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🔰 SQL Server Database Development & Programming 🔰

Last Updated: 2023-09-23
  1. What is SQL?
  2. SQL stands for ‘Structured Query Language’ and is used for communicating with databases. According to ANSI, SQL is the standard query language used for maintaining relational database management systems (RDBMS) and also for performing different operations of data manipulation on different types of data. Basically, it is a database language that is used for the creation and deletion of databases, and it can be used to fetch and modify the rows of a table and also for multiple other things.

  3. What are the subsets of SQL?
  4. The main significant subsets of SQL are:

    DDL(Data Definition Language)

    DML(Data Manipulation Language)

    DCL(Data Control Language)

    TCL(Transaction Control Language)

  5. Explain the different types of SQL commands.
  6. Different types of SQL commands

    Data Definition Language: DDL is that part of SQL which defines the data structure of the database in the initial stage when the database is about to be created. It is mainly used to create and restructure database objects. Commands in DDL are:

    Create table

    Alter table

    Drop table

    Data Manipulation Language: DML is used to manipulate the already existing data in the database. That is, it helps users retrieve and manipulate the data. It is used to perform operations such as inserting data into the database through the insert command, updating the data with the update command, and deleting the data from the database through the delete command.

    Data Control Language: DCL is used to control access to the data in the database. DCL commands are normally used to create objects related to user access and also to control the distribution of privileges among users. The commands that are used in DCL are Grant and Revoke.

    Transaction Control Language: It is used to control the changes made by DML commands. It also authorizes the statements to assemble in conjunction into logical transactions. The commands that are used in TCL are Commit, Rollback, Savepoint, Begin, and Transaction.

  7. What are the different types of database management systems?
  8. Database Management System is classified into four types:

    Hierarchical database: It is a tree-like structure where the data is stored in a hierarchical format. In this database, the parent may have many children but a child should have a single parent.

    Network database: It is presented as a graph that allows many-to-many relationships. This database allows children to have multiple children.

    Relational database: A relational database is represented as a table. The values in the columns and rows are related to each other. It is the most widely used database because it is easy to use.

    Object-Oriented database: The data values and operations are stored as objects in this database. All these objects have multiple relationships between them.

  9. What are the usages of SQL?
  10. These are the operations that can be performed using SQL database:

    Creating new databases

    Inserting new data

    Deleting existing data

    Updating records

    Retrieving the data

    Creating and dropping tables

    Creating functions and views

    Converting data types

  11. What is a default constraint?
  12. Constraints are used to specify some sort of rules for processing data and limiting the type of data that can go into a table. Now, let’s understand the default constraint.

    The default constraint is used to define a default value for a column so that the default value will be added to all the new records if no other value is specified. For example, if we assign a default constraint for the E_salary column in the below table and set the default value as 85000, then all the entries of this column will have a default value of 85000 unless no other value has been assigned during the insertion.

    Default constraint

    Now, let’s see how to set a default constraint. We will start off by creating a new table and adding a default constraint to one of its columns.

    Code:

    create table stu1(s_id int, s_name varchar(20), s_marks int default 50)

    select *stu1

    Now, we will insert the records.

    Code:

    
    insert into stu1(s_id,s_name) values(1,’Sam’)
    insert into stu1(s_id,s_name) values(2,’Bob’)
    insert into stu1(s_id,s_name) values(3,’Matt’)
    select *from stu1
    
    

  13. What do you mean by table and field in SQL?
  14. An organized data in the form of rows and columns is said to be a table. Here rows and columns are referred to as tuples and attributes.

    And the number of columns in a table is referred to as a field. In the record, fields represent the characteristics and attributes.

  15. What is a unique constraint?
  16. Unique constraints ensure that all the values in a column are different. For example, if we assign a unique constraint to the e_name column in the below table, then every entry in this column should have a unique value.

