Unit-3 : SQL

 Basic Structure
 Set Operations
 Aggregate Functions
 Null Values
 Nested Subqueries
 Derived Relations
 Views
 Modification of the Database
 Joined Relations
 Data Definition Language
 Embedded SQL, ODBC and JDBC

Database System Concepts 4.1 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Schema Used in Examples

Database System Concepts 4.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Basic Structure
 SQL is based on set and relational operations with certain
modifications and enhancements
 A typical SQL query has the form:
select A1, A2, ..., An
from r1, r2, ..., rm
where P
 Ais represent attributes
 ris represent relations
 P is a predicate.
 This query is equivalent to the relational algebra expression.

A1, A2, ..., An(P (r1 x r2 x ... x rm))

 The result of an SQL query is a relation.

Database System Concepts 4.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The select Clause
 The select clause list the attributes desired in the result of a
query
 corresponds to the projection operation of the relational algebra
 E.g. find the names of all branches in the loan relation
select branch-name
from loan
 In the “pure” relational algebra syntax, the query would be:

branch-name(loan)
 NOTE: SQL does not permit the ‘-’ character in names,
 Use, e.g., branch_name instead of branch-name in a real
implementation.
 We use ‘-’ since it looks nicer!
 NOTE: SQL names are case insensitive, i.e. you can use capital
or small letters.
 You may wish to use upper case where-ever we use bold font.

Database System Concepts 4.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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 names of all branches in the loan relations, and remove
duplicates
select distinct branch-name
from loan
 The keyword all specifies that duplicates not be removed.

select all branch-name

from loan

Database System Concepts 4.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The select Clause (Cont.)
 An asterisk in the select clause denotes “all attributes”

select *
from loan
 The select clause can contain arithmetic expressions involving
the operation, +, –, , and /, and operating on constants or
attributes of tuples.
 The query:

select loan-number, branch-name, amount 

100
from loan
would return a relation which is the same as the loan relations,
except that the attribute amount is multiplied by 100.

Database System Concepts 4.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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 loan number for loans made at the Perryridge branch
with loan amounts greater than $1200.
select loan-number
from loan
where branch-name = ‘Perryridge’ and amount >
1200
 Comparison results can be combined using the logical
connectives and, or, and not.
 Comparisons can be applied to results of arithmetic expressions.

Database System Concepts 4.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The where Clause (Cont.)
 SQL includes a between comparison operator
 E.g. Find the loan number of those loans with loan amounts
between $90,000 and $100,000 (that is, $90,000 and
$100,000)
select loan-number
from loan
where amount between 90000 and 100000

Database System Concepts 4.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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 borrower x loan
select 
from borrower, loan

 Find the name, loan number and loan amount of all customers
having a loan at the Perryridge branch.

select customer-name, borrower.loan-number, amount

from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number and
branch-name = ‘Perryridge’

Database System Concepts 4.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The Rename Operation
 The SQL allows renaming relations and attributes using the as
clause:
old-name as new-name

 Find the name, loan number and loan amount of all customers;
rename the column name loan-number as loan-id.

select customer-name, borrower.loan-number as loan-id, amount

from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number

Database System Concepts 4.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Tuple Variables
 Tuple variables are defined in the from clause via the use of the
as clause.
 Find the customer names and their loan numbers for all
customers having a loan at some branch.
select customer-name, T.loan-number, S.amount
from borrower as T, loan as S
where T.loan-number = S.loan-number
 Find the names of all branches that have greater assets than
some branch located in Brooklyn.

select distinct T.branch-name

from branch as T, branch as S
where T.assets > S.assets and S.branch-city = ‘Brooklyn’

Database System Concepts 4.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 String Operations
 SQL includes a string-matching operator for comparisons on character
strings. Patterns are described using two special characters:
 percent (%). The % character matches any substring.
 underscore (_). The _ character matches any character.
 Find the names of all customers whose street includes the substring
“Main”.
select customer-name
from customer
where customer-street like ‘%Main%’
 Match the name “Main%”
like ‘Main\%’ escape ‘\’
 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.

Database System Concepts 4.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Ordering the Display of Tuples
 List in alphabetic order the names of all customers having a loan
in Perryridge branch
select distinct customer-name
from borrower, loan
where borrower loan-number = loan.loan-number and
branch-name = ‘Perryridge’
order by customer-name
 We may specify desc for descending order or asc for ascending
order, for each attribute; ascending order is the default.
 E.g. order by customer-name desc

Database System Concepts 4.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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(r1): 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

Database System Concepts 4.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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

from r1, r2, ..., rm
where P
is equivalent to the multiset version of the expression:
 A1,, A2, ..., An(P (r1 x r2 x ... x rm))

Database System Concepts 4.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set Operations
 The set operations union, intersect, and except operate on
relations and correspond to the relational algebra operations

 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

Database System Concepts 4.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set Operations
 Find all customers who have a loan, an account, or both:

(select customer-name from depositor)

union
(select customer-name from borrower)
 Find all customers who have both a loan and an account.
(select customer-name from depositor)
intersect
(select customer-name from borrower)
 Find all customers who have an account but no loan.

