SQL: Queries, Programming,

Triggers
Chapter 5

Modified by Donghui Zhang

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 1

 SELECT [DISTINCT] target-list
Basic SQL Query FROM relation-list
WHERE qualification

relation-list A list of relation names (possibly with a

range-variable after each name).
target-list A list of attributes of relations in relation-list
qualification Comparisons (Attr op const or Attr1 op
Attr2, where op is one of , , , , , )
combined using AND, OR and NOT.
DISTINCT is an optional keyword indicating that the
answer should not contain duplicates. Default is that
duplicates are not eliminated!

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 2

 Conceptual Evaluation Strategy
Semantics of an SQL query defined in terms of the
following conceptual evaluation strategy:
Compute the cross-product of relation-list.
Discard resulting tuples if they fail qualifications.
Delete attributes that are not in target-list.
If DISTINCT is specified, eliminate duplicate rows.
This strategy is probably the least efficient way to
compute a query! An optimizer will find more
efficient strategies to compute the same answers.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 3

 A Note on Range Variables

Really needed only if the same relation

appears twice in the FROM clause. The
previous query can also be written as:
SELECT S.sname
FROM Sailors S, Reserves R
It is good style,
WHERE S.sid=R.sid AND bid=103
however, to use
range variables
OR SELECT sname always!
FROM Sailors, Reserves
WHERE Sailors.sid=Reserves.sid
AND bid=103
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 4
 Expressions and Strings
SELECT S.age, age1=S.age-5, 2*S.age AS age2
FROM Sailors S
WHERE S.sname LIKE B_%B

Illustrates use of arithmetic expressions and string

pattern matching: Find triples (of ages of sailors and
two fields defined by expressions) for sailors whose names
begin and end with B and contain at least three characters.
AS and = are two ways to name fields in result.
LIKE is used for string matching. `_ stands for any
one character and `% stands for 0 or more arbitrary
characters.
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 5
 Set Operations in SQL

UNION: s1 UNION s2, result rows either in s1

or s2.
INTERSECT: s1 INTERSECT s2, result rows in
s1 and s2.
EXCEPT: s1 EXCEPT s2, result rows in s1 but
not in s2. (Some system recognize MINUS for
EXECPT)
Also, IN, ANY, ALL, EXISTS, to be covered in
Nested Queries.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 6

 Nested Queries
Find names of sailors whove reserved boat #103:
SELECT S.sname
FROM Sailors S
WHERE S.sid IN (SELECT R.sid
FROM Reserves R
WHERE R.bid=103)
A very powerful feature of SQL: a WHERE clause can
itself contain an SQL query! (Actually, so can FROM
and HAVING clauses.)
To find sailors whove not reserved #103, use NOT IN.
To understand semantics of nested queries, think of a
nested loops evaluation: For each Sailors tuple, check the
qualification by computing the subquery.
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 7
 Nested Queries with Correlation
Find names of sailors whove reserved boat #103:
SELECT S.sname
FROM Sailors S
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM Reserves R
WHERE R.bid=103 AND S.sid=R.sid)

EXISTS is another set comparison operator, like IN.

If UNIQUE is used, and * is replaced by R.bid, finds
sailors with at most one reservation for boat #103.
(UNIQUE checks for duplicate tuples; * denotes all
attributes. Why do we have to replace * by R.bid?)
Illustrates why, in general, subquery must be re-
computed for each Sailors tuple.
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 8
 More on Set-Comparison Operators
Weve already seen IN, EXISTS and UNIQUE. Can also
use NOT IN, NOT EXISTS and NOT UNIQUE.
Also available: op ANY, op ALL, op IN , , , ,,
Find sailors whose rating is greater than that of some
sailor called Horatio:
SELECT *
FROM Sailors S
WHERE S.rating > ANY (SELECT S2.rating
FROM Sailors S2
WHERE S2.sname=Horatio)

