Product Overview

Simply SQL

Table Of Contents

- Here’s a look at the table of contents:

0. Preface
   • Who Should Read This Book?
   • The Challenges to Learning SQL
   • What’s in This Book?
   • How to Gain Help
     • The SitePoint Forums
     • The Book’s Web Site
   • The SitePoint Newsletters
   • Your Feedback
   • Conventions Used in This Book
     • Code Samples
     • Tips, Notes, and Warnings
   • Acknowledgments
1. An Introduction to SQL
   • SQL Statement Overview
     • Keywords, Identifiers, and Constants
     • Clauses
     • Syntax
   • Data Definition Language
     • CREATE, ALTER, and DROP
     • Starting Over
   • Data Manipulation Language
     • INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
     • The SELECT Statement
   • Standard SQL
     • Read The Fine Manual
   • Wrapping Up: an Introduction to SQL
2. An Overview of the SELECT Statement
   • The SELECT Statement
   • The SELECT and FROM Clauses
     • Content Management System
   • The WHERE Clause
   • The GROUP BY and HAVING Clauses
   • The ORDER BY Clause
   • Wrapping Up: the SELECT Statement
3. The FROM Clause
   • Why Start with the FROM Clause?
     • Parsing an SQL Statement
   • FROM One Table
   • FROM More than One Table Using JOINs
     • Types of Join
     • The Inner Join
     • Outer Joins
     • The Cross Join
   • Real World Joins
     • Inner Join: Categories and Entries
     • Left Outer Join: Categories and Entries
     • Right Outer Join: Categories and Entries
     • Full Outer Join: Categories and Entries
   • Views
     • Views in Web Development
   • Subqueries and Derived Tables
   • Wrapping Up: the FROM Clause
4. The WHERE Clause
   • Conditions
     • Conditions that are True
     • When “Not True” is Preferable
   • Shopping Carts
     • Conditions that Evaluate as UNKNOWN
   • Operators
     • Comparison Operators
     • The LIKE Operator
     • The BETWEEN Operator
   • Compound Conditions with AND and OR
     • Truth Tables
     • Combining AND and OR
   • IN Conditions
     • IN with Subqueries
   • Correlated Subqueries
   • EXISTS Conditions
     • NOT IN or NOT EXISTS?
   • WHERE Clause Performance
     • Indexes
   • Wrapping Up: the WHERE Clause
5. The GROUP BY Clause
   • Grouping is More than Sequencing
   • Out of Many, One
     • Drill-down SQL
     • GROUP BY in Context
   • How GROUP BY Works
     • Group Rows
   • Rules for GROUP BY
     • Columns with Certain Large Data Types
   • Wrapping Up: the GROUP BY
6. The HAVING Clause
   • HAVING Filters Group Rows
     • HAVING without a GROUP BY Clause
   • Wrapping Up: the HAVING Clause
7. The SELECT Clause
   • SELECT in the Sequence of Execution
   • Which Columns Can Be Selected?
     • Detail Rows
     • Group Rows
   • The Discussion Forum Application
     • The forums Table
     • The members Table
     • The threads Table
     • The posts Table
   • Functions
     • Aggregate Functions
     • Scalar Functions
   • Operators
     • Numeric Operators
     • The Concatenation Operator
     • Temporal Operators
   • The Dreaded, Evil Select Star
   • SELECT DISTINCT
   • Wrapping Up: the SELECT Clause
8. The ORDER BY Clause
   • ORDER BY Syntax
   • How ORDER BY Works
     • ASC and DESC
     • ORDER BY Clause Performance
     • The Sequence of Values
   • The Scope of ORDER BY
     • Using ORDER BY with GROUP BY
     • ORDER BY Expressions
     • Special Sequencing
     • ORDER BY with UNION Queries
   • Wrapping Up: the ORDER BY Clause
9. SQL Data Types
   • An Overview of Data Types
   • Numeric Data Types
     • Integers
     • Decimals
     • Floating-point Numbers
     • Conversions in Numeric Calculations
     • Numeric Functions
   • Character Data Types
     • CHAR
     • VARCHAR
     • Numeric or Character?
     • NCHAR and NVARCHAR
     • CLOB and BLOB
     • String Functions
   • Temporal Data Types
     • DATE
     • TIME
     • TIMESTAMP
     • Intervals
     • Date Functions
   • Column Constraints
     • NULL or NOT NULL
     • DEFAULT
     • CHECK Constraints
   • Wrapping Up: SQL Data Types
10. Relational Integrity
    • Identity
    • Data Modelling
      • Entities and Attributes
      • Entities and Relationships
    • Primary Keys
    • UNIQUE Constraints
    • Foreign Keys
      • How Foreign Keys Work
      • Using Foreign Keys
    • Natural versus Surrogate Keys
      • Autonumbers
    • Wrapping Up: Relational Integrity
11. Special Structures
    • Joining to a Table Twice
    • Joining a Table to Itself
    • Implementing a Many-to-many Relationship: Keywords
    • Wrapping Up: Special Structures

1. Testing Environment
   • Download Your Database System Software
   • Bookmark or Download the SQL Reference
   • Connect to the Database System
     • Command Line
     • Front-end Applications
   • SQL Script Library
   • Performance Problems and Obtaining Help
     • Obtaining the Execution Plan
     • Seeking Help
     • Indexing
2. Sample Applications
   • Data Model Diagrams
   • Teams and Games
   • Content Management System
   • Discussion Forums
   • Shopping Carts
3. Sample Scripts
   • Teams and Games
     • The teams Table
     • The games Table
   • Content Management System
     • The entries Table
     • The categories Table
     • The entries_with_category View
     • The contents Table
     • The comments Table
     • The entrykeywords Table
   • Discussion Forums
     • The forums Table
     • The members Table
     • The threads Table
     • The posts Table
   • Shopping Carts
     • The items Table
     • The customers Table
     • The carts Table
     • The cartitems Table
     • The vendors Table
4. SQL Keywords
5. Index