    What is a unique constraint

    First, we will create a table.

    
    create table stu2(s_id int unique, s_name varchar(20))
    
    

    
    Now, we will insert the records.
    insert into stu2 values(1,’Julia’)
    insert into stu2 values(2,’Matt’)
    insert into stu2 values(3,’Anne’)
    
    

  17. How would you find the second highest salary from the below table?
  18. How would you find the second highest salary from the below table

    Code:

    select * from employee

    select max(e_salary) from employee where e_salary not in (select max(e_salary) from employee)

  19. What is a primary key?
  20. A primary key is used to uniquely identify all table records. It cannot have NULL values, and it must contain unique values. A table can have only one primary key that consists of single or multiple fields.

    Now, we will write a query for demonstrating the use of a primary key for the Employee table:

    
    CREATE TABLE Employee (
    ID int NOT NULL,
    Employee_name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    Employee_designation varchar(255),
    Employee_Age int,
    PRIMARY KEY (ID)
    );
    
    

  21. What is a Unique Key?
  22. The key which can accept only the null value and cannot accept the duplicate values is called Unique Key. The role of the unique key is to make sure that each column and row are unique.

    The syntax will be the same as the Primary key. So, the query using a Unique Key for the Employee table will be:

    
    CREATE TABLE Employee (
    ID int NOT NULL,
    Employee_name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    Employee_designation varchar(255),
    Employee_Age int,
    UNIQUE(ID)
    );
    
    

  23. What is the difference between Primary key and Unique Key?
  24. Both Primary and Unique key carry unique values but the primary key can not have a null value where the Unique key can. And in a table, there cannot be more than one Primary key but unique keys can be multiple.

  25. What is a foreign key?
  26. A foreign key is an attribute or a set of attributes that references to the primary key of some other table. Basically, it is used to link together two tables.

    Let’s create a foreign key for the below table:

    What is a Foreign Key

    
    CREATE TABLE Orders (
    OrderID int NOT NULL,
    OrderNumber int NOT NULL,
    PersonID int,
    PRIMARY KEY (OrderID),
    FOREIGN KEY (PersonID) REFERENCES Persons(PersonID)
    )
    
    

  27. What is an index?
  28. Indexes help speed up searching in the database. If there is no index on any column in the WHERE clause, then SQL Server has to skim through the entire table and check each and every row to find matches, which might result in slow operation on large data.

    Indexes are used to find all rows matching with some columns and then to skim through only those subsets of the data to find the matches.

    Syntax:

    CREATE INDEX INDEX_NAME ON TABLE_NAME (COLUMN)

  29. Explain the types of indexes.
  30. Explain the types of Indexes.

    Single-column Indexes: A single-column index is created for only one column of a table.

    Syntax:

    
    CREATE INDEX index_name
    ON table_name(column_name);
    
    

    Composite-column Indexes: A composite-column index is an index created for two or more columns of the table.

    Syntax:

    
    CREATE INDEX index_name
    ON table_name (column1, column2)
    
    

    Unique Indexes: Unique indexes are used for maintaining the data integrity of the table. They do not allow multiple values to be inserted into the table.

    Syntax:

    
    CREATE UNIQUE INDEX index
    ON table_name(column_name)
    
    

    Now, let’s move on to the next question in this ‘Top SQL Interview Questions’ blog.

  31. What are Entities and Relationships?
  32. Entities: Entity can be a person, place, thing, or any identifiable object for which data can be stored in a database.

    For example: In a company’s database, employees, projects, salaries, etc can be referred to as entities.

    Relationships: Relationships between entities can be referred to as the connection between two tables or entities.

    For example: In a college database, the student entity and department entities are associated with each other.

    That is all in the section of Basic SQL practice questions. Let’s move on to the next section of SQL intermediate interview questions.

    Intermediate SQL Interview Questions

  33. State the differences between clustered and non-clustered indexes.
  34. Clustered index: It is used to sort the rows of data by their key values. A clustered index is like the contents of a phone book. We can open the book at ‘David’ (for ‘David, Thompson’) and find information for all Davids right next to each other. Since the data is located next to each other, it helps a lot in fetching data based on range-based queries. Also, the clustered index is actually related to how the data is stored. There is only one clustered index possible per table.

    Non-clustered index: It stores data at one location and indexes at some other location. The index has pointers that point to the location of the data. As the index in the non-clustered index is stored in different places, there can be many non-clustered indexes for a table.