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 9

 (1) SELECT S.sname
FROM Sailors S
Division in SQL WHERE NOT EXISTS
((SELECT B.bid
FROM Boats B)
Find sailors whove reserved all boats. EXCEPT
(SELECT R.bid
Lets do it the hard FROM Reserves R
WHERE R.sid=S.sid))
way, without EXCEPT:
(2) SELECT S.sname
FROM Sailors S
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT B.bid
FROM Boats B
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT R.bid
Sailors S such that ...
FROM Reserves R
there is no boat B without ... WHERE R.bid=B.bid
AND R.sid=S.sid))
a Reserves tuple showing S reserved B
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 10
 COUNT (*)
COUNT ( [DISTINCT] A)
Aggregate Operators SUM ( [DISTINCT] A)
AVG ( [DISTINCT] A)
Significant extension of MAX (A)
MIN (A)
relational algebra.
single column
SELECT COUNT (*)
SELECT S.sname
FROM Sailors S
FROM Sailors S
SELECT AVG (S.age) WHERE S.rating= (SELECT MAX(S2.rating)
FROM Sailors S FROM Sailors S2)
WHERE S.rating=10

SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT S.rating) SELECT AVG ( DISTINCT S.age)

FROM Sailors S FROM Sailors S
WHERE S.sname=Bob WHERE S.rating=10
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 11
 Queries With GROUP BY and HAVING
SELECT [DISTINCT] target-list
FROM relation-list
WHERE qualification
GROUP BY grouping-list
HAVING group-qualification

The target-list contains (i) attribute names (ii) terms

with aggregate operations (e.g., MIN (S.age)).
The attribute list (i) must be a subset of grouping-list.
Intuitively, each answer tuple corresponds to a group, and
these attributes must have a single value per group. (A
group is a set of tuples that have the same value for all
attributes in grouping-list.)
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 12
 Conceptual Evaluation
The cross-product of relation-list is computed, tuples
that fail qualification are discarded, `unnecessary fields
are deleted, and the remaining tuples are partitioned
into groups by the value of attributes in grouping-list.
The group-qualification is then applied to eliminate
some groups. Expressions in group-qualification must
have a single value per group!
In effect, an attribute in group-qualification that is not an
argument of an aggregate op also appears in grouping-list.
(SQL does not exploit primary key semantics here!)
One answer tuple is generated per qualifying group.
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 13
 Find the age of the youngest sailor with age 18,
for each rating with at least 2 such sailors
sid sname rating age
SELECT S.rating, MIN (S.age)
22 dustin 7 45.0
FROM Sailors S
WHERE S.age >= 18
31 lubber 8 55.5
GROUP BY S.rating
71 zorba 10 16.0
HAVING COUNT (*) >= 2
64 horatio 7 35.0
29 brutus 1 33.0
Only S.rating and S.age are 58 rusty 10 35.0
mentioned in the SELECT, rating age
GROUP BY or HAVING clauses;
1 33.0
other attributes `unnecessary. 7 45.0 rating
2nd column of result is 7 35.0 7 35.0
unnamed. (Use AS to name it.) 8 55.5
10 35.0 Answer relation
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 14
 Find the age of the youngest sailor with age 18,
for each rating with at least 2 such sailors
SELECT S.rating, MIN (S.age)
FROM Sailors S
WHERE S.age >= 18
GROUP BY S.rating
HAVING COUNT (*) >= 2

SELECT T.rating, T.minimum

FROM (SELECT S.rating, MIN(S.age) AS minimum,
COUNT (*) AS ratingcount
FROM Sailors S
WHERE S.age > 18
GROUP BY S.rating) AS T
WHERE T.ratingcount >= 2

