Here are the general
forms of the statements discussed
in this tutorial, plus some extra
important ones (explanations given).
REMEMBER that all of these
statements may or may not be available
on your system, so check documentation
regarding availability:
ALTER TABLE
<TABLE NAME> ADD|DROP|MODIFY
(COLUMN SPECIFICATION[S]...see Create
Table); --allows you to
add or delete a column or columns
from a table, or change the specification
(data type, etc.) on an existing column;
this statement is also used to change
the physical specifications of a table
(how a table is stored, etc.), but
these definitions are DBMS-specific,
so read the documentation. Also, these
physical specifications are used with
the Create Table statement, when a
table is first created. In addition,
only one option can be performed per
Alter Table statement --either add,
drop, OR modify in a single
statement.
COMMIT;
--makes changes made to some database
systems permanent (since the last
COMMIT; known as a transaction)
CREATE [UNIQUE] INDEX
<INDEX NAME>
ON <TABLE NAME> (<COLUMN
LIST>); --UNIQUE is optional;
within brackets.
CREATE TABLE <TABLE
NAME>
(<COLUMN NAME> <DATA
TYPE> [(<SIZE>)] <COLUMN
CONSTRAINT>,
...other columns); (also
valid with ALTER TABLE)
--where SIZE is only used on certain
data types (see above), and constraints
include the following possibilities
(automatically enforced by the DBMS;
failure causes an error to be generated):
-
NULL or NOT
NULL (see above)
-
UNIQUE enforces
that no two rows will have the
same value for this column
-
PRIMARY KEY
tells the database that this column
is the primary key column (only
used if the key is a one column
key, otherwise a PRIMARY KEY (column,
column, ...) statement appears
after the last column definition.
-
CHECK allows
a condition to be checked for
when data in that column is updated
or inserted; for example, CHECK
(PRICE 0) causes the system
to check that the Price column
is greater than zero before accepting
the value...sometimes implemented
as the CONSTRAINT statement.
-
DEFAULT inserts
the default value into the database
if a row is inserted without that
column's data being inserted;
for example, BENEFITS INTEGER
DEFAULT = 10000
-
FOREIGN KEY
works the same as Primary Key,
but is followed by: REFERENCES
<TABLE NAME> (<COLUMN
NAME>), which refers to
the referential primary key.
CREATE VIEW <TABLE
NAME> AS <QUERY>;
DELETE FROM <TABLE
NAME> WHERE <CONDITION>;
INSERT INTO <TABLE
NAME> [(<COLUMN LIST>)]
VALUES (<VALUE LIST>);
ROLLBACK;
--Takes back any changes to the
database that you have made, back
to the last time you gave a Commit
command...beware! Some software uses
automatic committing on systems that
use the transaction features, so the
Rollback command may not work.
SELECT
[DISTINCT|ALL] <LIST OF COLUMNS,
FUNCTIONS, CONSTANTS, ETC.>
FROM <LIST OF TABLES OR VIEWS>
[WHERE <CONDITION(S)>]
[GROUP BY <GROUPING COLUMN(S)>]
[HAVING <CONDITION>]
[ORDER BY <ORDERING COLUMN(S)>
[ASC|DESC]]; --where ASC|DESC
allows the ordering to be done in
ASCending or DESCending order
UPDATE
<TABLE NAME>
SET <COLUMN NAME> = <VALUE>
[WHERE <CONDITION>]; --if
the Where clause is left out, all
rows will be updated according to
the Set statement.
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