Introduction To SQL

Introduction
Unit 7 To TSQL
Unit 7

Modern Business
Technology
Developed by
Michael Hotek
Integrity

• Integrity is the process by which data

is validated and consistency is
enforced
• Databases were designed with
integrity as a primary factor
• Integrity can be enforced by a variety
of means
– Rules
– Defaults
– Constraints
– Primary keys
– Foreign keys
– Unique indexes
– Triggers
• Integrity can also be programmatic or
declarative
Declarative Integrity

• Defaults and constraints can be used

directly in a create table statement,
hence declarative integrity
• Constraints include
– Check
– Unique
– Primary Key
– Reference
• Constraints can be column or table
level
• Defaults are only column level
Defaults

• A default clause is used to supply a

value for a column when one is not
explicitly specified in an insert
statement
• For a DEFAULT constraint:
[CONSTRAINT constraint_name]
DEFAULT {constant_expression
| niladic-function | NULL}
[FOR col_name]

create table address

(CompID int not null,
Address varchar(50) not null,
City varchar(30)
default 'Chicago',
State char(2) default 'IL')
Defaults

• Functions can also be used in place

of constants as long as they return a
single value
• The value of the default must match
the datatype of the column
• Character and date values must be
enclosed in quotes
• A column can have only one default
• sp_helpconstraint can be used to
return constraint information about a
table.
Check Constraints

• Check constraints are used to

enforce domain integrity
• Can be applied at a table and a
column level
• Constraints are used to specify:
– List or set of values
– range of values
– Format for data
– Conditions on a value
• Enforced during inserts and updates
• Must evaluate to a true or false
Column Constraints

create table people

(SSN char(11) not null
constraint chk_ssn
check (SSN like '[0-9][0-9][0-9]-
[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]',
FirstName varchar(30) not null,
LastName varchar(50) not null,
…)
or
create table people
(SSN char(11) not null
check (SSN like '[0-9][0-9][0-9]-
[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]',
FirstName varchar(30) not null,
LastName varchar(50) not null,
…)
Table Constraints

• Used for more than one column

create table discounts
(Type varchar(40) not null,
StoreID char(4) not null,
LowQty int not null,
HighQty int not null,
Discount float null,
constraint chk_low_high
check (LowQty <= HighQty))
Indexes

• Separate structure attached to a

table
• Contain pointers to the physical data
• Used to increase performance when:
– Finding rows
– Correlating data across tables
– Ordering result sets
– Inserting data in some cases
• Can enforce unique values in a
column or table

CREATE [UNIQUE] [CLUSTERED | NONCLUSTERED]

INDEX index_name
ON [[database.]owner.]table_name
(column_name [, column_name]...)
[WITH[FILLFACTOR = x][[,] IGNORE_DUP_KEY]
[[,] {SORTED_DATA |
SORTED_DATA_REORG}]
[[,] {IGNORE_DUP_ROW |
ALLOW_DUP_ROW}]]
[ON segment_name]
Pages

• Data is stored in SQL Server is a set

of structures called pages
• Each page is 2K in size (8K in 7.0)
• Many rows can be on a single page
• A single row must be contained
entirely on a page
• Each page contains a header area
that identifies the contents of each
page
• Pages are stored in a doubly linked
list
Indexes

• As data gets added, a large number

of pages are created
• Indexes were devised to quickly
navigate these pages
• Indexes are also stored in pages
• The index pages are stored in a B-
Tree to support quick location of
information
Indexes

Index Pages Data Pages

177-32-1176...
213-46-8915...
238-95-7766...

177-32-1176
267-41-2394 267-41-2394...
409-56-7008 341-53-8472...
177-32-1176 402-31-7808...

756-30-7391

409-56-7008...
756-30-7391 532-86-9471...
899-46-2035 655-27-5281...

756-30-7391...
775-93-6481...
835-21-6639...
Indexes

• There are two types of indexes

– clustered
– nonclusterd
• Only be 1 clustered index per table
• Up to 249 nonclustered indexes
• Order of data in the table is
determined by the type of index
– clustered index
• Data in the same order as the index
– nonclustered index
• Data in the order it was inserted
Keys and Indexes

• Keys:
• Logical
– Primary, foreign, and common
• Physical
– Single column or composite
– This is an index
• Indexes are not necessarily logical
keys
• Indexes can be applied to columns
that are not keys
• Can contain up to 16 columns
• Can have a maximum size of 256
bytes
Clustered Index

• Only one per table

• This is your most powerful index
• Physically orders the data in a table
• Can be equated to the old card
catalog
• Good for range searches
• Slow for inserts
– page splitting
Clustered Indexes

Data Pages
Page 1132
Key ptr Bennet
Page 1007 Chan
Bennet 1132 Dull
Greane 1133 Edwards
Hunter 1127
Key ptr
Page 1001
Bennet 1007 Page 1133
Karsen 1009 Greane
Smith 1062 Green
Greene

Key ptr
Page 1009
Karsen 1315 Page 11127
Hunter
Jenkins

Root Page Intermediate Leaf Level

Clustered Indexes

• The leaf level of the index is the data

page of the table
• Only one entry can point to a page in
the next level
• Require an additional 120% of space
during creation
Nonclustered Indexes

• Data is stored in a random order at

the data page level
• Up to 249 nonclustered indexes can
be defined per table
• Good for searches of explicit values
• Are much larger than a clustered
index
 Nonclustered Indexes