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 15

 Null Values
Field values in a tuple are sometimes unknown (e.g., a
rating has not been assigned) or inapplicable (e.g., no
spouses name).
SQL provides a special value null for such situations.
The presence of null complicates many issues. E.g.:
Special operators needed to check if value is/is not null.
Is rating>8 true or false when rating is equal to null? What
about AND, OR and NOT connectives?
We need a 3-valued logic (true, false and unknown).
Meaning of constructs must be defined carefully. (e.g.,
WHERE clause eliminates rows that dont evaluate to true.)
New operators (in particular, outer joins) possible/needed.
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 16
 Integrity Constraints (Review)
An IC describes conditions that every legal instance
of a relation must satisfy.
Inserts/deletes/updates that violate ICs are disallowed.
Can be used to ensure application semantics (e.g., sid is a
key), or prevent inconsistencies (e.g., sname has to be a
string, age must be < 200)
Types of ICs: Domain constraints, primary key
constraints, foreign key constraints, general
constraints.
Domain constraints: Field values must be of right type.
Always enforced.
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 17
 CREATE TABLE Sailors
( sid INTEGER,
General Constraints sname CHAR(10),
rating INTEGER,
age REAL,
Useful when PRIMARY KEY (sid),
more general CHECK ( rating >= 1
ICs than keys AND rating <= 10 )
are involved. CREATE TABLE Reserves
( sname CHAR(10),
Can use queries
bid INTEGER,
to express
day DATE,
constraint.
PRIMARY KEY (bid,day),
Constraints can CONSTRAINT noInterlakeRes
be named. CHECK (`Interlake <>
( SELECT B.bname
FROM Boats B
WHERE B.bid=bid)))
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 18
 Constraints Over Multiple Relations
CREATE TABLE Sailors
( sid INTEGER, Number of boats
sname CHAR(10), plus number of
Awkward and
rating INTEGER, sailors is < 100
wrong!
age REAL,
If Sailors is
PRIMARY KEY (sid),
empty, the
CHECK
number of Boats
tuples can be ( (SELECT COUNT (S.sid) FROM Sailors S)
anything! + (SELECT COUNT (B.bid) FROM Boats B) < 100 )
ASSERTION is the
right solution; CREATE ASSERTION smallClub
not associated CHECK
with either table. ( (SELECT COUNT (S.sid) FROM Sailors S)
+ (SELECT COUNT (B.bid) FROM Boats B) < 100
Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 19
 Triggers

Trigger: procedure that starts automatically if

specified changes occur to the DBMS
Three parts:
Event (activates the trigger)
Condition (tests whether the triggers should run)
Action (what happens if the trigger runs)

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 20

 Triggers: Example (SQL:1999)

CREATE TRIGGER youngSailorUpdate

AFTER INSERT ON SAILORS
REFERENCING NEW TABLE NewSailors
FOR EACH STATEMENT
INSERT
INTO YoungSailors(sid, name, age, rating)
SELECT sid, name, age, rating
FROM NewSailors N
WHERE N.age <= 18

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 21

 Exercises

Sailors ( sid, sname, rating, age)

Boats ( bid, bname, color )
Reserve( sid, bid, date )

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 22

 Find snames whose rating>10 and who
reserved some red boat.

Solution 1: 3-way join.

Solution 2: use IN:
WHERE S.rating>10 AND S.sid IN
Solution 3: use EXISTS
WHERE S.rating>10 AND EXISTS
Solution 4: use INTERSECT
WHERE S.sid IN ( INTERSECT )

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 23

 Find snames whose rating>10 or who
reserved some red boat.

Simple modifications from the above four cases.

In particular: INTERSECT UNION

Solution 5: union on snames.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 24

 Find sids with the highest rating.

Solution 1: use MAX

S.rating = (SELECT MAX(S2.rating) )
Solution 2: use ALL
S.rating >= ALL ( SELECT S2.rating )
Solution 3: use EXCEPT
EXCEPT ( S.sid < ANY (SELECT S2.rating) )

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 25

 Find bids not reserved by sid=5.

Solution 1: use EXCEPT

Solution 2: use NOT EXISTS

Find sids who reserved all boats.

Find sids who reserved all red boats.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 26

 Find sids who made exactly one reservation.

Solution 1: use NOT EXISTS

not exists another reserve record with same sid.
Solution 2: use UNIQUE
WHERE UNIQUE ( WHERE R.sid=R2.sid)
Solution 3: use GROUPBY & HAVING

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 27

 More examples on groupby.

- For each sid who reserved, find # reservations.

- For each sid who reserved at least 5 times, find
# different boats she reserved.
- For each sid who reserved, find # different
colors she reserved.
- For each bid which was reserved by at least two
different sailors, find avg rating of reservers.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 28

 More examples on nested query as source.

