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SQL

Projected Time

About 3.5-4 hours

Prerequisites

Motivation

Most software applications store data of some sort -- user data, content, etc. Databases are used to store data, so software developers should know how to use them. Relational databases are a common type of database that are good for storing many types of data.

Most companies use relational databases to store their data.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Interact with PostgreSQL through the command line
  • Create database tables
  • Add, update, and delete data
  • Query data
  • Design a basic relational database schema fitting a use case

Specific Things to Learn

  • Create a table
  • Query data from a table
  • Filter and limit
  • Joins
  • Insert data into a table
  • Update
  • Delete

Materials

Lesson

  • Read through lesson slides SQL
  • Video walkthrough of lesson slides SQL

Common Mistakes / Misconceptions

  • SQL commands are case-insensitive. This is unlike most programming languages! For example, in SQL, these two commands will both do the same thing:
    • SELECT * FROM food;
    • select * From fOOd;
  • Don't forget the semicolons! SQL commands will only run if you put a semicolon at the end of them.

Independent Practice

  1. Work through the Codecademy SQL Tutorial: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-sql

  2. PostgreSQL is a popular, open-source version of SQL. Try it out:

    • In Terminal, type psql to use PostgreSQL.
    • Try adding a table with a command like CREATE TABLE food (name TEXT, calories INTEGER);
    • See that the table was created by typing .tables to see the list of all existing tables.
    • Try adding some data: INSERT INTO food VALUES ("pizza", 500);
    • See the data: SELECT * from food;

  3. Using Postico, try opening the database you just created! Browse the data and get a feel for how to move around. One way to view SQL data is through the command line, and another way is through graphical tools like the Postico.

  4. Using PostgreSQL, try creating tables and adding, updating, deleting, and querying data yourself!

Challenge

In PostgreSQL on your own machine, you are going to create the tables for a microblogging platform (an app similar to Twitter). Your database should be able to store user information and posts by specific users. One post must belong to exactly one user. One user can have many posts. Later, we'll add the ability for users to follow each other, but not now.

  1. With pencil/pen and paper, write out the data for a database with the following spec. Fill in the fields with fake data that you make up. Be sure to link posts to a certain existing user!

    • a table named: users
      • which has a text field named: name
      • and a text field named: email
    • a table named: posts
      • which has an integer field named: user_id
      • and a text field named: content

  2. Use the psql command in your terminal to enter the PostgreSQL command line program. Once there, use SQL statements to create two tables according to the spec for the two tables in step 1.

  3. Once you have your two tables set up, compare your table setup with someone else's.

  4. Add sample data to the tables yourself (make up some users and posts).

  5. Try writing queries that get data such as:

    • All the tweets by a given user
    • The 10 most recent tweets by any user
    • Use a join to get a user's info along with their tweets
    • Make up your own!

  6. Now let's perform a database migration. We will add a new column to an existing table in our database. Add a text field named: bio to your existing users table!

  7. Add some sample data to your new bio fields, but not for every user (leave some of their bios blank).

  8. Try writing queries that get data such as:

    • Just the bios of all users in the databases
    • A list of users that have no bio
    • Just the names of those users that have no bio
    • Make up your own!

Extra Challenge

If you complete the above, we'll move on to creating a join table.

  1. Add a new table named follows that has an int field follower_id and an int field followed_id. Draw a picture for this table.

  2. Write some queries that get data such as:

    • All users that user 2 is following
      • Hint: in follows, look for follower_id 2, and get all of the user IDs that are in those rows' followed_id fields. Then get the users by that set of user IDs.
    • All users that follow user 2 (users that have 2 as the followed_id)
      • Hint: in follows, look for followed_id 2, and get all of the user IDs that are in those rows' follower_id fields. Then get those users.
    • Find which user has the most followers

Supplemental Materials