    State the differences between the Clustered and Non-clustered indexes

    Now, we will see the major differences between clustered and non-clustered indexes:

    Parameters Clustered Index Non-clustered Index

    Used for Sorting and storing records physically in memory Creating a logical order for data rows. Pointers are used for physical data files

    Methods for storing Stores data in the leaf nodes of the index Never stores data in the leaf nodes of the index

    Size Quite large Comparatively, small

    Data accessing Fast Slow

    Additional disk space Not required Required to store indexes separately

    Type of key By default, the primary key of a table is a clustered index It can be used with the unique constraint on the table that acts as a composite key

    Main feature Improves the performance of data retrieval Should be created on columns used in Joins

    Now, in this ‘SQL Interview Questions and Answers’ blog, we will move on to the next question.

    Check out this video on SQL Tutorial for Beginners:

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  35. What is the difference between SQL and MySQL?
  36. SQL MySQL

    It is a structured query language used in a database It is a database management system

    It is used for query and operating database system It allows data handling, storing, and modifying data in an organized manner.

    SQL is always the same MySQL keeps updating

    Only a single storage engine is supported in SQL. MySQL supports multiple storage engines.

    The server is independent in SQL During backup sessions, the server blocks the database.

  37. State the differences between SQL and PL/SQL.
  38. SQL PL/SQL

    SQL is a database structured query language. It is a programming language for a database that uses SQL.

    SQL is an individual query that is used to execute DML and DDL commands. PL/SQL is a block of codes used to write the entire procedure or a function.

    SQL is a declarative and data-oriented language. PL/SQL is a procedural and application-oriented language.

    It is mainly used for the manipulation of data. It is used for creating an application.

    It provides interaction with the database server. It does not provide interaction with the database server.

    It cannot contain PL/SQL code in it. It can contain SQL in it because it is an extension of SQL.

  39. is the ACID property in a database?
  40. The full form of ACID is Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability. To check the reliability of the transactions, ACID properties are used.

    Atomicity refers to completed or failed transactions, where transaction refers to a single logical operation on data. This implies that if any aspect of a transaction fails, the whole transaction fails and the database state remains unchanged.

    Consistency means that the data meets all of the validity guidelines. The transaction never leaves the database without finishing its state.

    Concurrency management is the primary objective of isolation.

    Durability ensures that once a transaction is committed, it will occur regardless of what happens in between, such as a power outage, a fire, or some other kind of disturbance.

  41. What is the need for group functions in SQL?
  42. Group functions operate on a series of rows and return a single result for each group. COUNT(), MAX(), MIN(), SUM(), AVG() and VARIANCE() are some of the most widely used group functions.

    23. What do you understand by a character manipulation function?

    Character manipulation functions are used for the manipulation of character data types.

    Some of the character manipulation functions are:

    UPPER: It returns the string in uppercase.

    Syntax:

    UPPER(‘ string’)

    Example:

    SELECT UPPER(‘demo string’) from String;

    DEMO STRING

    LOWER: It returns the string in lowercase.

    Syntax:

    LOWER(‘STRING’)

    Example:

    SELECT LOWER (‘DEMO STRING’) from String

    demo string

    INITCAP: It converts the first letter of the string to uppercase and retains others in lowercase.

    Syntax:

    Initcap(‘sTRING’)

    Example:

    SELECT Initcap(‘dATASET’) from String

    Dataset

    CONCAT: It is used to concatenate two strings.

    Syntax:

    CONCAT(‘str1’,’str2’)

    Example:

    SELECT CONCAT(‘Data’,’Science’) from String

    Data Science

    LENGTH: It is used to get the length of a string.

    Syntax:

    LENGTH(‘String’)

    Example:

    SELECT LENGTH(‘Hello World’) from String

    Output:

    11

    Going ahead with this blog on ‘Top SQL Interview Questions,’ we will see the next question.

  43. What is AUTO_INCREMENT?
  44. AUTO_INCREMENT is used in SQL to automatically generate a unique number whenever a new record is inserted into a table.

    Since the primary key is unique for each record, we add this primary field as the AUTO_INCREMENT field so that it is incremented when a new record is inserted.

