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Based on this, a list is simply an arrangement of information and this information, also called data, is stored in tables.
3. As the cursor is blinking in the first empty field under the Column Name column, type name and press Enter
Tables Names
To complete the creation of a table, you must save it. If you are freshly creating a table and decide to save it, you would be prompted to name it. The name of a table:
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Can be made of digits only. For example you can have a table called 148 Can start with a digit, a letter, or an underscore Can be made of letters, digits, and spaces
Besides these rules, you can make up yours. To avoid confusion, here are the rules we will use to name our tables:
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A name will start with a letter. Examples are act or Second After the first character as an underscore or a letter, the name will have combinations of underscores, letters, and digits. Examples are _n24, act_52_t Unless stated otherwise, a name will not include special characters such as !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, or * If the name is a combination of words, each word will start in uppercase. Examples are Staff Members or Video Titles
2. In the Choose Name dialog box, type Employees and press Enter 3. After saving the table, close it by clicking its system Close button
Tables Maintenance
Introduction
Table maintenance consists of reviewing or changing its aspects. This includes reviewing the list of tables of a database, renaming a table, or deleting it.
Opening a Table
Most operations require that you open a table before using it. There are various ways a table displays, depending on how you want to examine it:
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To view the structure of a table, perhaps to change its columns, in the Object Explorer, expand your database and its Tables node. Right-click the table and click Modify. The table would open in design view, the same view you use to visually create a table. If you want to view the SQL code of a table, in the Object Explorer, right-click the table, position the mouse on Script Table AS, CREATE To, and click New Query Editor Window To open a table to view its data, perhaps to perform data entry, in the Object Explorer, rightclick the table and click Open Table
Tables Review
To see the list of tables of a database in the Object Explorer, you can click the Tables node:
To see the list of tables of a database using SQL, in a Query window, specify the database (using a USE statement), and execute sp_help (it is a stored procedure). Here is an example:
Renaming a Table
If you find out that the name of a table is not appropriate, you can change it. To change the name of a table in the SQL Server Management Studio, in the Object Explorer, right-click the table and click Rename. Type the desired name and press Enter.
To change the name of a table with code, execute sp_rename, followed by the current name of the table, a comma, and the new desired name of the table. The formula to use is: sp_rename ExistingTableName, TableNewName; The names of tables should be included in single-quotes. Here is an example: sp_rename 'StaffMembers', 'Employees'; GO In this case, the interpreter would look for a table named StaffMembers in the current or selected database. If it finds it, it would rename it Employees. If the table doesn't exist, you would receive an error.
Deleting a Table
If you have an undesired table in a database, you can remove it. To delete a table in the SQL Server Management Studio, in the Object Explorer, right-click the table under its database node and click Delete. You will receive a warning giving you a chance to confirm your intentions. If you still want to remove the table, click OK. To delete a table using SQL, use the following formula: DROP TABLE TableName The DROP TABLE expression is required and it is followed by the name of the undesired table. When you execute the statement, you will not receive a warning before the table is deleted. You can also use sample code that Microsoft SQL Server can generate for you. First display an empty query window. Also display the Templates Explorer and expand the Table node. Under Table, drag Drop Table and drop it in the empty query window. Sample code would be generated for you. You can then simply modify it and execute the statement.
Referring to a Table
In future lessons, we will write various expressions that involve the names of tables. In those expressions, you will need to specify a particular table you want to use. There are three main ways you can do this. To refer to, or to indicate, a table:
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You can simply type its name. An example would be Students You can type dbo, followed by the period operator, followed by the name of the table. An example would be dbo.Students You can type the name of the database to which the table belongs, followed by the period operator, followed by dbo, followed by the period operator, and followed by the name of the table. An example would be RedOakHighSchool.dbo.Students
As you can see from this arrangement, a column is used to particularly classify one type of data. For example, one column can be used to list some names. Another column can be used to list numbers. Yet another column can be used for a select list of items that keep repeating those items.
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To organize the information that a column holds, a table needs a series of details about each column. Two aspects are particularly important: a name and the type of data that a column should/must/can hold.
