SQL Syntax (2024)

SQL Statements

Most of the actions you need to perform on a database are done with SQL statements.

SQL statements consists of keywords that are easy to understand.

The following SQL statement returns all records from a table named "Customers":

In this tutorial we will teach you all about the different SQL statements.

Database Tables

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"), and contain records (rows) with data.

In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database (included in MS Access and MS SQL Server).

Below is a selection from the Customers table used in the examples:

The table above contains five records (one for each customer) and seven columns (CustomerID, CustomerName, ContactName, Address, City, PostalCode, and Country).

Keep in Mind That...

• SQL keywords are NOT case sensitive: select is the same as SELECT

In this tutorial we will write all SQL keywords in upper-case.

Semicolon after SQL Statements?

Some database systems require a semicolon at the end of each SQL statement.

Semicolon is the standard way to separate each SQL statement in database systems that allow more than one SQL statement to be executed in the same call to the server.

In this tutorial, we will use semicolon at the end of each SQL statement.

Some of The Most Important SQL Commands

• SELECT - extracts data from a database
• UPDATE - updates data in a database
• DELETE - deletes data from a database
• INSERT INTO - inserts new data into a database
• CREATE DATABASE - creates a new database
• ALTER DATABASE - modifies a database
• CREATE TABLE - creates a new table
• ALTER TABLE - modifies a table
• DROP TABLE - deletes a table
• CREATE INDEX - creates an index (search key)
• DROP INDEX - deletes an index