    The AUTO-INCREMENT value is by default starts from 1 and incremented by 1 whenever a new record is inserted.

    Syntax:

    
    CREATE TABLE Employee(
    Employee_id int NOT NULL AUTO-INCREMENT,
    Employee_name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    Employee_designation varchar(255)
    Age int,
    PRIMARY KEY (Employee_id)
    )
    
    

    Now, let’s move on to the next question in this ‘Top SQL Interview Questions’ blog.

  45. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE commands?
  46. DELETE: This query is used to delete or remove one or more existing tables.

    TRUNCATE: This statement deletes all the data from inside a table.

    What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE commandsThe difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE commands are as follows:

    TRUNCATE is a DDL command, and DELETE is a DML command.

    With TRUNCATE, we cannot really execute and trigger, while with DELETE, we can accomplish a trigger.

    If a table is referenced by foreign key constraints, then TRUNCATE will not work. So, if we have a foreign key, then we have to use the DELETE command.

    The syntax for the DELETE command:

    DELETE FROM table_name

    [WHERE condition];

    Example:

    select * from stu

    Output:

    output 5

    delete from stu where s_name=’Bob’

    Output:

    output 6

    The syntax for the TRUNCATE command:

    TRUNCATE TABLE

    Table_name;

    Example:

    select * from stu1

    Output:

    output 7

    truncate table stu1

    Output:

    output 8

    This deletes all the records from the table.

  47. What is a “TRIGGER” in SQL?
  48. The trigger can be defined as an automatic process that happens when an event occurs in the database server. It helps to maintain the integrity of the table. The trigger is activated when the commands like insert, update, and delete are given.

    The syntax used to generate the trigger function is:

    CREATE TRIGGER trigger_name

  49. What is the COALESCE function?
  50. The COALESCE function takes a set of inputs and returns the first non-null value.

    Syntax:

    COALESCE(val1,val2,val3,……,nth val)

    Example:

    SELECT COALESCE(NULL, 1, 2, ‘MYSQL’)

    Output:

    1

  51. What do you understand by normalization and denormalization?
  52. Normalization and denormalization are basically two methods used in databases.

    What do you understand by Normalization and De-normalization

    Normalization is used in reducing data redundancy and dependency by organizing fields and tables in databases. It involves constructing tables and setting up relationships between those tables according to certain rules. The redundancy and inconsistent dependency can be removed using these rules to make it more flexible.

    Denormalization is contrary to normalization. In this, we basically add redundant data to speed up complex queries involving multiple tables to join. Here, we attempt to optimize the read performance of a database by adding redundant data or by grouping the data.

  53. What are some common clauses used with SELECT queries in SQL?
  54. There are many SELECT statement clauses in SQL. Some of the most commonly used clauses are:

    FROM

    The FROM clause defines the tables and views from which data can be interpreted. The tables and views listed must exist at the time the question is given.

    WHERE

    The WHERE clause defines the parameters that would be used to limit the contents of the results table. You can test for basic relationships or for relationships between a column and a series of columns using subselects.

    GROUP BY

    This GROUP BY clause is commonly used for aggregate functions to produce a single outcome row for each set of unique values in a set of columns or expressions.

    ORDER BY

    ORDER BY clause helps you to choose the columns on which the table’s result should be sorted.

    HAVING

    By using an aggregate function, the HAVING clause filters the results of the GROUP BY clause.

  55. What is wrong with the below-given SQL query?
  56. SELECT gender, AVG(age) FROM employee WHERE AVG(age)>30 GROUP BY gender

    When we execute this command, we get the following error:

    Msg 147, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

    Aggregation may not appear in the WHERE clause unless it is in a subquery contained in a HAVING clause or a select list, the column being aggregated is an outer reference.

    Msg 147, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

    Invalid column name ‘gender’.

    This basically means that whenever we are working with aggregate functions and we are using GROUP BY, we cannot use the WHERE clause. Therefore, instead of the WHERE clause, we should use the HAVING clause.

