Disclaimer

Be aware it's not an exhaustive list. Click items with an arrow on the left to get details.

Concepts

Structured Query Language (SQL)

It's the most widely used language for managing data in relational databases. The language is easy to learn, declarative, and very convenient to manipulate datasets.

SQL for what?

SQL can be helpful to execute queries, create data schemes, manipulate records, and retrieve data. It's often used along with a programming language to power applications.

PostgreSQL

It's an open-source object-relational database management system (RDBMS).

MySQL

It's the most widely used relational database management system. It runs as a server, and you can use it to create databases and give their access to multiple users.

Columns vs. rows

In a database, All information is stored in tables. Each table is divided into rows and columns. Columns are specific attributes that allow for grouping data (e.g, id, first_name, last_name, age). Rows are records (e.g, 1001001, Kobe, Bryant, 37).

Views

A view is a virtual table based on the result of an SQL query. It's a pretty convenient feature that allow you to run advanced queries in pre-sorted results.

ACID vs. BASE

ACID means "atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability", and BASE stands for “Basically Available, soft state and eventual consistency”. Each approach has its advantages and drawbacks depending on what you want to achieve.

NoSQL

The NoSQL model states that not all applications need a relational database. Redis, Elasticsearch or MongoDB are practical examples of NoSQL systems. You can read this post to understand the difference with SQL.

Logical operators

AND

Multiple conditions in WHERE clauses that are all verified.

Multiple conditions in WHERE clauses where at least one condition is verified.

Compare a value to similar values using wildcard operators.

BETWEEN

Search between max and min values.

EXISTS

Search if a row is in a table.

Determine if a value is in a specified list of literal values.

NOT

Negate logical operator (e.g., NOT EXISTS, NOT BETWEEN, NOT IN, and so on).

Comparison Operators

Equal.

Not equal.

Greater than.

Equal or greater than.

Lower than.

Lower than or equal.

Not greater than.

Not lower than.

Basic commands

Create database

CREATE DATABASE my_database;

Create table

CREATE TABLE my_table (
  my_column my_column_definition, 
  other_column other_column_definition, 
);

Alter table

ALTER TABLE my_table 
ADD my_column my_column_definition;

Empty table

TRUNCATE my_table;

Select data in table

SELECT my_column 
FROM my_table;

Select data conditionally

SELECT my_column, other_column
FROM my_table
WHERE my_column = some_value
AND other_column = other_value;

Insert data in table

INSERT INTO my_table (my_column, other_column) 
VALUES (my_value, other_value);

Update data in table

UPDATE my_table
SET my_column = my_value
WHERE other_column = other_value;

Drop table

DROP my_table;

Delete data table

DELETE FROM my_table
WHERE CONDITION;

Aliasing

SELECT my_column AS 'mycol'
FROM my_table;

Counting elements

SELECT COUNT(my_column)
FROM my_table;

A little more advanced commands

Kill doublons in select

SELECT DISTINCT id FROM Players;

Sum values in column

SELECT SUM(salary) FROM Players;

Sort data

SELECT last_name, age FROM Players
GROUP BY age ORDER BY last_name;

Not equal

SELECT first_name, last_name FROM Players WHERE age <> 42;

Create view

CREATE VIEW my_view AS
SELECT id, first_name, last_name, age
FROM Players;

Select data from a view

SELECT * FROM my_view;

Drop view

DROP VIEW my_view;

PRIMARY KEY constraints

A primary key is unique identifier for each records in a table. Its value cannot be NULL. It's often combined with AUTO_INCREMENT to generate it automatically:

CREATE TABLE `Players` (
   id INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
   last_name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
   first_name varchar(255),
   age int,
);

UNIQUE constraints

A UNIQUE constraint forces the use of different values in a column:

CREATE TABLE `Players` (
    id int NOT NULL,
    last_name varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    first_name varchar(255),
    age int,
    UNIQUE (id)
);

INTERSECTION

SELECT * FROM table_A
INTERSECT
SELECT * FROM table_B

INTERSECT allows you to get results that match the first query and the second query, and only that.

UNION

SELECT * FROM table_A
UNION
SELECT * FROM table_B

UNION is a basic command that allows for combining several queries and concatenate results. In the example above, you get results that match the first query or the second query, or both.

JOIN

You can consolidate information from several different tables with a SQL JOIN:

INNER JOIN

Join two tables where a condition is true in the two tables:

SELECT *
FROM table_A
INNER JOIN table_B ON table_A.id = table_B.pid

LEFT JOIN

Return all records from the table on the left even if the condition is not true in the second table:

SELECT *
FROM table_A
LEFT JOIN table_B ON table_A.id = table_B.pid;

RIGHT JOIN

Return all records from the table on the right even if the condition is not true in the first table:

SELECT *
FROM table_A
RIGHT JOIN table_B ON table_A.id = table_B.pid;

FULL JOIN and FULL OUTER JOIN

Join two tables where a condition is true at least in one table:

SELECT *
FROM table_A
FULL JOIN table_B ON table_A.id = table_B.pid;

SELF JOIN

Join a table with itself. It's useful when there are hierarchical relationships between records:

SELECT child.id, child.name, parent.name
FROM People as child
LEFT OUTER JOIN People AS parent ON child.parent_id = parent.id

CROSS JOIN

Join each line of a table with each line of a second table:

SELECT *
FROM table_A
CROSS JOIN table_B;

NATURAL JOIN

Join two tables when they have at least one column with the same name:

SELECT *
FROM table_A
NATURAL JOIN table_B;

UNION JOIN

Join union.

SQL Indexes

Indexes are incredibly helpful to decrease execution time for SQL selects and WHERE clauses.

It's pretty much like the index at the end of a book where you can find all pages related to a specific topic.

Creating (or dropping) indexes does not affect data:

CREATE INDEX my_index ON my_table;

You can create an index on a specific column:

CREATE INDEX my_index ON my_table (my_column);

Be careful, though, indexes are not meant for small tables or frequently updated columns. Large operations involving updates and inserts can be significantly slower.

Another SQL cheat sheet