SQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

SQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition

by Anthony Molinaro, Robert de Graaf
Released November 2020
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781492077442

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Book description

You may know SQL basics, but are you taking advantage of its expressive power? This second edition applies a highly practical approach to Structured Query Language (SQL) so you can create and manipulate large stores of data. Based on real-world examples, this updated cookbook provides a framework to help you construct solutions and executable examples in several flavors of SQL, including Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.

SQL programmers, analysts, data scientists, database administrators, and even relatively casual SQL users will find SQL Cookbook to be a valuable problem-solving guide for everyday issues. No other resource offers recipes in this unique format to help you tackle nagging day-to-day conundrums with SQL.

The second edition includes:

  • Fully revised recipes that recognize the greater adoption of window functions in SQL implementations
  • Additional recipes that reflect the widespread adoption of common table expressions (CTEs) for more readable, easier-to-implement solutions
  • New recipes to make SQL more useful for people who aren't database experts, including data scientists
  • Expanded solutions for working with numbers and strings
  • Up-to-date SQL recipes throughout the book to guide you through the basics

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Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Who This Book Is For
    2. What’s Missing from This Book
    3. Platform and Version
    4. Tables Used in This Book
    5. Conventions Used in This Book
    6. O’Reilly Online Learning
    7. How to Contact Us
    8. Second Edition Acknowledgments
    9. First Edition Acknowledgments
  2. 1. Retrieving Records
    1. 1.1. Retrieving All Rows and Columns from a Table
    2. 1.2. Retrieving a Subset of Rows from a Table
    3. 1.3. Finding Rows That Satisfy Multiple Conditions
    4. 1.4. Retrieving a Subset of Columns from a Table
    5. 1.5. Providing Meaningful Names for Columns
    6. 1.6. Referencing an Aliased Column in the WHERE Clause
    7. 1.7. Concatenating Column Values
    8. 1.8. Using Conditional Logic in a SELECT Statement
    9. 1.9. Limiting the Number of Rows Returned
    10. 1.10. Returning n Random Records from a Table
    11. 1.11. Finding Null Values
    12. 1.12. Transforming Nulls into Real Values
    13. 1.13. Searching for Patterns
    14. 1.14. Summing Up
  3. 2. Sorting Query Results
    1. 2.1. Returning Query Results in a Specified Order
    2. 2.2. Sorting by Multiple Fields
    3. 2.3. Sorting by Substrings
    4. 2.4. Sorting Mixed Alphanumeric Data
    5. 2.5. Dealing with Nulls When Sorting
    6. 2.6. Sorting on a Data-Dependent Key
    7. 2.7. Summing Up
  4. 3. Working with Multiple Tables
    1. 3.1. Stacking One Rowset atop Another
    2. 3.2. Combining Related Rows
    3. 3.3. Finding Rows in Common Between Two Tables
    4. 3.4. Retrieving Values from One Table That Do Not Exist in Another
    5. 3.5. Retrieving Rows from One Table That Do Not Correspond to Rows in Another
    6. 3.6. Adding Joins to a Query Without Interfering with Other Joins
    7. 3.7. Determining Whether Two Tables Have the Same Data
    8. 3.8. Identifying and Avoiding Cartesian Products
    9. 3.9. Performing Joins When Using Aggregates
    10. 3.10. Performing Outer Joins When Using Aggregates
    11. 3.11. Returning Missing Data from Multiple Tables
    12. 3.12. Using NULLs in Operations and Comparisons
    13. 3.13. Summing Up
  5. 4. Inserting, Updating, and Deleting
    1. 4.1. Inserting a New Record
    2. 4.2. Inserting Default Values
    3. 4.3. Overriding a Default Value with NULL