    Also, when we are using the HAVING clause, GROUP BY should come first, and HAVING should come next.

    select e_gender, avg(e_age) from employee group by e_gender having avg(e_age)>30

    Output:

    Output 9

  57. What do you know about the stuff() function?
  58. The stuff function deletes a part of the string and then inserts another part into the string starting at a specified position.

    Syntax:

    STUFF(String1, Position, Length, String2)

    Here, String1 is the one that would be overwritten. Position indicates the starting location for overwriting the string. Length is the length of the substitute string, and String2 is the string that would overwrite String1.

    Example:

    select stuff(‘SQL Tutorial’,1,3,’Python’)

    This will change ‘SQL Tutorial’ to ‘Python Tutorial’

    Output:

    Python Tutorial

  59. What are Views? Give an example.
  60. Views are virtual tables used to limit the tables that we want to display, and these are nothing but the result of a SQL statement that has a name associated with it. Since views are not physically present, they take less space to store.

    What are Views

    Let’s consider an example. In the below employee table, say, we want to perform multiple operations on the records with gender ‘Female’. We can create a view-only table for the female employees from the entire employee table.

    Now, let’s implement it on SQL Server.

    Below is our employee table:

    select * from employee

    output 10

    Now, we will write the syntax for view.

    Syntax:

    create view female_employee as select * from employee where e_gender=’Female’

    select * from female_employee

    Output:

    output 11

  61. What are the types of views in SQL?
  62. In SQL, the views are classified into four types. They are:

    Simple View

    A view that is based on a single table and does not have a GROUP BY clause or other features.

    Complex View

    A complex view is one that is built from several tables and includes a GROUP BY clause as well as functions.

    Inline View: A view that is built on a subquery in the FROM Clause, which provides a temporary table and simplifies a complicated query.

    Materialized View: A view that saves both the definition and the details. It builds data replicas by physically preserving them.

    Advanced SQL Interview Questions for Experienced Professionals

    34. What is a stored procedure? Give an example.

    A stored procedure is a prepared SQL code that can be saved and reused. In other words, we can consider a stored procedure to be a function consisting of many SQL statements to access the database system. We can consolidate several SQL statements into a stored procedure and execute them whenever and wherever required.

    A stored procedure can be used as a means of modular programming, i.e., we can create a stored procedure once, store it, and call it multiple times as required. This also supports faster execution when compared to executing multiple queries.

    Syntax:

    CREATE PROCEDURE procedure_name

    AS

    Sql_statement

    GO;

    To execute we will use this:

    EXEC procedure_name

    Example:

    We are going to create a stored procedure that will help extract the age of the employees.

    create procedure employee_age

    as

    select e_age from employee

    go

    Now, we will execute it.

    exec employee_age

    Output:

    output 12

  63. What do you know about Joins? Define different types of Joins.
  64. The Join clause is used to combine rows from two or more tables based on a related column between them. There are various types of Joins that can be used to retrieve data, and it depends upon the relationship between tables.

    There are four types of Joins:

    Inner Join: Inner Join basically returns records that have matching values in both tables.

    Left Join: Left Join returns rows that are common between the tables and all the rows of the left-hand-side table, i.e., it returns all the rows from the left-hand-side table even if there are no matches available in the right-hand-side table.

    Right Join: Right Join returns rows that are common between the tables and all the rows of the right-hand-side table, i.e., it returns all the rows from the right-hand-side table even if there are no matches available in the left-hand-side table.

    Full Join: Full Join returns all the rows from the left-hand-side table and all the rows from the right-hand-side table.

    36. Explain Inner Join.

    Inner Join basically gives us those records that have matching values in two tables.

    Let us suppose, we have two tables Table A and Table B. When we apply Inner Join on these two tables, we will get only those records that are common to both Table A and Table B.

    Syntax:

    SELECT columns

    FROM table1

    INNER JOIN table2

    ON table1.column_x=table2.column_y;

    Example:

    select * from employee

    select * from department

    Output:

    output 13

    Now, we would apply Inner Join to both of these tables, where the ‘e_dept’ column in the employee table is equal to the ‘d_name’ column of the department table.

