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04 SQL Select

select

## Display values of table
select * from tableName;
select * from tableName where id = 11;

select name, salary/12 as monthlySalary from tableName;

## unique
select distinct city from table;
select count(distinct city) from table;

Subqueries

age + salary
age - salary
age * salary
age / salary

Clauses

connectives

logical

and
or
not

as

select name, courseId
    from instructors as i, teaches as t

where

where id = 11;
where Student.instructor = Teacher.name;

like

for string operations

where name like "a%"; -- no character/any number of characters
where name like "a_"; -- 1 character

-- we can create our own escape characters
-- where name like "100\%" escape '\';
where name like "100&%" escape '&';

-- multiple conditions
WHERE a.city LIKE ANY('%dub%', '%ras%')

having

for group by clause

group by age having name like "a%";

between

inclusive on both sides

select * from Student
    where age between 15 and 20 ## range is [15, 20]

Operations

Merge

select * from students, players
    where students.id = players.id;

select name, courseId
    from instructors as i, teaches as t
    where i.id = t.id;

select * from Student
    where (age, name) = (15, "Thahir")

Cartesian Product

select * from students, teachers;

For every record of students, there will be every possible combination with teachers

select * from teachers, students;

For every record of teachers, there will be every possible combination with students

Ordering

select name from instructor order by name asc;
select name from instructor order by name desc;

if 2 people have the same name, the 2nd condition (here, age) will be given priority

select name from instructor order by name desc, age desc;

Calculus

TRC = Tuple Relation Calculus

DRC = Domain Relation Calculus

Semantic Representation

select A1, A2, ..., Am
    from R1, R2, ..., Rn
    where P

Mathematical Representation

\[ \Pi_{A_1, A_2, \dots, A_m} \bigg( \sigma_{P} \Big( R_1 \times R_2 \times \dots \times R_n \Big) \bigg) \]
Symbol Meaning
\(\Pi\) Projection
\(A_1, A_2, \dots, A_m\) Attributes (Columns)
\(\sigma\) Selection
\(P\) Predicate (where condition)
\(R_1, R_2, \dots, R_n\) Relations

Set Operations

Operation Meaning
union a or b \(A \cup B\)
intersect a and b \(A \cap B\)
except a but not b \(A \cap B'\) 
select cno from courses
    where age

(select id from Student where age >= 15)
except
(select id from Student where age < 20);

## equivalent of 
select * from Student where age between 15 and 20;

Logic

  • True (1)
  • False (0)
  • Unknown (X - don’t care)

Any comparison with null gives unknown for eg,

  • age > null
  • age <> null
  • age = null

Aggregate Functions

count(*)
count(city)
count(distinct city)

max(salary)
min(salary)

sum(salary)
avg(salary)

select sum(salary)
    from Teachers;

select dept, sum(salary)
    from Teachers
    where age > 25
    group by dept
    having avg(salary) > 45000;

The grouping attribute must be displayed as well, otherwise it won’t make sence when viewing the table.

count(*) is the only aggregate function that does not ignore null, because some other fields might be filled. But, if there are only null values in the entire table, then even count(*) will return 0.

Note: - COUNT(*) is the most-optimized and fastest way to count rows

Predicate Order

  1. where (before grouping)
  2. having (after grouping)

Subqueries

Clause Meaning
in exact match
some like or gate
all like and gate
exists less strict version of in
not exists 0
unique at most once (0/1)

in

select count(distinct cid) from instructor
    where semester = "Fall" and year = 2009 and
        cid in (
            select cid from instructor where semester = "Spring" and year = 2010
        );

## equivalent to
select distinct i1.cid
    from instructor i1, instructor i2
    where i1.semester = "Fall" and
    i1.year = 2009 and
    i2.semester = "Spring" and
    i2.year = 2010 and
    i1.cid = i2.cid;

some

select distinct name from instructor
    where age > some (select age from instructor);

    where age not > some (select age from instructor);

all

not all = not in

select distinct name from instructor
    where age > all (select age from instructor);

    where age not > all (select age from instructor);

exists

select cid
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.cid = t.cide
    );

not exists

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)
)

unique

select t.cid from course as t
where unique(select r.cid from section as r where t.cid = r.)

from subqueries

select deptName, avgSalary
from (
  select deptName, avg(salary) as avgSalary
  from Instructors
  group by deptName
)
where age > 30;

## equivalent to

select deptName, avg(salary) as avgSalary
from Instructors
group by deptName
having age > 30;

with clause

with maxTable(year, budget) as (
    select max(year), max(budget) from department
) ## no semi-colon
select department.name
from department, maxTable
where department.budget = maxTable.budget;

Scalar Subquery

select deptName, (
    select count(*)
  from instructor
  where department.deptName = instructor.deptName
) as numInstructors
from department;

## equivalent

select department.deptName, count(*) as numInstructors
    from instructor, department
    where department.deptName = instructor.deptName
    group by deptName;

Views

Temporary table

create view view_name as
select *
from students;

CTE with Clause

Temporary view, which you only need once.

Useful when you need just an extra column, and for Recursive CTE.

with table_with_dpr as
(
    select
    *,
    dob - today() as AGE
)
select *
where AGE > 30;

Recursive CTE

with recursive cte (id, name, parent_id) as
(
  select     id,
             name,
             parent_id
  from       products
  where      parent_id = 19
  union all
  select     p.id,
             p.name,
             p.parent_id
  from       products p
  inner join cte
          on p.parent_id = cte.id
)
select * from cte;
2026-10-15