Can start with a letter, a digit, or an underscore Can include letters, digits, and spaces in any combination
After respecting these rules, you can add your own rules. In our lessons, here are the rules we will use to name our columns:
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A name will start with a letter. Examples are n, act, or Second After the first character as an underscore or a letter, the name will have combinations of underscores, letters, and digits. Examples are n24 or col_52_t Unless specified otherwise, a name will not include special characters such as !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, or * If the name is a combination of words, each word will start in uppercase. Examples are Date Hired, LastName, Drivers License Number, or EmailAddress
3. Click the first empty field under FirstName and type MI 4. Press the down arrow key to position the cursor under MI 5. Type LastName and press the down arrow key 6. Type DateHired 7. Press Tab and type d 8. Notice that the datetime data type is selected. 9. Press Enter three times to position the mouse cursor under DateHired 10. Type EmployeeNumber and press the down arrow key 11. Complete the table as follows:
In the top section of the windo, to change the length of the field, in the parentheses of the data type, enter the desired value In the top section of the window, click the name of the column. In the bottom section, click the Length field and type the desired value
Therefore, the syntax of creating a column is: ColumnName DataType Options The name of a column should follow the same rules and suggestions we reviewed for the columns. After typing the name of the column, type the desired or appropriate data type for the column. For this example, use one of the (appropriate) data types we reviewed. Remember that some of the data types need to have a length. This is certainly true for all string or text-based columns (char, text, varchar, etc). In the case of text-based columns, when using SQL to create your columns, because it is less visual than the table design of the SQL Server Management Studio, you cannot rely on the default length of strings suggested by SQL (in fact, in MySQL, you must specify a length for varchar). As it happens, the SQL Server Management Studion specifies different default values for text-based columns. Therefore, when using SQL to create your columns, you should (strongly) specify your own default length for text-based columns. We also saw that you could use sample code to create a table. This allows you to have more control over the various columns you want the table to have. To do this, open an empty query window and display the Templates Explorer. Expand the Table node. Under Table, you can drag Create Table, Add Column, or Drop Column, and drop it in the query window. If you use dropped Add Column or Drop Column, you can delete the undesired sections of the code and isolate only the part that handles table creation. Here is an example: --========================================================================== -- Add column template --- This template creates a table, then it adds a new column to the table. --========================================================================== USE <database, sysname, AdventureWorks> GO CREATE TABLE <schema_name, sysname, dbo>.<table_name, sysname, sample_table> ( column1 int, column2 char(10) ) GO
3. To execute the statement, press F5 4. Close the SQL Query Analyzer window 5. When asked whether you want to save the text, click Yes 6. Type Customers as the name of the file and press Enter
Referring to a Column
Introducion
We will write many expressions that include the names of columns. In such expressions, you will need to indicate the particular column you are referring to. There are various ways you can do this. To refer to, or to indicate, a table:
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You must type the name of the table to which the column belongs, followed by the period operator, followed by the name of the column. An example would be Employee.LastName You can type dbo, followed by the period operator, followed by the name of the table to which the column belongs, followed by the period operator, followed by the name of the column. An example would be dbo.Employee.LastName You can type the name of the database that owns the table's column, followed by the period operator, followed by dbo, followed by the period operator, followed by the name of the table to which the column belongs, followed by the period operator, followed by the name of the column. An example would be RedOakHighSchool.dbo.Employee.LastName
Columns Maintenance
Introduction
Column maintenance consists of reviewing or changing any of its aspects. This includes reviewing the structure of columns of a table, renaming a column, deleting a column, changing the data type or the nullity of a column, etc.
Column Review
To see the structure of a table in the SQL Server Management Studio, in the Object Explorer, you can expand it:
To view the columns of a table using SQL code, in a query window, execute sp_columns followed by
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the name of the table the columns belong to. Here is an example:
This action displays the list of columns in the COLUMN_NAME column and other characteristics on the right columns.
Description
Description: Common and enabled for all fields, the description is used for a sentence that describes the column. You can type anything on that field.
