Structured Query Language

A database is a structured collection of data. Structured query language (SQL) is a language used to query this data.

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SQL

  • SQL is a language that can tell databases what to do.
  • SQL can be used for selecting, inserting, updating, and deleting data.
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Select statements

  • A SELECT statement searches for and returns data. E.g:
    • SELECT * FROM table_name;
  • The * character tells the database to return all fields.
  • The * character can be replaced by specific fields. E.g:
    • SELECT name FROM users;
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Where clause

  • Sometimes we don't want to return data for all records.
  • We can filter the data using a where clause as follows:
    • SELECT * FROM users WHERE ID=3;
  • The above line would only return a user's data where they have an ID of 3.
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Wildcards

  • Sometimes we don't know the exact value we want to use in a where clause.
  • We can use wildcards to find records which match some sort of pattern.
  • The % symbol can be used to represent anything.
  • For example, if we want to find any names starting with 'Ba' then we could query:
    • SELECT name FROM users WHERE name LIKE "Ba%";

Jump to other topics

1Components of a Computer

2Software & Software Development

3Exchanging Data

4Data Types, Data Structures & Algorithms

5Legal, Moral, Cultural & Ethical Issues

6Elements of Computational Thinking

6.1Thinking Abstractly

6.2Thinking Procedurally

6.3Thinking Logically

7Problem Solving & Programming

8Algorithms

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