(select customer-name from depositor)

except
(select customer-name from borrower)

Database System Concepts 4.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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

Database System Concepts 4.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Functions (Cont.)
 Find the average account balance at the Perryridge branch.

select avg (balance)

from account
where branch-name = ‘Perryridge’

 Find the number of tuples in the customer relation.

select count (*)

from customer

 Find the number of depositors in the bank.

select count (distinct customer-name)

from depositor

Database System Concepts 4.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Functions – Group By

 Find the number of depositors for each branch.

select branch-name, count (distinct customer-name)

from depositor, account
where depositor.account-number = account.account-number
group by branch-name

Note: Attributes in select clause outside of aggregate functions must

appear in group by list

Database System Concepts 4.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Functions – Having Clause
 Find the names of all branches where the average account
balance is more than $1,200.

select branch-name, avg (balance)

from account
group by branch-name
having avg (balance) > 1200

Note: predicates in the having clause are applied after the

formation of groups whereas predicates in the where
clause are applied before forming groups

Database System Concepts 4.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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 predicate is null can be used to check for null values.
 E.g. Find all loan number which appear in the loan relation with
null values for amount.
select loan-number
from loan
where amount is null
 The result of any arithmetic expression involving null is null
 E.g. 5 + null returns null
 However, aggregate functions simply ignore nulls
 more on this shortly

Database System Concepts 4.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Null Values and Three Valued Logic
 Any comparison with null returns unknown
 E.g. 5 < null or null <> null or null = null
 Three-valued logic using the truth 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

Database System Concepts 4.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Null Values and Aggregates
 Total all loan amounts

select sum (amount)

from loan
 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.

Database System Concepts 4.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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.
 A common use of subqueries is to perform tests for set
membership, set comparisons, and set cardinality.

Database System Concepts 4.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Query
 Find all customers who have both an account and a loan at the
bank.
select distinct customer-name
from borrower
where customer-name in (select customer-name
from depositor)

 Find all customers who have a loan at the bank but do not have

an account at the bank

select distinct customer-name
from borrower
where customer-name not in (select customer-name
from depositor)

Database System Concepts 4.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Query
 Find all customers who have both an account and a loan at the
Perryridge branch

select distinct customer-name

from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number and
branch-name = “Perryridge” and
(branch-name, customer-name) in
(select branch-name, customer-name
from depositor, account
where depositor.account-number =
account.account-number)

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

formulation above is simply to illustrate SQL features.
(Schema used in this example)

Database System Concepts 4.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set Comparison
 Find all branches that have greater assets than some branch
located in Brooklyn.

select distinct T.branch-name

from branch as T, branch as S
where T.assets > S.assets and
S.branch-city = ‘Brooklyn’

 Same query using > some clause

select branch-name
from branch
where assets > some
(select assets
from branch
where branch-city = ‘Brooklyn’)

Database System Concepts 4.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Definition of Some Clause
 F <comp> some r t r s.t. (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

Database System Concepts 4.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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

Database System Concepts 4.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Query
 Find the names of all branches that have greater assets than all
branches located in Brooklyn.

select branch-name
from branch
where assets > all
(select assets
from branch
where branch-city = ‘Brooklyn’)

Database System Concepts 4.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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

Database System Concepts 4.32 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Query
 Find all customers who have an account at all branches located
in Brooklyn.
select distinct S.customer-name
from depositor as S
where not exists (
(select branch-name
from branch
where branch-city = ‘Brooklyn’)
except
(select R.branch-name
from depositor as T, account as R
where T.account-number = R.account-number and
S.customer-name = T.customer-name))

 (Schema used in this example)

 Note that X – Y = Ø  X Y
 Note: Cannot write this query using = all and its variants

Database System Concepts 4.33 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Test for Absence of Duplicate Tuples

 The unique construct tests whether a subquery has any duplicate

tuples in its result.
 Find all customers who have at most one account at the
Perryridge branch.
select T.customer-name
from depositor as T
where unique (
select R.customer-name
from account, depositor as R
where T.customer-name = R.customer-name and
R.account-number = account.account-number
and
account.branch-name = ‘Perryridge’)
 (Schema used in this example)

