SQL Commands Glossary—An Overview of 25 Most Popular SQL Commands

6. MIN 

MIN() returns the minimum value in a numeric column. For text columns, MIN() returns the first value alphabetically. This example returns the movie with the lowest amount of revenue. 

SELECT MIN(revenue) AS minimum_revenue,
FROM films;

7. MAX

MAX() returns the maximum value in a numeric column. For text columns, MAX() returns the last value alphabetically. This example returns the movie with the maximum amount of revenue. 

SELECT MAX(revenue) AS maximum_revenue,
FROM films;

8. SUM

SUM() returns the total of numeric values. This example returns the total revenue of all the films listed in the films table. 

SELECT SUM(revenue) AS total_revenue
FROM films;

9. AVERAGE

AVERAGE calculates the arithmetic mean of a column. This example returns the average revenue of all the films listed in the films table. 

SELECT AVERAGE(revenue) AS average_earned
FROM films;

10. WHERE

The WHERE clause filters rows that match a certain condition. For example, below, we are filtering films that earned more than 500 million dollars

SELECT revenue 
FROM films
WHERE revenue > 500000000;

Other conditional operators can be used such as <, >, =>, <=, == (equals), != (not equals) for filtering.

11. HAVING

HAVING clause is similar to the WHERE clause, but it can only be used with aggregate functions while WHERE can’t. For example, in the below query, we are choosing all the movie genres that have at least 50 movies in their category:

SELECT movie_name, director, date, COUNT(genre)
FROM films
GROUP BY genre
HAVING COUNT(genre) >= 50;

Here is another example that groups films by age rating and only choose the ratings with average revenue of over 100 million:

SELECT movie_name, director, date, revenue
FROM films
GROUP BY age_rating
HAVING AVERAGE(genre) >= 100;

12. AND

AND operator is used when filtering rows that match more than one condition. In the below example, we will filter for English films that grossed more than 500 million dollars.

SELECT *
FROM films
WHERE revenue > 500000000 AND
     language == "English";

13. OR

OR is another conditional operator that allows you to subset rows if any of the conditions separated by OR are true. This example returns English films that earned less than 100 million dollars or French films that earned more than 500 million dollars. 

SELECT *
FROM films
WHERE (revenue < 100000000 AND language == "English") OR
     (revenue > 500000000 AND language  == “French”);

14. BETWEEN

BETWEEN allows you to subset rows within a certain range, which makes WHERE clauses simpler and easier to read. In the example above, we choose all the films released between 2020 and 2022.

SELECT *
FROM films
WHERE date BETWEEN 2020 AND 2022;

15. IN

The IN operator is a shorthand for multiple OR statements. This example returns all films that were released in either of these years — 1998, 1966, 2001, and 2012.

SELECT movie_name, date, revenue
FROM films
WHERE date IN (1998, 1966, 2001, 2012);

16. LIKE

The LIKE operator lets you search for patterns in a text column using special strings called wildcards. Wildcards let you find text strings that fit a specific pattern. For example, using “A% W%” wildcard on the director column will find all directors with a first name starting with A and the last name beginning with W. 

SELECT *
FROM films
WHERE director LIKE "A% W%";

17. GROUP BY

GROUP BY lets you group rows based on column values. GROUP BY is usually used with aggregate functions like COUNT, MIN, MAX, AVERAGE, and more. In the example below, we find the average revenue of each movie genre.

SELECT AVERAGE(revenue), movie_name, director, date
FROM films
GROUP BY genre;

We could have used MIN, MAX, or COUNT(revenue) to find the lowest earning, highest earning, or the number of movies in each genre. Note that the GROUP BY statement practically does not affect the query if it isn’t used with an aggregate function.

18. ORDER BY

ORDER BY lets you order rows based on a column value. You can order by ascending (default) or descending order by adding the ASC or DESC. This example orders revenue by ascending order. 

SELECT *
FROM films
ORDER BY revenue ASC;

19. UPDATE

UPDATE is used to change the values of individual cells in an existing table. It is used with the SET keyword. This example updates the director “J. Whedon”, to “Joss Whedon”. 

UPDATE films
SET director = "Joss Whedon"
WHERE director = "J. Whedon"

The WHERE clause is crucial when writing UPDATE statements. Without it, the above query would have made all films directed by Joss Whedon.

20. ALTER TABLE

You can use the ALTER TABLE statement to modify the properties of the table and its columns (not actual cell values). For example, changing column names, adding new columns, dropping them, or changing their data type. The examples below showcase dropping the date column and adding the age_rating column. 

ALTER TABLE films
DROP COLUMN date;

ALTER TABLE films
ADD COLUMN age_rating;

21. CREATE TABLE

CREATE TABLE creates a new table in a database. Below, we are creating a “libraries” table with four columns —an integer column called  id, a character column called name, a character column called version, and an integer column called num_downloads.

CREATE TABLE libraries (
   lib_id int,
   name varchar(100),
   version varchar(100),
   num_downloads int
)

22. INSERT INTO

INSERT INTO statement can be used to add new rows to a table. In this example, we add the movie “Doctor Strange” to the films table. 

INSERT INTO films (movie_name, director, revenue, date, genre, language)
VALUES ("Doctor Strange 2", “Sam Raimi”, 409000000, 2022, “Action”, “English”)

23. INNER JOIN

The INNER JOIN command selects rows that have matching values in both tables. For example, in the query below, we are the films and soundtracks tables on a common date column which returns films and soundtracks that were released in the same years.

SELECT *
FROM films
INNER JOIN soundtracks
ON films.date = soundtracks.date
LIMIT 10;

24. LEFT JOIN

A LEFT JOIN keeps all of the original records in the left table and returns missing values for any columns from the right table where the joining field did not find a match. 

SELECT *
FROM films
LEFT JOIN soundtracks
ON films.date = soundtracks.date
LIMIT 10;

25. RIGHT JOIN

A RIGHT JOIN keeps all of the original records in the right table and returns missing values for any columns from the left table where the joining field did not find a match.

SELECT *
FROM films
LEFT JOIN soundtracks
ON films.date = soundtracks.date
LIMIT 10;

SQL Commands Cheat Sheet

To learn more about SQL, make sure to check out the following resources:

• SQL Basics Cheat Sheet
• SQL Joins Cheat Sheet
• How to learn SQL