- Find the ratings for which the average age of

sailors is minimum over all ratings.
- Find the sailor sids who made more than
average number of reservations per sailor.
* choice 1: counting only those in Reserves.
* choice 2: including those who did not reserve.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 29

 Exercise 5.2

Suppliers (sid: integer, sname: string, address: string)

Parts (pid: integer, pname: string, color: string)
Catalog (sid: integer, pid: integer, cost: real)

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 30

 4. Find the pnames of parts supplied by
Acme Widget Suppliers and no one else.
SELECT P.pname
FROM Parts P, Catalog C, Suppliers S
WHERE P.pid = C.pid AND C.sid = S.sid
AND S.sname = `Acme Widget Suppliers'
AND NOT EXISTS ( SELECT *
FROM Catalog C1, Suppliers S1
WHERE P.pid = C1.pid
AND C1.sid = S1.sid
AND S1.sname <> `Acme
Widget Suppliers' )

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 31

 3. Find the snames of suppliers who
supply every red part.
SELECT S.sname
FROM Suppiers S
WHERE NOT EXISTS ( (SELECT P.pid
FROM Parts P
WHERE P.color = `red' )
EXCEPT
(SELECT C.pid
FROM Catalog C
WHERE C.sid = S.sid) )

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 32

 6. For each part, find the sname of the
supplier who charges the most for that
part.
SELECT P.pid, S.sname
FROM Parts P, Suppliers S, Catalog C
WHERE C.pid = P.pid
AND C.sid = S.sid
AND C.cost = (SELECT MAX (C1.cost)
FROM Catalog C1
WHERE C1.pid = P.pid)

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 33

 7. Find the sids of suppliers who supply
only red parts.

SELECT DISTINCT C.sid

FROM Catalog C
WHERE NOT EXISTS ( SELECT *
FROM Catalog C1, Parts P
WHERE C1.pid = C.pid
AND C1.pid = P.pid
AND P.color <> `red' )

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 34

 10. For every supplier that only supplies green
parts, print the name of the supplier and the total
number of parts that she supplies.
SELECT S.sname, COUNT(*) as PartCount
FROM Suppliers S, Parts P, Catalog C
WHERE P.pid = C.pid AND C.sid = S.sid
GROUP BY S.sname, S.sid
HAVING EVERY (P.color='green')

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 Exercise 5.7

Emp (eid: integer, ename: string, age: integer, salary: real)

Works (eid: integer, did: integer, pct_time: integer)
Dept (did: integer, budget: real, managerid: integer)

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 36

 1. Define a table constraint on Emp that
will ensure that every employee makes at
least $10,000.
CREATE TABLE Emp ( eid INTEGER,
ename CHAR(10),
age INTEGER ,
salary REAL,
PRIMARY KEY (eid),
CHECK ( salary >= 10000 ))

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 37

 3. Define an assertion on Dept that will ensure that
all managers have age > 30. Compare this assertion
with the equivalent table constraint. Explain which
is better.
CREATE TABLE Dept ( did INTEGER,
budget REAL,
managerid INTEGER ,
PRIMARY KEY (did) )

CREATE ASSERTION managerAge

CHECK ( (SELECT MIN(E.age)
FROM Emp E, Dept D
WHERE E.eid = D.managerid ) > 30 )

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 38

 Exercise 5.10

Emp (eid: integer, ename: string, age: integer, salary: real)

Works (eid: integer, did: integer, pct_time: integer)
Dept (did: integer, budget: real, managerid: integer)

An employee can work in more than one department;

the pct_time field of the Works relation shows the
percentage of time that a given employee works in a
given department.
Write integrity constraints or triggers.

Database Management Systems 3ed, R. Ramakrishnan and J. Gehrke 39

 2. Every manager must also be an
employee.

CREATE ASSERTION ManagerIsEmployee

CHECK ( ( SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM Dept D
WHERE D.managerid NOT IN
(SELECT eid FROM Emp)) = 0)

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 3. The total percentage of all
appointments for an employee must be
under 100%.
CREATE TABLE Works ( eid INTEGER,
did INTEGER,
pct time INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY (eid, did),
CHECK ( (SELECT COUNT (W.eid)
FROM Works W
GROUP BY W.eid
HAVING Sum(pct time) >
100) = 0))

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 5. Whenever an employee is given a
raise, the managers salary must be
increased to be at least as much.
CREATE TRIGGER GiveRaise AFTER UPDATE ON Emp
WHEN old.salary < new.salary
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
UPDATE Emp M
SET M.Salary = new.salary
WHERE M.salary < new.salary
AND M.eid IN (SELECT D.mangerid
FROM Emp E, Works W, Dept D
WHERE E.eid = new.eid
AND E.eid = W.eid
AND W.did = D.did);
END

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