Database System Concepts 4.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Query
 Find all customers who have at least two accounts at the
Perryridge branch.

select distinct T.customer-name

from depositor T
where not unique (
select R.customer-name
from account, depositor as R
where T.customer-name = R.customer-name
and
R.account-number = account.account-number
and
account.branch-name = ‘Perryridge’)

(Schema used in this example)

Database System Concepts 4.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Views
 Provide a mechanism to hide certain data from the view of
certain users. To create a view we use the command:
create view v as <query expression>

where:
<query expression> is any legal expression
The view name is represented by v

Database System Concepts 4.36 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 A view consisting of branches and their customers

create view all-customer as

(select branch-name, customer-name
from depositor, account
where depositor.account-number = account.account-number)
union
(select branch-name, customer-name
from borrower, loan
where borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number)
 Find all customers of the Perryridge branch

select customer-name
from all-customer
where branch-name = ‘Perryridge’

Database System Concepts 4.37 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Derived Relations
 Find the average account balance of those branches where the
average account balance is greater than $1200.
select branch-name, avg-balance
from (select branch-name, avg (balance)
from account
group by branch-name)
as result (branch-name, avg-balance)
where avg-balance > 1200
Note that we do not need to use the having clause, since we
compute the temporary (view) relation result in the from clause,
and the attributes of result can be used directly in the where
clause.

Database System Concepts 4.38 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 With Clause
 With clause allows views to be defined locally to a query, rather
than globally. Analogous to procedures in a programming
language.
 Find all accounts with the maximum balance

with max-balance(value) as
select max (balance)
from account
select account-number
from account, max-balance
where account.balance = max-balance.value

Database System Concepts 4.39 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Complex Query using With Clause
 Find all branches where the total account deposit is greater than
the average of the total account deposits at all branches.

with branch-total (branch-name, value) as

select branch-name, sum (balance)
from account
group by branch-name
with branch-total-avg(value) as
select avg (value)
from branch-total
select branch-name
from branch-total, branch-total-avg
where branch-total.value >= branch-total-avg.value

Database System Concepts 4.40 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Modification of the Database – Deletion
 Delete all account records at the Perryridge branch

delete from account

where branch-name = ‘Perryridge’
 Delete all accounts at every branch located in Needham city.

delete from account

where branch-name in (select branch-name
from branch
where branch-city = ‘Needham’)
delete from depositor
where account-number in
(select account-number
from branch, account
where branch-city = ‘Needham’
and branch.branch-name = account.branch-
name)
 (Schema used in this example)

Database System Concepts 4.41 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Query
 Delete the record of all accounts with balances below the
average at the bank.

delete from account

where balance < (select avg (balance)
from account)

 Problem: as we delete tuples from deposit, the average balance

changes
 Solution used in SQL:
1. First, compute avg balance and find all tuples to delete
2. Next, delete all tuples found above (without recomputing avg or

retesting the tuples)

Database System Concepts 4.42 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Modification of the Database – Insertion

 Add a new tuple to account

insert into account

values (‘A-9732’, ‘Perryridge’,1200)
or equivalently

insert into account (branch-name, balance, account-number)

values (‘Perryridge’, 1200, ‘A-9732’)
 Add a new tuple to account with balance set to null

insert into account

values (‘A-777’,‘Perryridge’, null)

Database System Concepts 4.43 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Modification of the Database – Insertion

 Provide as a gift for all loan customers of the Perryridge branch, a

$200 savings account. Let the loan number serve as the account
number for the new savings account
insert into account
select loan-number, branch-name, 200
from loan
where branch-name = ‘Perryridge’
insert into depositor
select customer-name, loan-number
from loan, borrower
where branch-name = ‘Perryridge’
and loan.account-number = borrower.account-
number
 The select from where statement is fully evaluated before any of its
results are inserted into the relation (otherwise queries like
insert into table1 select * from table1
would cause problems
Database System Concepts 4.44 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Modification of the Database – Updates
 Increase all accounts with balances over $10,000 by 6%, all
other accounts receive 5%.
 Write two update statements:
update account
set balance = balance  1.06
where balance > 10000

update account
set balance = balance  1.05
where balance  10000
 The order is important
 Can be done better using the case statement (next slide)

Database System Concepts 4.45 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Case Statement for Conditional Updates
 Same query as before: Increase all accounts with balances over
$10,000 by 6%, all other accounts receive 5%.

update account
set balance = case
when balance <= 10000 then balance *1.05
else balance * 1.06
end

