SQL queries: The Top 10 Most Used

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JUNE 4, 2013 BY KASIA MIKOLUK

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Updated on February 28. 2014

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Databases are like big swimming pools. If you dont know how
to swim, that big pool could be a daunting, dark place to be.

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However, that same pool could be a stunning place to be, full

of refreshing water on a sunny day if you know how to swim.
Similarly, a huge database could be fun and useful if you

Become a Web Developer from Scratch! (8100+

students)

know these 10 most basic and simple queries of SQL.

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Research has proven that these 10 queries are only 3% of
entire query set which can be formulated in SQL. But these

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3% cover 90% of regular operations on database. Before we start talking about them, it is good to know that these
10 queries work on all types of SQL engines available in the market. For an introduction to SQL, try this course

for students new to SQL queries.

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Demystifying SQL
SQL is just an interface which helps you communicate with
your systems database using queries. We rotate our cars
steering wheel without bothering about what mechanical
reaction might have taken place in our wheels axle. We are
only concerned about turning our car. Similarly when we use
SQL, we only have to fire simple queries to retrieve data from
your database without thinking about internal database
operations.

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There are different types of SQL engines available free online. However, for beginners I recommend SQLite3
which you can download

here.

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[infographic]

And run it from command line by typing sqlite test.db

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Before Getting Started

Once youve got it up, you should have a SQL prompt on your screen

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Create a table
We start by creating an empty table by firing the following query

CREATETABLEstudent(idINTEGERPRIMARYKEY,nameTEXT,ageINTEGER);

This will create a table called student with 0 rows in it. This table will store records of students. It will have
student ID , student name & student age. Its structure will be like this:
ID (Primary key)NameAge
Here, the column ID is a primary key. It means that this column can have only unique values. Also it cannot be left
blank. Name column can have characters and age column will have age in numbers.
Try this course

for more practical SQL skills.

Now we will start taking those 10 queries one by one.

1. Inserting records in a table
Inserting data in a table is very easy. Just type the following query

INSERTINTOstudent(id,name,age)VALUES(1,alan,28);

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Specify the column names in order after the table name in INSERT INTO statement and then values you want
after VALUES keyword.
After firing this query, our table will look like:
IDNameAge
1 alan 28
We can fire more such queries to fill records in our table.

insertintostudent(id,name,age)values(2,'amy',26);
insertintostudent(id,name,age)values(3,'bob',27);
insertintostudent(id,name,age)values(4,'chris',28);
insertintostudent(id,name,age)values(5,'dan',26);

So the table now becomes.

IDNameAge
1 alan 28
2 Amy 26
3 Bob

27

4 Chris 28
5 Dan 26
2. Viewing all records from a table.
It is simplest of all & most frequently used query. Just type

SELECT*FROMstudent;

The result of this query will be a display of all rows present in the table.
IDNameAge
1 alan 28
2 Amy 26
3 Bob

27

4 Chris 28
5 Dan 26
We can also use ORDER BY clause in our select statement to arrange the displayed result in a particular order. For
example,

SELECT*FROMstudentORDERBYage;

Will give you:

IDNameAge
2 Amy 26
5 Dan 26
3 Bob

27

1 alan 28
4 Chris 28
The output is arranged in increasing order of age. We can use DESC keyword after the column name in query if
we want to arrange the display in decreasing order.
3. Viewing only selected records from a table
If there are a huge number of rows in a table and we do not want all the records to fill our display screen, then
SQL gives us an option to view only selected rows.

SELECTCOUNT(1)FROMstudent;

The output of this query will be

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IDNameAge
1 Alan 28

If we fire:

SELECTCOUNT*FROMstudent;

It will return the number of rows our table has. We can also use MAX & MIN function in our query. For example, if
we want to retrieve details of a student with maximum age, we can fire:

SELECTid,name,MAX(age)FROMstudent;

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We will get:
IDNameAge
1 Alan 28
4 Chris 28
We can also check sum of a numeric column. For example,

SELECTsum(age)FROMstudent;

Will give 135 as output.

Remember, we can use MAX, MIN, SUM functions only with numeric columns. Using these functions with text
column will throw an error.
4. Deleting records from a table
To delete the selected rows from a table, just fire the following query:

DELETEFROMstudentWHEREname=alan;

This query will delete the entire row, or more than one rows, from table student where name column have value
alan.
In our case, the result of this query will be following table
IDNameAge
2 Amy 26
3 Bob

27

4 Chris 28
5 Dan 26
Break time!

A SQL query goes into a bar, walks up to two tables and asks,
Can I join you?
I got a good chuckle out of that one. Moving on!
5. Changing data in existing records in a table
Suppose we want to change the age of a student named Amy
in our table. We would fire this query:
UPDATE student SET age = 22 WHERE name = amy;
You might have observed that we are specifying name in
where values are characters. This is a must.
Now if we fire:

SELECT*FROMstudent;

We will get the following table as output:

IDNameAge
2 Amy 22
3 Bob

27

4 Chris 28
5 Dan 26
Be careful while you are firing UPDATE or DELETE queries with the help of the WHERE clause. Suppose in our
table student there is more than one student with name Amy. In this case, age of all students with the name
Amy will be updated to 22. That is why it is always preferred to use PRIMARY KEY in WHERE clause while
updating or deleting.
We also need to take care of datatypes in a column while we are changing data in it. A numeric column can have
only numbers in it while a text column can have text. This means that if we try to put age = Amy in age column
using UPDATE statement, SQL will throw an exception. You can learn more about types of errors and exceptions
that occur in SQL. More on this with another

popular example in this course.

6. Viewing records from a table without knowing exact details

In real life, when we interact with database, there are major chances that we do not know any of the column
values exactly. For example, if I am a data operator in school, I may be aware of the fact that there is a student
called Dan in our school as I might have heard other teachers talking about him. Now I want to see entire records
of Dan but I am not sure how he spells his name. Whether it is Dan OR Den. In this case we can use LIKE

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of Dan but I am not sure how he spells his name. Whether it is Dan OR Den. In this case we can use LIKE
operator provided by SQL.
We will fire the following query.

SELECT*FROMstudentWHEREnameLIKEd%n;

Output of this query will be

IDNameAge
5 dan

26

7. Using more than one condition in WHERE clause to retrieve records

To understand the requirement of using this parameter, let us first insert one more row in our table. Now you
should try it on your own and I will not tell you the syntax. Try adding a row in our table student with ID as 6,
name as dan and age as 24.
Our table now becomes as
IDNameAge
2 Amy 22
3 Bob

27

4 Chris 28
5 Dan 26
6 Dan 24
Now if we fire our query as

SELECT*FROMstudentWHEREname=dan;

Then output will be

IDNameAge
5 Dan 26
6 Dan 24
So now, we have observed that we were unable to fetch a unique record just by using the name value in WHERE
clause. Here arises a need to combine more than one condition in WHERE clause which can be easily done using
conditional keywords like AND and OR. For example, if we fire:

SELECT*FROMstudentWHEREname=danANDage=24;

We get the following output

IDNameAge
6 Dan 24
You can also combine AND & OR conditions in WHERE clause to refine your search further more. For example if
we fire

SELECT*FROMstudentWHEREname=danORage>25

Output will be
IDNameAge
3 Bob

27

4 Chris 28
5 Dan 26
6 Dan 24
You can use different conditions like AND , OR , < , > in a combination or individually in WHERE clause to fetch
the desired rows. Try doing it yourself.
Learn how to use SQLs

best practices to query and manipulate data held in Oracle

relational databases in this course.

8. Viewing only selected columns from a table
If we fire a query like

SELECTnameFROMstudentWHEREage>25;

Following output is displayed

Name
Bob
Chris
Dan
We can observe that only names of students are printed. Here we got names of only those students whose age is

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We can observe that only names of students are printed. Here we got names of only those students whose age is
greater than 25 because of a specified condition in WHERE clause.
We can also use more than one column names in SELECT statement separating them with a ,
For example:

SELECTname,ageFROMstudent;

Gives this as output:

NameAge
Amy 22
Bob

27

Chris 28
Dan 26
Dan 24
You can also change the sequence of columns to be displayed on your screen. For example:

SELECTage,nameFROMstudent;

Will give the following output

AgeName
22 Amy
27 Bob
28 Chris
26 Dan
24 Dan
9. Know the structure of table
It happens with me quite many times that I create a table in my database and I forget what all columns it has and
which column is primary key. I thank designers of various SQL engines to keep people like me in their mind while
they designed it. With the help of a very simple query you can know complete details about the structure of the
table you created.
Different SQL engines have different commands for it. For example in SQLite3the command is
.schema student;
Where as in PostgreSQL it is \d student
MySQL uses the following command describe student;
Where student is our tables name.
10. Checking performance of query
This is an advanced query. Its particularly useful if you need to figure out why a query is so slow.Just fire the
query

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EXPLAINQUERYPLANSELECT*FROMstudent;

You can use EXPLAIN before a SQL statement to obtain breakup of the timings of the various parts of query. Its
useful for digging the reason behind a slow query.
In PostgreSQL, you can use EXPLAIN and EXPLAIN ANALYZE before your query. TheBeginners

Guide to

PostgreSQLcan quide you through the process.

In SQLite3, you can use EXPLAIN QUERY PLAN before your query. To learn more, tryIntroduction

Training.
And that tops off the Top 10! For more comprehensive training, try these courses below:

Learn how to query and manage data in the Oracle Database Using SQL.
Practical, concept-building examples and quizzes.
Oracle SQL fundamentals
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Certification Training Exam 70-463

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