Why I must put "AS" clause at the end of subquery.? - sql

I saw this thread:
SELECT
MAX(totalcontracts) AS highest_total
FROM ( SELECT
SuperVisor
,COUNT(ContractNo) AS totalcontracts
FROM Contract
GROUP BY SuperVisor
) AS t
If I delete "as t" line that return me an error. but when I put it back that work fine.
This is temporarly so why do I required to put a name to that subtable?Any sense in that?
Thank you.

In standard SQL a derived table (a subquery you select data from) needs a name:
FROM (<subquery>) [AS] <name>`
(Some DBMS, however, are not compliant with the standard. In Oracle for instance it is not mandatory to give a derived table an alias, but the optional AS is forbidden when you specify one. Other DBMS on the other hand may require the AS although the SQL standard specifies it as optional.)

No, there isn't a real logic necessity here.
Oracle for instance does not force it
select * from (select * from dual);
Nor SQLite
select * from (select 1)

As #jarlh mentioned, if you're using some database systems, in order to use the result from any nested subquery you need to give that result-set a name (or alias), which is why you need to put a name / letter / character after you close the paranthesis.
The AS keyword is not mandatory, but the name is.

Related

Error show when update using phpmyadmin

When I update a column using phpmyadmin in database with following query
UPDATE members
SET `refered` = (SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM `user_details`
WHERE `user_details.sponser`=`members.username`
)
It show a error message like this
#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near '*) FROM `user_details` WHERE `user_details.sponser`=`members.username`)' at line 1
What may be reason?
Error is in
COUNT (*)
-----^
Remove the space between COUNT and (*).
Try the below query
UPDATE members SET refered = (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM user_details
WHERE user_details.sponser=members.username)
Does the Select query returns any result. If so what is the result. Looks like all your query is inside '' single quotes that you are using it should be removed. Single quotes need to be removed for example .
UPDATE members
SET refered = (SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM user_details
WHERE user_details.sponser=members.username
)
-- there is not single quotes in the query above. please remove it from yours.
Part of your problem, or maybe the whole problem, is the WHERE clause. You've used backticks for the table name, which is correct (or, at least, it's optional in this case; it's needed if your database name or table name has a MySQL reserved name or is otherwise ambiguous). The problem, though, is that the dot separating the database from the table needs to be outside the backticks. So your WHERE clause should look like this instead:
WHERE `user_details`.`sponser`=`members`.`username`

Sub-Queries in Sybase SQL

We have an application which indexes data using user-written SQL statements. We place those statements within parenthesis so we can limit that query to a certain criteria. For example:
select * from (select F_Name from table_1)q where ID > 25
Though we have discovered that this format does not function using a Sybase database. Reporting a syntax error around the parenthesis. I've tried playing around on a test instance but haven't been able to find a way to achieve this result. I'm not directly involved in the development and my SQL knowledge is limited. I'm assuming the 'q' is to give the subresult an alias for the application to use.
Does Sybase have a specific syntax? If so, how could this query be adapted for it?
Thanks in advance.
Sybase ASE is case sensitive w.r.t. all identifiers and the query shall work:
as per #HannoBinder query :
select id from ... is not the same as select ID from... so make sure of the case.
Also make sure that the column ID is returned by the Q query in order to be used in where clause .
If the table and column names are in Upper case the following query shall work:
select * from (select F_NAME, ID from TABLE_1) Q where ID > 25

SQL with LIMIT1 returns all records

I made a mistake and entered:
SELECT * FROM table LIMIT1
instead of
SELECT * FROM table LIMIT 1 (note the space between LIMIT and 1)
in the CLI of MySQL. I expected to receive some kind of parse error, but I was surprised, because the query returned all of the records in the table. My first thought was "stupid MySQL, I bet that this will return error in PostgreSQL", but PostgreSQL also returned all records. Then tested it with SQLite - with the same result.
After some digging, I realized that it doesn't matter what I enter after the table. As long as there are no WHERE/ORDER/GROUP clauses:
SELECT * FROM table SOMETHING -- works and returns all records in table
SELECT * FROM table WHERE true SOMETHING -- doesn't work - returns parse error
I guess that this is a standardized behavior, but I couldn't find any explanation why's that. Any ideas?
Your first query is equivalent to this query using a table alias:
SELECT * FROM yourtable AS LIMIT1
The AS keyword is optional. The table alias allows you to refer to columns of that table using the alias LIMIT1.foo rather than the original table name. It can be useful to use aliases if you wish to give tables a shorter or a more descriptive alias within a query. It is necessary to use aliases if you join a table to itself.
From the SQL lite documentation:
This is why I want DB engine to force the usage of keyword AS for alias names
http://beyondrelational.com/modules/2/blogs/70/posts/10814/should-alias-names-be-preceded-by-as.aspx
SELECT * FROM table LIMIT1;
LIMIT1 This has taken as alias by SQL, cause LIMIT1 is not a reserved literal of SQL.
Something after table name and that is not a reserved keyword always taken as an table alias by SQL.
SELECT * FROM table LIMIT 1;
When you used LIMIT just after the table name, SQL found that as a reserved keyword and worked for it as per the behavior. IF you want to use reserved key words in query It can be done by putting reserved literals in quotes. like..
SELECT * FROM table `LIMIT`;
OR
SELECT * FROM table `LIMIT 1`;
Now all words covered under `` quotes will treated as user defined.
Commonly we did mistake with date, timestamp, limit etc.. keywords by using them as column names.

Can SQL SUM() function take an expression as argument?

I'm using SQLite database and I'm wondering whether I'm allowed to write queries as follows:
SELECT SUM(column1 * column2)
FROM my_table;
I googled but references say that SUM function is has the following format:
SUM([DISTINCT|ALL] column)
And my question is: does column mean actually column or does it allow expressions (like above) too?
You can always use a table expression:
SELECT SUM(Calc)
FROM (
SELECT Column1 * Column2 AS 'Calc'
FROM My_Table) t
I don't have SQLite but checking the docs indicates this should work fine.
Yes, you can use an expression like the one you mentioned, if the datatype of both columns allow it.

Using an Alias column in the where clause in ms-sql 2000

I know you cannot use a alias column in the where clause for T-SQL; however, has Microsoft provided some kind of workaround for this?
Related Questions:
Unknown Column In Where Clause
Can you use an alias in the WHERE clause in mysql?
“Invalid column name” error on SQL statement from OpenQuery results
One workaround would be to use a derived table.
For example:
select *
from
(
select a + b as aliased_column
from table
) dt
where dt.aliased_column = something.
I hope this helps.
Depending on what you are aliasing, you could turn it into a user defined function and reference that in both places. Otherwise your copying the aliased code in several places, which tends to become very ugly and means updating 3+ spots if you are also ordering on that column.