Database System Concepts 4.46 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Update of a View
 Create a view of all loan data in loan relation, hiding the amount
attribute
create view branch-loan as
select branch-name, loan-number
from loan
 Add a new tuple to branch-loan
insert into branch-loan
values (‘Perryridge’, ‘L-307’)
This insertion must be represented by the insertion of the tuple
(‘L-307’, ‘Perryridge’, null)
into the loan relation
 Updates on more complex views are difficult or impossible to
translate, and hence are disallowed.
 Most SQL implementations allow updates only on simple views
(without aggregates) defined on a single relation

Database System Concepts 4.47 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Transactions
 A transaction is a sequence of queries and update statements executed
as a single unit
 Transactions are started implicitly and terminated by one of
 commit work: makes all updates of the transaction permanent in the
database
 rollback work: undoes all updates performed by the transaction.

 Motivating example
 Transfer of money from one account to another involves two steps:
 deduct from one account and credit to another
 If one steps succeeds and the other fails, database is in an inconsistent state
 Therefore, either both steps should succeed or neither should
 If any step of a transaction fails, all work done by the transaction can be
undone by rollback work.
 Rollback of incomplete transactions is done automatically, in case of
system failures

Database System Concepts 4.48 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Transactions (Cont.)
 In most database systems, each SQL statement that executes
successfully is automatically committed.
 Each transaction would then consist of only a single statement
 Automatic commit can usually be turned off, allowing multi-
statement transactions, but how to do so depends on the database
system
 Another option in SQL:1999: enclose statements within
begin atomic
…
end

Database System Concepts 4.49 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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.

Join Types Join Conditions

inner join natural
left outer join on <predicate>
right outer join using (A1, A2, ..., An)
full outer join

Database System Concepts 4.50 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Joined Relations – Datasets for Examples
 Relation loan

loan-number branch-name amount

L-170 Downtown 3000

L-230 Redwood 4000
L-260 Perryridge 1700
 Relation borrower

customer-name loan-number

Jones L-170
Smith L-230
Hayes L-155
 Note: borrower information missing for L-260 and loan information missing for L-155

Database System Concepts 4.51 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Joined Relations – Examples
 loan inner join borrower on
loan.loan-number = borrower.loan-number
loan-number branch-name amount customer-name loan-number

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones L-170

L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith L-230

 loan left outer join borrower on

loan.loan-number = borrower.loan-number

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name loan-number

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones L-170

L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith L-230
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null null

Database System Concepts 4.52 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Joined Relations – Examples

 loan natural inner join borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones

L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith

 loan natural right outer join borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones

L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-155 null null Hayes

Database System Concepts 4.53 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Joined Relations – Examples
 loan full outer join borrower using (loan-number)

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones

L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
L-155 null null Hayes

 Find all customers who have either an account or a loan (but

not both) at the bank.

select customer-name
from (depositor natural full outer join borrower)
where account-number is null or loan-number is null

Database System Concepts 4.54 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Data Definition Language (DDL)

Allows the specification of not only a set of relations but also

information about each relation, including:
 The schema for each relation.
 The domain of values associated with each attribute.
 Integrity constraints
 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.

Database System Concepts 4.55 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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 n digits to the right of decimal point.
 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.
 Null values are allowed in all the domain types. Declaring an attribute to be
not null prohibits null values for that attribute.
 create domain construct in SQL-92 creates user-defined domain types
create domain person-name char(20) not null

Database System Concepts 4.56 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Date/Time Types in SQL (Cont.)
 date. Dates, containing a (4 digit) year, month and date
 E.g. date ‘2001-7-27’
 time. Time of day, in hours, minutes and seconds.
 E.g. time ’09:00:30’ time ’09:00:30.75’
 timestamp: date plus time of day
 E.g. timestamp ‘2001-7-27 09:00:30.75’
 Interval: period of time
 E.g. 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
 Can extract values of individual fields from date/time/timestamp
 E.g. extract (year from r.starttime)
 Can cast string types to date/time/timestamp
 E.g. cast <string-valued-expression> as date

Database System Concepts 4.57 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 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 branch

(branch-name char(15) not null,
branch-city char(30),
assets integer)

Database System Concepts 4.58 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Integrity Constraints in Create Table
 not null
 primary key (A1, ..., An)
 check (P), where P is a predicate

Example: Declare branch-name as the primary key for branch

and ensure that the values of assets are non-negative.
create table branch
(branch-name char(15),
branch-city char(30)
assets integer,
primary key (branch-name),
check (assets >= 0))

primary key declaration on an attribute automatically ensures not

null in SQL-92 onwards, needs to be explicitly stated in SQL-89

Database System Concepts 4.59 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

Database System Concepts 4.60 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan