NULL Values and the GROUP BY Clause by Maria Alcaraz 27 Apr 2017 We've already covered how to use the GROUP BY clause and some aggregation functions like SUM(), AVG(), MAX(), MIN(), COUNT(). In this article, we will explain how the GROUP BY clause works when NULL values are involved. We will also explain about using NULLs with the ORDER BY clause. In SQL, NULL is a special marker used to indicate that a data value does not exist in the database. For more details, check out Wikipedia's explanation of NULL in SQL. Read more Understanding the Use of NULL in SQL Three-Valued Logic by Maria Alcaraz 15 Mar 2017 NULLs are necessary in relational databases, and learning to use them is fundamental to SQL success. However, NULLs should also be handled with care, as we explain in this post. In relational databases, we don’t always have a value to put in a column. For example, suppose we have a table called “persons” that has “first_name”, “last_name”, “birth_date” and “marriage_date” columns. What value will we store in the “marriage_date” column for single persons? Read more Performing Calculations on Date- and Time-Related Values by Maria Alcaraz 24 Jan 2017 Relational databases support several date and time data types. In this article, we'll look at several arithmetic operations we can do on these types. These operations are logical and understandable, even for the beginning SQL coder. Let's first briefly explain the main data types used for dates and times. Keep in mind that data types may differ by database engine, so check your database documentation for specifics before you start working with them. Read more Correlated Subquery in SQL: A Beginner’s Guide by Maria Alcaraz 13 Dec 2016 Sometimes, using a SQL correlated subquery is the only way to solve a statement. But these subqueries can be very slow. In this post, we’ll talk about when to use a correlated subquery, why, and how to do it. -- Subqueries are an important resource for increasing the expressive power of SQL. If you haven’t read our previous article, subqueries are simply a SELECT statement inside another SELECT. Read more SQL Subqueries by Maria Alcaraz 18 Nov 2016 The article describes what a subquery is and what these useful statements look like. We will cover basic examples with the IN, EXISTS, ANY, and ALL operators, look at subqueries in FROM and WHERE clauses, and explore the difference between correlated and nested subqueries. First, let’s start with an example database. To present some of these statements we need to have an example table and fill it with some data. Read more