    Syntax:

    select employee.e_name, employee.e_dept, department.d_name, department.d_location

    from employee inner join department

    on

    employee.e_dept=department.d_name

    Output:

    output 14

    After Inner Join, we have only those records where the departments match in both tables. As we can see, the matched departments are Support, Analytics, and Sales.

  65. State the differences between views and tables.
  66. Views Tables

    It is a virtual table that is extracted from a database. A table is structured with a set number of columns and a boundless number of rows.

    Views do not hold data themselves. A table contains data and stores the data in databases.

    A view is also utilized to query certain information contained in a few distinct tables. A table holds fundamental client information and the cases of a characterized object.

    In a view, we will get frequently queried information. In a table, changing the information in the database changes the information that appears in the view

  67. What do you understand by a temporary table? Write a query to create a temporary table.
  68. A temporary table helps us store and process intermediate results. These temporary tables are created and can be automatically deleted when they are no longer used. They are very useful in places where we need to store temporary data.

    Syntax:

    CREATE TABLE #table_name();

    The below query will create a temporary table:

    create table #book(b_id int, b_cost int)

    Now, we will insert the records.

    insert into #book values(1,100)

    insert into #book values(2,232)

    select * from #book

    Output:

    output 15

  69. Explain the difference between OLTP and OLAP.
  70. OLTP: It stands for Online Transaction Processing, and we can consider it to be a category of software applications that is efficient for supporting transaction-oriented programs. One of the important attributes of the OLTP system is its potential to keep up the consistency. The OLTP system often follows decentralized planning to keep away from single points of failure. This system is generally designed for a large audience of end-users to perform short transactions. Also, queries involved in such databases are generally simple, need fast response time, and in comparison, return only a few records. So, the number of transactions per second acts as an effective measure for those systems.

    difference between OLTP and OLAP.

    OLAP: OLAP stands for Online Analytical Processing, and it is a category of software programs that are identified by a comparatively lower frequency of online transactions. For OLAP systems, the efficiency of computing depends highly on the response time. Hence, such systems are generally used for data mining or maintaining aggregated historical data, and they are usually used in multi-dimensional schemas.

  71. What do you understand by Self Join?
  72. Self Join in SQL is used for joining a table with itself. Here, depending upon some conditions, each row of the table is joined with itself and with other rows of the table.

    Syntax:

    
    SELECT a.column_name, b.column_name
    FROM table a, table b
    WHERE condition
    
    

    Example:

    Consider the customer table given below.

    ID Name Age Address Salary

    1 Anand 32 Ahmedabad 2,000.00

    2 Abhishek 25 Delhi 1,500.00

    3 Shivam 23 Kota 2,000.00

    4 Vishal 25 Mumbai 6,500.00

    5 Sayeedul 27 Bhopal 8,500.00

    6 Amir 22 MP 4,500.00

    7 Arpit 24 Indore 10,000.00

    We will now join the table using Self Join:

    
    SQL> SELECT a.ID, b.NAME, a.SALARY
    FROM CUSTOMERS a, CUSTOMERS b
    WHERE a.SALARY < b.SALARY;
    
    

    Output:

    ID Name Salary

    2 Anand 1,500.00

    2 Abhishek 1,500.00

    1 Vishal 2,000.00

    2 Vishal 1,500.00

    3 Vishal 2,000.00

    6 Vishal 4,500.00

    1 Sayeedul 2,000.00

    2 Sayeedul 1,500.00

    3 Sayeedul 2,000.00

    4 Sayeedul 6,500.00

    6 Sayeedul 4,500.00

    1 Amir 2,000.00

    2 Amir 1,500.00

    3 Amir 2,000.00

    1 Arpit 2,000.00

    2 Arpit 1,500.00

    3 Arpit 2,000.00

    4 Arpit 6,500.00

    5 Arpit 8,500.00

    6 Arpit 4,500.00

  73. What is the difference between Union and Union All operators?
  74. The Union operator is used to combine the result set of two or more select statements. For example, the first select statement returns the fish shown in Image A, and the second returns the fish shown in Image B. Then, the Union operator will return the result of the two select statements as shown in Image A U B. Also, if there is a record present in both tables, then we will get only one of them in the final result.