Row
Key Page 1241
ptr 10 O'Leary
Page 1132 11 Ringer
Row Page Bennet 1421,1 12 White
Key Chan 1129,3 13 Jenkins
ptr ptr Dull 1409,1
Page 1007 Edwards 1018,5
Bennet 1421,1 1132
Greane 1242,4 1133
Hunter 1242,1 1127 Page 1242
14 Hunter
Row Page 15 Smith
Key ptr ptr 16 Ringer
Page 1001 Page 1133 17 Greane
Bennet 1421,1 1007 Greane 1242,4
Karsen 1876,1 1305 Green 1409,2
Smith 1242,1 1062 Greene 1421,2
Page 1305 Page 1421
Karsen 1876,1 1311 18 Bennet
19 Greene
20 Ringer
Page 1127
Hunter 1242,1
Jenkins 1241,4

Page 1409
21 Dull
22 Green
23 White

Root Page Intermediate Leaf Pages Data Pages

Nonclustered Indexes

• The root and intermediate levels

work similarly for both clustered and
nonclustered indexes
• The leaf level of a nonclustered index
contains a pointer to the row on each
data page
• The pointers at the leaf level are in
index order
Unique Constraint

• Ensures no two rows have the same

value
• Allows one null value in a column
• Creates a unique, nonclustered index
by default

create table publishers

(pub_id char(4) null,
constraint u_pub_id unique,
pub_name varchar(30) not null)
Primary Key

• Ensures no two rows have the same

value
• Nulls are not allowed
• Creates a unique, clustered index by
default

create table publishers

(pub_id char(4)
constraint publishers_PK primary
key,
pub_name varchar(30))

create table sales

(stor_id char(4) not null,
ord_num varchar(20) not null,
date datetime nit null,
constraint sales_PK primary key
nonclustered (stor_id, ord_num))
Referential Integrity

• Used to maintain foreign keys when

data is inserted or updated
• Column
create table <table name>
(column datatype
[constraint constraint_name]
references ref_table [ref_column]
• Table
[constraint constraint_name]
foreign key (column [{,column}…])
references ref_table
[(column [{, column}…])]
Referential Integrity

• Use a column level constraint when

only one column needs to be
compared
• Use a table level constraint when
more than one column needs to be
compared
• The table in the references clause
must already have a primary/unique
constraint or a unique index defined
on the columns
• A roll back is issued if referential
integrity is violated and a message is
sent back
Referential Integrity

• Column Level
create table titles
(title_id tid not null,
title varchar(80) null,
pub_id char(4) null
constraint publishers_pub_id
references publishers(pub_id),
notes varchar(200) null)
• Restrictions
Referential Integrity

create table salesdetail

(stor_id char(4) not null,
ord_num varchar(20) not null,
title_id tid not null,
qty int not null,
discount float not null,
constraint salesdetail_FK1
foreign key (stor_id, ord_num)
references sales(stor_id, ord_num),

constraint salesdetail_FK2
foreign key (title_id)
references titles(title_id))
Referential Integrity

• When primary keys are deleted and

updated, three different option could
be performed:
– Restrict
– Cascade
– Set null
• Declarative RI enforces a restrict
• Cascade and set null can only be
accomplished with triggers
• In a perfect world, updates to a
primary key are not allowed
• In an imperfect world, these should
be kept to a minimum
Error Messages

• Custom messages can be added

with sp_addmessage
• Drop a message with
sp_dropmessage
• Get a message with sp_getmessage
• In Sybase, these messages can be
bound to a constraint so that on a
failure, a nice message to returned to
the user
• Bind messages using sp_bindmsg
• Unbind messages using
sp_unbindmsg
Alter Table

• Once a table is created, certain

modifications to its structure can be
performed
• Allowed:
– Add columns
– Add, drop, or change constraints
• Not allowed
– Dropping columns
– Changing datatypes
– Changing width of columns
– Changing nullability options
• Constraints can only be modified with
an alter table statement
• Modifications to constraints do not
affect existing data
Alter Table

ALTER TABLE
[database.[owner].]table_name
[WITH NOCHECK]
[ADD
{col_name column_properties
[column_constraints]
| [[,] table_constraint]}
[, {next_col_name |
next_table_constraint}]...]
|
[DROP [CONSTRAINT]
constraint_name [,
constraint_name2]...]
Getting Help

• To obtain information about

constraints and defaults defined for a
table use
sp_helpconstraint table
Unit 7 Review

• Constraints are used to enforce integrity

• A default will supply a value during an insert
• Check constraints enforce valid data during
inserts and updates
• Data is stored in data pages that are 2K in size
• A table can have 1 clustered index
– Physically orders the data
– Leaf level of index is the data pages
– Used for range searches
• A table can have up to 249 nonclusterd indexes
– Does not order the data
– The leaf level of the index contains pointers to
rows
– Used for explicit searches
• Indexes can have up to 16 columns
• Can be a maximum of 256 bytes
• Unique constraint creates a unique, nonclustered
index by default and allows one null
• Primary key constraint creates a unique, clustered
index by default and doe not allow nulls
Unit 7 Review

• Foreign keys are enforced via a references

constraint
• Referenced column(s) must have a
primary/unique constraint or a unique index
defined
• Roll back is performed if RI is violated
• The only type of RI that can be applied when
modifying a primary key with constraints is restrict
• You can add custom messages
• Alter table can add columns
• Alter can add, drop, or modify constraints
• You can not drop a column
• You can not change a datatype
• You can not change the length of a column
• You can not change the nullability
Unit 7 Exercises

• Time allotted for exercises is 30

minutes