    4. 4.4. Copying Rows from One Table into Another
    5. 4.5. Copying a Table Definition
    6. 4.6. Inserting into Multiple Tables at Once
    7. 4.7. Blocking Inserts to Certain Columns
    8. 4.8. Modifying Records in a Table
    9. 4.9. Updating When Corresponding Rows Exist
    10. 4.10. Updating with Values from Another Table
    11. 4.11. Merging Records
    12. 4.12. Deleting All Records from a Table
    13. 4.13. Deleting Specific Records
    14. 4.14. Deleting a Single Record
    15. 4.15. Deleting Referential Integrity Violations
    16. 4.16. Deleting Duplicate Records
    17. 4.17. Deleting Records Referenced from Another Table
    18. 4.18. Summing Up
  6. 5. Metadata Queries
    1. 5.1. Listing Tables in a Schema
    2. 5.2. Listing a Table’s Columns
    3. 5.3. Listing Indexed Columns for a Table
    4. 5.4. Listing Constraints on a Table
    5. 5.5. Listing Foreign Keys Without Corresponding Indexes
    6. 5.6. Using SQL to Generate SQL
    7. 5.7. Describing the Data Dictionary Views in an Oracle Database
    8. 5.8. Summing Up
  7. 6. Working with Strings
    1. 6.1. Walking a String
    2. 6.2. Embedding Quotes Within String Literals
    3. 6.3. Counting the Occurrences of a Character in a String
    4. 6.4. Removing Unwanted Characters from a String
    5. 6.5. Separating Numeric and Character Data
    6. 6.6. Determining Whether a String Is Alphanumeric
    7. 6.7. Extracting Initials from a Name
    8. 6.8. Ordering by Parts of a String
    9. 6.9. Ordering by a Number in a String
    10. 6.10. Creating a Delimited List from Table Rows
    11. 6.11. Converting Delimited Data into a Multivalued IN-List
    12. 6.12. Alphabetizing a String
    13. 6.13. Identifying Strings That Can Be Treated as Numbers
    14. 6.14. Extracting the nth Delimited Substring
    15. 6.15. Parsing an IP Address
    16. 6.16. Comparing Strings by Sound
    17. 6.17. Finding Text Not Matching a Pattern
    18. 6.18. Summing Up
  8. 7. Working with Numbers
    1. 7.1. Computing an Average
    2. 7.2. Finding the Min/Max Value in a Column
    3. 7.3. Summing the Values in a Column
    4. 7.4. Counting Rows in a Table
    5. 7.5. Counting Values in a Column
    6. 7.6. Generating a Running Total
    7. 7.7. Generating a Running Product
    8. 7.8. Smoothing a Series of Values
    9. 7.9. Calculating a Mode
    10. 7.10. Calculating a Median
    11. 7.11. Determining the Percentage of a Total
    12. 7.12. Aggregating Nullable Columns
    13. 7.13. Computing Averages Without High and Low Values
    14. 7.14. Converting Alphanumeric Strings into Numbers
    15. 7.15. Changing Values in a Running Total
    16. 7.16. Finding Outliers Using the Median Absolute Deviation
    17. 7.17. Finding Anomalies Using Benford’s Law
    18. 7.18. Summing Up
  9. 8. Date Arithmetic
    1. 8.1. Adding and Subtracting Days, Months, and Years
    2. 8.2. Determining the Number of Days Between Two Dates
    3. 8.3. Determining the Number of Business Days Between Two Dates
    4. 8.4. Determining the Number of Months or Years Between Two Dates
    5. 8.5. Determining the Number of Seconds, Minutes, or Hours Between Two Dates
    6. 8.6. Counting the Occurrences of Weekdays in a Year
    7. 8.7. Determining the Date Difference Between the Current Record and the Next Record
    8. 8.8. Summing Up
  10. 9. Date Manipulation
    1. 9.1. Determining Whether a Year Is a Leap Year
    2. 9.2. Determining the Number of Days in a Year
    3. 9.3. Extracting Units of Time from a Date
    4. 9.4. Determining the First and Last Days of a Month
    5. 9.5. Determining All Dates for a Particular Weekday Throughout a Year
    6. 9.6. Determining the Date of the First and Last Occurrences of a Specific Weekday in a Month
    7. 9.7. Creating a Calendar
    8. 9.8. Listing Quarter Start and End Dates for the Year
    9. 9.9. Determining Quarter Start and End Dates for a Given Quarter
    10. 9.10. Filling in Missing Dates