    SQL Union Example

    Syntax:

    SELECT column_list FROM table1

    Union:

    SELECT column_list FROM table2

    Now, we will execute it in the SQL server.

    These are the two tables in which we will use the Union operator.

    output 16

    select * from student_details1

    Union:

    select * from student_details2

    Output:

    output 17

    Now, Union All gives all the records from both tables including the duplicates.

    between Union and Union All operators

    Let us implement in it the SQL server.

    Syntax:

    select * from student_details1

    Union All:

    select * from student_details2

    Output:

    output 18

  75. What is Cursor? How to use a Cursor?
  76. A database Cursor is a control that allows you to navigate around the table’s rows or documents. It can be referred to as a pointer for a row in the set of rows. Cursors are extremely useful for database traversal operations like extraction, insertion, and elimination.

    After any variable declaration, DECLARE a cursor. A SELECT Statement must always be aligned with the cursor declaration.

    To initialize the result set, OPEN statements must be called before fetching the rows from the result table.

    To grab and switch to the next row in the result set, use the FETCH statement.

    To deactivate the cursor, use the CLOSE expression.

    Finally, use the DEALLOCATE clause to uninstall the cursor description and clear all the resources associated with it.

    Here is an example SQL cursor

    
    DECLARE @name VARCHAR(50)
    DECLARE db_cursor CURSOR FOR
    SELECT name
    From myDB.company
    WHERE employee_name IN (‘Jay’, ‘Shyam’)
    OPEN db_cursor
    FETCH next
    FROM db_cursor
    Into @name
    Close db_cursor
    DEALLOCATE db_cursor
    
    

  77. What is the use of the Intersect operator?
  78. The Intersect operator helps combine two select statements and returns only those records that are common to both the select statements. So, after we get Table A and Table B over here and if we apply the Intersect operator on these two tables, then we will get only those records that are common to the result of the select statements of these two.

    What is the use of the Intersect operator

    Syntax:

    SELECT column_list FROM table1

    INTERSECT

    SELECT column_list FROM table2

    Now, let’s see an example for the INTERSECT operator.

    select * from student_details1

    select * from student_details1

    Output:

    output 19

    select * from student_details1

    intersect

    select * from student_details2

    Output:

    output 20

  79. How can you copy data from one table into another?
  80. How can you copy data from one table into another

    Here, we have our employee table.

    How can you copy data from one table into another 2

    We have to copy this data into another table. For this purpose, we can use the INSERT INTO SELECT operator. Before we go ahead and do that, we would have to create another table that would have the same structure as the above-given table.

    Syntax:

    create table employee_duplicate(

    e_id int,

    e_name varchar(20),

    e_salary int,

    e_age int,

    e_gender varchar(20)

    e_dept varchar(20)

    )

    For copying the data, we would use the following query:

    insert into employee_duplicate select * from employees

    Let us have a glance at the copied table.

    select * from employee_duplicate

    Output:

    output 21

  81. What is the difference between BETWEEN and IN operators in SQL?
  82. To represent rows based on a set of values, use the BETWEEN operator. The values may be numbers, text, or dates. The BETWEEN operator returns the total number of values that exist between two specified ranges.

    To search for values within a given range of values, the IN condition operator is used. If we have more than one value to choose from, we use the IN operator.

  83. Describe how to delete duplicate rows using a single statement but without any table creation.
  84. Let’s create an Employee table where column names are ID, NAME, DEPARTMENT, and EMAIL. Below are the SQL scripts for generating the sample data:

    CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE

    (

    ID INT,

    NAME Varchar(100),

    DEPARTMENT INT,

    EMAIL Varchar(100)

    )

    INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES (1,'Tarun',101,'tarun@intellipaat.com')

    INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES (2,'Sabid',102,'sabid@intellipaat.com')

    INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES (3,'Adarsh',103,'adarsh@intellipaat.com')

    INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES (4,'Vaibhav',104,'vaibhav@intellipaat.com')

    --These are the duplicate rows

    INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES (5,'Tarun',101,'tarun@intellipaat.com')

    INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES (6,'Sabid',102,'sabid@intellipaat.com')

    sql

    We can see the duplicate rows in the above table.

