Learning PostgreSQL 11 - Third Edition

SQL Language

Structured Query Language (SQL) is used to set up the structure of the database, to manipulate the data in a database, and to query the database. This chapter is dedicated to the Data Manipulation Language (DML) that is used to create data in a database, change or delete it, and retrieve it from the database.

After reading this chapter, you will understand the concept of SQL and the logic of SQL statements. You will be able to write your own SQL queries and manipulate data using this language. A complete reference for SQL can be found in the official PostgreSQL documentation at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql.html.

The topics that we will cover in this chapter are as follows:

• SQL fundamentals
• Lexical structure ...