    11. 9.11. Searching on Specific Units of Time
    12. 9.12. Comparing Records Using Specific Parts of a Date
    13. 9.13. Identifying Overlapping Date Ranges
    14. 9.14. Summing Up
  11. 10. Working with Ranges
    1. 10.1. Locating a Range of Consecutive Values
    2. 10.2. Finding Differences Between Rows in the Same Group or Partition
    3. 10.3. Locating the Beginning and End of a Range of Consecutive Values
    4. 10.4. Filling in Missing Values in a Range of Values
    5. 10.5. Generating Consecutive Numeric Values
    6. 10.6. Summing Up
  12. 11. Advanced Searching
    1. 11.1. Paginating Through a Result Set
    2. 11.2. Skipping n Rows from a Table
    3. 11.3. Incorporating OR Logic When Using Outer Joins
    4. 11.4. Determining Which Rows Are Reciprocals
    5. 11.5. Selecting the Top n Records
    6. 11.6. Finding Records with the Highest and Lowest Values
    7. 11.7. Investigating Future Rows
    8. 11.8. Shifting Row Values
    9. 11.9. Ranking Results
    10. 11.10. Suppressing Duplicates
    11. 11.11. Finding Knight Values
    12. 11.12. Generating Simple Forecasts
    13. 11.13. Summing Up
  13. 12. Reporting and Reshaping
    1. 12.1. Pivoting a Result Set into One Row
    2. 12.2. Pivoting a Result Set into Multiple Rows
    3. 12.3. Reverse Pivoting a Result Set
    4. 12.4. Reverse Pivoting a Result Set into One Column
    5. 12.5. Suppressing Repeating Values from a Result Set
    6. 12.6. Pivoting a Result Set to Facilitate Inter-Row Calculations
    7. 12.7. Creating Buckets of Data, of a Fixed Size
    8. 12.8. Creating a Predefined Number of Buckets
    9. 12.9. Creating Horizontal Histograms
    10. 12.10. Creating Vertical Histograms
    11. 12.11. Returning Non-GROUP BY Columns
    12. 12.12. Calculating Simple Subtotals
    13. 12.13. Calculating Subtotals for All Possible Expression Combinations
    14. 12.14. Identifying Rows That Are Not Subtotals
    15. 12.15. Using Case Expressions to Flag Rows
    16. 12.16. Creating a Sparse Matrix
    17. 12.17. Grouping Rows by Units of Time
    18. 12.18. Performing Aggregations over Different Groups/Partitions Simultaneously
    19. 12.19. Performing Aggregations over a Moving Range of Values
    20. 12.20. Pivoting a Result Set with Subtotals
    21. 12.21. Summing Up
  14. 13. Hierarchical Queries
    1. 13.1. Expressing a Parent-Child Relationship
    2. 13.2. Expressing a Child-Parent-Grandparent Relationship
    3. 13.3. Creating a Hierarchical View of a Table
    4. 13.4. Finding All Child Rows for a Given Parent Row
    5. 13.5. Determining Which Rows Are Leaf, Branch, or Root Nodes
    6. 13.6. Summing Up
  15. 14. Odds ’n’ Ends
    1. 14.1. Creating Cross-Tab Reports Using SQL Server’s PIVOT Operator
    2. 14.2. Unpivoting a Cross-Tab Report Using SQL Server’s UNPIVOT Operator
    3. 14.3. Transposing a Result Set Using Oracle’s MODEL Clause
    4. 14.4. Extracting Elements of a String from Unfixed Locations
    5. 14.5. Finding the Number of Days in a Year (an Alternate Solution for Oracle)
    6. 14.6. Searching for Mixed Alphanumeric Strings
    7. 14.7. Converting Whole Numbers to Binary Using Oracle
    8. 14.8. Pivoting a Ranked Result Set
    9. 14.9. Adding a Column Header into a Double Pivoted Result Set
    10. 14.10. Converting a Scalar Subquery to a Composite Subquery in Oracle
    11. 14.11. Parsing Serialized Data into Rows
    12. 14.12. Calculating Percent Relative to Total
    13. 14.13. Testing for Existence of a Value Within a Group
    14. 14.14. Summing Up
  16. Window Function Refresher
    1. Grouping
    2. Windowing
  17. Common Table Expressions
    1. Subqueries
    2. Common Table Expressions
    3. Summing Up
  18. Index

Product information

  • Title: SQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Anthony Molinaro, Robert de Graaf
  • Release date: November 2020
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781492077442