    DELETE e1 FROM EMPLOYEE e1, EMPLOYEE e2 WHERE e1.name = e2.name AND e1.id > e2.id

    The SQL query above will delete the rows, where the name fields are duplicated, and it will retain only those unique rows in which the names are unique and the ID fields are the lowest. That is, rows with IDs 5 and 6 are deleted, whereas rows with IDs 1 and 2 are retained.

    sql table

  85. Can you identify the employee who is having the third-highest salary from the given Employee table (with salary-related data)?
  86. Consider the below Employee table. In the table, ‘Sabid’ has the third-highest salary (60000).

    Name Salary

    Tarun 70000

    Sabid 60000

    Adarsh 30000

    Vaibhav 80000

    Below is a simple query to find out the employee who has the third-highest salary. The functions RANK, DENSE RANK, and ROW NUMBER are used to obtain the increasing integer value by imposing the ORDER BY clause in the SELECT statement, based on the ordering of rows. The ORDER BY clause is necessary when we use RANK, DENSE RANK, or ROW NUMBER functions. On the other hand, the PARTITION BY clause is optional.

    WITH CTE AS

    (

    SELECT Name, Salary, RN = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Salary DESC) FROM EMPLOYEE

    )

    SELECT Name, Salary FROM CTE WHERE RN =3

  87. What is the difference between HAVING and WHERE clauses?
  88. The distinction between HAVING and WHERE clauses in SQL is that while the WHERE clause cannot be used with aggregates, we use the HAVING clause with the aggregated data. The WHERE clause works on the data from a row and not with the aggregated data.

    Let’s consider the Employee table below.

    Name Department Salary

    Tarun Production 50000

    Tarun Testing 60000

    Sabid Marketing 70000

    Adarsh Production 80000

    Vaibhav Testing 90000

    The following would select the data on a row-by-row basis:

    SELECT Name, Salary FROM Employee WHERE Salary >=50000

    Output:

    Name Salary

    Tarun 50000

    Tarun 60000

    Sabid 70000

    Adarsh 80000

    Vaibhav 90000

    The HAVING clause, on the other hand, operates on aggregated results.

    SELECT Department, SUM(Salary) AS total FROM Employee GROUP BY Department

    Output:

    Department Total

    Marketing 70000

    Production 130000

    Testing 150000

    Now, let’s see the output when we apply HAVING to the above query.

    SELECT Department, SUM(Salary) AS total FROM Employee GROUP BY Department HAVING SUM(Salary)>70000

    Output:

    Department Total

    Production 130000

    Testing 150000

  89. Explain database white box testing and black box testing.
  90. The white box test method mainly deals with the internal structure of a particular database, where users hide specification details. The white box testing method involves the following:

    As the coding error can be detected by testing the white box, it can eliminate internal errors.

    To check for the consistency of the database, it selects the default table values.

    This method verifies the referential integrity rule.

    It helps perform the module testing of database functions, triggers, views, and SQL queries.

    The black box test method generally involves interface testing, followed by database integration. It includes:

    Mapping details

    Verification of the incoming data

    Verification of the outgoing data from the other query functions

  91. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE in SQL?
  92. Consider the following Student table.

    student

    If we want to delete the rows (tuples) of this table, we can use the delete command. When we run the following command, it will delete all the rows.

    Delete from Student;

    We can also delete a specific row using the delete command as shown below:

    Delete from Student where ID=1;

    sql student

    The truncate command is also used to delete the rows. However, in truncate, we cannot delete a specific row. Thus, when we run the following command, it will delete all the rows of the table.

    Truncate Student;

    Let’s say, we have executed rollback before committing changes, but in the case of truncate, it is not possible because there is no log file generated (for understanding, we can assume truncate to be something like ‘Shift + Delete’).

    In the case of delete, we can perform rollback before committing the changes. Hence, with the delete command, we have the option of recovering the original.

    Also, the delete command is slower than the truncate command.

 

Last Updated: 2023-09-23

 

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