At first glance, SQL might seem simple and not hard at all, that is true until you find yourself in front of complex database structures or having to write complex queries. It does get confusing or difficult sometimes (Yes even experienced people can find themselves scratching their heads).

In this guide we're gonna lay out all the concepts so you can pick up SQL in no time.

SELECT basics

A SELECT statement retrieves data from a table found in your database. Each table has rows and columns. You can select specific columns from a table.

Here is the Syntax:

SELECT "column_name", "column_name"
FROM "table_name";

Keep in mind that you can select one or multiple columns.

Here is an example of our table named general_info

Our SELECT statement will need the column names and the table name from which we want to retrieve data can select one or multiple columns.

SELECT "Country", "Year_of_Independence" FROM "general_info";

This query will return all the names of the countries and their year of independence.

Select with WHERE clause

A WHERE clause is a condition that must be met in order for a row to be present in the result set of the query. In other words it helps filter the result and only returns the rows that match the condition you specified.

We're going to use the same Table general_info to look at an example.

Imagine we want to return the capital of a country that got its independence in 1901.

SELECT "Capital"
FROM "general_info" 
WHERE "year_of_independence" = 1901;

Functions

Functions are built-in blocks of code, each of these functions execute a specific task.

Here are some examples:

SUM

Let's calculate the total of prices In the fruits table.

SELECT SUM("Price") AS 'total'
FROM "Fruits";

The AS allows us to rename the result column as total.

AVG

SELECT AVG("Price") AS 'Average_price'
FROM "Fruits";

Here we're getting the average price of all the fruits in the Fruits Table.

UPPER

SELECT UPPER("Fruit") AS "Fruit_name_upper"
FROM "Fruits";

This query converts all the fruit names in the Fruits Table to uppercase.

TURNCATE

TRUNCATE in the context of numbers means to remove digits after a specified decimal place without rounding.

SELECT TURNCATE("name_of_column",2) AS 'New_Value'
FROM "table_name";

We can also use TURNCATE to empty a table without messing with or deleting the table structure.

TURNCATE TABLE "Fruits";

All the data will be removed from the table. It is an irreversible operation.

SELECT with GROUP BY

The GROUP BY clause groups rows that have the same value, it categorizes them based on a specific column of your choosing.

Imagine a list of fruits and their prices.

Table name: Fruits

Using this example, we can group the fruits by price.

SELECT "Price"
FROM "FRUITS"
GROUP BY "Price";

The result would look like that:

What essentially happened is that all the rows that had the same prices were put together into a single group.

SELECT with JOIN

Sometimes you need to view the data of more than just one table to get the required data.

Table 1: Customers

Table 2: Orders

In this example, the Customers table is related to a row of the Orders table. If we want to find out Who placed the order and When the order was placed, we need to join the Customers table to the Orders table on the common field that is the CustomerID in both tables.

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderDate
FROM Customers JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;

This would be the result of this query:

LEFT JOIN

A LEFT JOIN returns all the rows from the left table even if there are no matches in the right one.
This means that the returned result will have all the data from the left table; if there's a match in the right table then the relevant columns are filled and if there is no match found in the right table the columns from the right table will have null values.

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderID
FROM Customers
LEFT JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;

This will help us know which customer did not place an order.

RIGHT JOIN

A RIGHT JOIN is essentially the opposite of a LEFT JOIN. It returns all rows from the right table even if there are no matches in the left table.
This means that the returned result will have all the data from the right table; if there's a match in the left table then the relevant columns are filled and if there is no match found in the left table the columns from the left table will have null values.

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderID
FROM Customers
RIGHT JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;

This query will return all orders, including those without corresponding customers. If an order doesn't have a corresponding customer, the CustomerName column will be NULL.

Subqueries

Subqueries queries are queries nested inside another query.

Subquerying with JOIN

Let's look at one using the JOIN statement and our Customers and Orders tables

SELECT CustomerName, TotalOrders
FROM Customers
JOIN(SELECT Orders.CustomerID, COUNT(Orders.CustomerID) AS TotalOrders
FROM Orders
GROUP BY CustomerID) AS OrderCounts
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;

Let's break our query down by starting from the inner query to the outer one:

1. SELECT Orders.CustomerID,COUNT(Orders.CustomerID) AS TotalOrders FROM Orders: We are calculating the total number of orders made by each customer in the Orders by using a built-in function named COUNT.
2. As TotalOrders, is used to rename the column we got as a result.
3. GROUP BY CustomerID, this query groups the result by CustomerID this will allow us to know how many Orders each Person Placed.

