SQL in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Chapter 3. Structuring Your Data

Newcomers to SQL usually take one of two learning paths when learning to program in the language. Developers and analysts often start with the SELECT statement and the other DML statements, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and MERGE. That’s because they are frequently tasked with helping either to write the frontend applications that access the database, in the case of developers, or to write reports and retrieve information for better business decisions, in the case of business analysts. The second learning path, that of DBAs and database architects, is to start with the SQL statements needed to create a database from whole cloth.

In this chapter, we will explore the various statements you will need to create a database from scratch, by populating it with tables, views, and many other important database objects. We will also detail the statements needed to alter existing objects and to remove those objects when required.

How to Use This Chapter

When researching a command in this chapter:

1. Read “SQL Platform Support”.

2. Check Table 3-1.

3. Look up the specific SQL statement, check the syntax, and read the “Keywords,” “Rules at a glance,” and “Programming tips and gotchas” sections. Do this even if you are looking for a specific platform implementation.

4. Finally, read the platform-specific implementation information, which notes the differences between the standard and the vendor’s implementation of the standard.

You will note that the entry for a given platform ...