAT() Join two strings CONCAT('SQL', 'World') → 'SQLWorld'
REPLACE() Replace part of string REPLACE('SQLWorld', 'SQL', 'Data') →
'DataWorld'
FIND_IN_SET() Find the position of a value FIND_IN_SET('b', 'a,b,c') → 2
inside a comma-separated
string
LPAD() Pad string from the left side LPAD('SQL', 5, '*') → '**SQL'
to a certain length
RPAD() Pad string from the right RPAD('SQL', 5, '*') → 'SQL**'
side to a certain length
FORMAT() Format a number with FORMAT(1234567.89, 2) → '1,234,567.89'
commas and decimal places
(MySQL)
Aggregate & Statistical Functions
Function Purpose Example
COUNT() Number of rows COUNT(*)
SUM() Total sum SUM(salary)
AVG() Average value AVG(salary)
MIN() Minimum value MIN(age)
MAX() Maximum value MAX(age)
VAR_POP() or Population variance VAR_POP(salary) or
VARIANCE() (measure of spread) VARIANCE(salary)
STDDEV_POP() or Population standard STDDEV_POP(salary) or
STDDEV() deviation STDDEV(salary)
CORR() Correlation coefficient CORR(salary, age)
between two columns
COVAR_POP() Population covariance COVAR_POP(salary, age)
between two columns
PERCENTILE_CONT() Continuous percentile PERCENTILE_CONT(0.5)
calculation (for medians, WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY
etc.) salary)
Date and Time Functions
Function Purpose Example
CURRENT_DATE Today's date CURRENT_DATE
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP Current date + time CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
DATE_PART() Extract part of date DATE_PART('year', CURRENT_DATE)
EXTRACT() Extract year, month, etc. EXTRACT(MONTH FROM CURRENT_DATE)
AGE() Difference between dates AGE('2025-04-01', '2024-04-01') → 1 year
NOW() Current date-time NOW()
TO_CHAR() Format date/time TO_CHAR(NOW(), 'YYYY-MM-DD')
DATE() Extract date part only (no DATE(NOW()) → '2025-04-28'
time)
DATEDIFF() Difference between two DATEDIFF('2025-05-01', '2025-04-28') →
dates (in days)
3
DATE_ADD() Add interval to date DATE_ADD('2025-04-28', INTERVAL 5
DAY) → '2025-05-03'
Mathematical Functions
Function Purpose Example
ROUND() Round number ROUND(3.1415, 2) → 3.14
CEIL() / CEILING() Round up CEIL(3.2) → 4
FLOOR() Round down FLOOR(3.8) → 3
ABS() Absolute value ABS(-5) → 5
POWER() Exponentiation POWER(2,3) → 8
MOD() Remainder MOD(10,3) → 1
SQRT() Square root SQRT(25) → 5
Conditional Functions
Function Purpose Example
CASE WHEN THEN ELSE END If-else logic CASE WHEN salary > 5000
THEN 'High' ELSE 'Low' END
COALESCE() Return first non-null value COALESCE(NULL, NULL,
'default') → 'default'
NULLIF() Returns NULL if values match NULLIF(5,5) → NULL
IFNULL() replaces a NULL with a value IFNULL(NULL, 'default') →
'default'
ISNULL() checks if something is NULL ISNULL(NULL) → 1 and
ISNULL('text') → 0
Conversion and Other Useful Functions
Function Purpose Example
CAST() Change data type CAST('123' AS INT)
CONVERT() Similar to CAST CONVERT(INT, '123')
DISTINCT Remove duplicates SELECT DISTINCT department
FROM employees
GROUP_CONCAT() / Merge values STRING_AGG(name, ',')
STRING_AGG()
JSON_VALUE() Extract value from JSON JSON_VALUE('{"a":1}', '$.a') → 1
Window Functions
Function Purpose Example
Unique row number per ROW_NUMBER() OVER
partition (PARTITION BY dept ORDER
ROW_NUMBER() BY salary DESC)
Ranking (gaps allowed) RANK() OVER (ORDER BY
marks DESC)
RANK()
Ranking (no gaps) DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER
BY marks DESC)
DENSE_RANK()
Value from next row LEAD(salary) OVER (ORDER
BY emp_id)
LEAD()
Value from previous row LAG(salary) OVER (ORDER BY
emp_id)
LAG()
Distribute rows into n buckets NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY
salary)
NTILE(n)
