Basics of SQL Statement

Most of action you need to perform with sql statement, for example you need to retrieve data from a table tutorial, you need to use following statement.

select * from tutorials

you will retrieve following result.

ID Category Author Tutorial
1 PHP Hassan what is php
2 MySql James what is sql
3 Ajax Andrew what is ajax
4 ASP Micheal ASP Introduction
5 C++ Dhanraj C++ Basics

notice in this tutorial id, category, author, tutorial are columns every column has its own records

Semicolon after sql statement

Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of each SQL statement. Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that allow more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.

SQL DML and DDL

SQL contains two parts:

  • DML: The Data Manipulation Language
  • DDL: Data Definition Language

The query and update commands form the DML part of SQL:

  • SELECT - retrieves data from a table in database
  • UPDATE - updates/modifies data in a database
  • DELETE - deletes records from a database
  • INSERT INTO - inserts new records into a database

The DDL is used to be create or delete tables/database. It also define indexes, primary keys, foreign keys, specify links between tables, and impose constraints between tables. The most important DDL statements in SQL are:

  • CREATE DATABASE - creates a new database
  • ALTER DATABASE - modifies a database
  • CREATE TABLE - creates a new table
  • ALTER TABLE - modifies a table
  • DROP TABLE - deletes a table
  • CREATE INDEX - creates an index (search key)
  • DROP INDEX - deletes an index

 

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