Collation
Because different languages use different mechanisms in their alphabetic characters, this can affect the way some sort algorithms or queries are performed on data, you can ask the database to apply a certain language mechanism to the field by changing the Collation property. Otherwise, you should accept the default specified by the table. To specify the collation of a column when creating in, type COLLATE, followed by the desired collation code. Here is an example: CREATE TABLE Customers( FullName varchar(50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS );
Modifying a Column
When making a change on a column, you are also said to alter the table. To support this operation, SQL starts with the following formula: ALTER TABLE TableName When using this statement, the ALTER TABLE expression is required and it is followed by the name of the table.
This would create a new empty field. Type the desired name and specify the other options. In SQL, the basic formula to add a new column to an existing table is: ALTER TABLE TableName ADD ColumnName Properties The ColumnName factor is required. In fact, on the right side of the ADD keyword, define the column by its name and using all the options we reviewed for columns. Here is an example: ALTER TABLE StaffMembers ADD Address varchar(100) NULL GO When this code is executed, a new column name Address, of type varchar, with a limit of 100 characters, and that allow empty entry, will be added to a table named StaffMembers in the current database. You can also use sample code to add a new column to a table. First display an empty query window and display the Templates Explorer. Expand the Table node. Under Table, drag Add Column and drop it in the query window. Delete the undesired sections of code and keep only the part that deals with adding a column. Here is an example: --========================================================================== -- Add column template --- This template creates a table, then it adds a new column to the table. --========================================================================== USE <database, sysname, AdventureWorks> GO -- Add a new column to the table ALTER TABLE <schema_name, sysname, dbo>.<table_name, sysname, sample_table> ADD <new_column_name, sysname, column3> <new_column_datatype,, datetime> <new_column_nullability,, NULL> GO
Renaming a Column
If you find out that the name of a column is not appropriate, you can change it. To rename a column in the Object Explorer, right-click the table that the column belongs to and click Modify. In the design view, highlight the name of the desired column to put it into edit mode and edit it. In SQL, to change the name of a column, first open an empty query window. In a query window, execute sp_rename using the following formula:
sp_rename 'TableName.ColumnName', 'NewColumnName', 'COLUMN' The sp_rename factor and the 'COLUMN' string are required. The TableName factor is the name of the table that the column belongs to. The ColumnName is the current name of the column. The NewColumnName is the desired name you want to give to the column. Here is an example: sp_rename 'StaffMembers.FullName', 'EmployeeName', 'COLUMN' GO When this code is executed, the interpreter will look for a column named FullName in the StaffMembers table of the current or selected database. If it finds that column in the table, then it renames it EmployeeName.
Deleting a Column
If you have an undesired column that you don't want anymore in a table, you can remove it. To visually delete a column, in the Object Explorer, expand the database, the Tables, and the Columns nodes. Right-click the undesired column and click Delete. The Delete Object dialog box would display. If you still want to delete the column, click OK. To change your mind, click Cancel. To delete a column using code, first open or access an empty query window, and use the following formula: ALTER TABLE TableName DROP COLUMN ColumnName On the right side of the ALTER TABLE expression, type the name of the table. On the right side of the DROP COLUMN expression, enter the name of the undesired column. Here is an example: ALTER TABLE StaffMembers DROP COLUMN CurrentResidence; GO When this code is executed, the interpreter will look for a column named CurrentResidence in a table StaffMembers of the current or selected database. If it finds that column, it will remove it from the table. Microsoft SQL Server can also generate sample code you can use to delete a column from a table. Before doing this, first display an empty query window and display the Templates Explorer. Expand the Table node. In the Table section, drag Drop Column and drop it in the query window. Delete the undesired sections of code and keep only the part that deals with adding a column. Here is an example: --============================================ -- Drop column template --- This template creates a table, then it -- drops one of the columns of the table. --============================================ USE <database, sysname, AdventureWorks> GO -- Drop a column from the table ALTER TABLE <schema_name, sysname, dbo>.<table_name, sysname, sample_table> DROP COLUMN <new_column_name, sysname, column3> GO
Lesson Summary
Topics Reviewed
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Tables Columns
Exercise: US States
1. Get your research papers on US regions and New England 2. On the piece of paper, complete the list with regions 3. Complete the list with all states 4. Connect to the server from the Command Prompt and access the UnitedStatesRegions1 database 5. Create a table named Regions with the columns Region and Description 6. Create a table named States with the columns Name, Code, Area, Population, and Capital 7. Exit the Command Prompt
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