4. AS OrderCounts Gives an Alias to the subquery allowing us to treat it like a normal table temporarily.

5. SELECT CustomerName, TotalOrders FROM Customers We are selecting the CustomerName From the Customers table and the TotalOrder From the temporary table we just created that has the column TotalOrders.

6. Lastly ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID Joins both tables by using their common field which is CustomerID.

Our result would be:

Subquerying with IN

Let's find customers who placed orders after the date 2023-11-08.

SELECT CustomerName 
FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerID IN (
SELECT CustomerID
FROM Orders
WHERE OrderDate > '2023-11-08'
);

• SELECT CustomerID FROM Orders WHERE OrderDate > '2023-11-08': This part retrieves the CustomerID from the Orders table where the OrderDate is after November 08, 2023.

• SELECT CustomerName FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID IN (...): This part selects the CustomerName from the Customers table where CustomerID is found in the result of the subquery.

A Deeper Dive

After Presenting the basic concepts of how each provided statement above works let's see more statements at the works.

Here are The same tables with a little modification.

Customers Table

Orders Table

Basic SELECT Queries

• Get all Customers' data:

SELECT * FROM Customers

The asterisk * means all data.

• Get specific Columns:

SELECT CustomerName, City 
FROM Customers;

Filtering Data

• Get orders placed after a specific date:

SELECT * FROM Orders 
WHERE OrderDate > '2023-11-08';

• Find Customers in a Specific City:

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE City = 'Los Angeles';

• Find Orders With an order amount greater than 100:

SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE OrderAmount >100;

Sorting Data (ORDER BY)

When sorting Data with ORDER BY We have the DESC and ASC Keywords.

• ASC Sorts the data from A to Z
• DESC Sorts the data from Z to A

ASC is the default sort order.

• Sorting Customers by name in descending order:

SELECT * FROM Customers 
ORDER BY CustomerName DESC;

Aggregating Data (GROUP BY, HAVING,other functions)

Group By

We've already come across GROUP BY. It will categorize data and group them based on a specific column such as an ID for example.

• Find the total order amount for each customer:

SELECT CustomerID, SUM(OrderAmount) AS TotalOrderAmount
FROM Orders
GROUP BY CustomerID;

HAVING

HAVING is similar to the WHERE clause but it uses the results of GROUP BY rather than individual rows. This means that HAVING Filters the groups made by GROUP BY and checks if the condition provided is applied.

• Find Customers with a total order amount greater than 200:

SELECT CustomerID, SUM(OrderAmount) AS TotalOrderAmount
FROM Orders
GROUP BY CustomerID
HAVING SUM(OrderAmount) > 200;

INNER JOIN

We've previously seen LEFT JOINs and RIGHT JOINs, and how they return null values if the right or left row is missing a value.

What if we want to return the rows that only have matching values in both tables and avoid the null values?

This is Where INNER JOIN comes into play.

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderDate
FROM Customers
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;

COALESCE FUNCTION

COALESCE function to replace null values with a specific one.

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, COALESCE(Orders.OrderDate, 'No Orders') AS OrderDate
FROM Customers
LEFT JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;

Correlated Subqueries

A correlated subquery is when a subquery references a column from the outer query for example:

SELECT CustomerName
FROM Customers
WHERE EXISTS (
  SELECT *
  FROM Orders
  WHERE Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomerID AND OrderDate > '2023-11-30'
);

WITH

The with clause also known as a common table expression, makes it possible to temporarily define result sets that can be referenced within a SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement.

This means that it allows you to break down complex queries into smaller ones and make them more manageable.

Let's say we want to find customers who have placed orders after a specific date using common table expression.

WITH RecentOrders AS (
  SELECT CustomerID
  FROM Orders
  WHERE OrderDate > '2023-11-30'
)
SELECT CustomerName
FROM Customers
WHERE CustomerID IN (SELECT CustomerID FROM RecentOrders);

The WITH clause improves readability and performance and it only exists for the duration of the query.

Complex Grouping

Let's say we want to calculate the total sales for each month and year in the Orders Table.

SELECT
    YEAR(OrderDate) AS OrderYear,
    MONTH(OrderDate) AS OrderMonth,
    SUM(OrderAmount) AS TotalSales
FROM
    Orders
GROUP BY
    YEAR(OrderDate), MONTH(OrderDate);

• We will select three columns year of the order, the month of the order, and the total sales amount for that month and year. Then we will need to group by the year and month.

In conclusion, understanding the fundamentals and basic querying at the start of your journey to learn SQL is the building block of Mastering it. Understanding the concepts laid out in this article will give you a significant step forward and will help you become proficient in database management. The KEY is to PRACTICE and CONSISTENT APPLICATION.