PGIS-05 13: Getting Started with SQL

Owned by David Renn
Last updated: 30 Mar, 2023 by Kim Stimpson
5 min read

5. Getting Started with SQL

Structured Query Language (SQL) is used to manage relational databases and perform various operations on the data in them. There are many different dialects of SQL, and whilst they are broadly similar, the more advanced dialects, like that used in PostgreSQL, offer additional functions.

pgAdmin has a query window to use for interaction with the database with user-defined SQL. You can access it through the Tools menu or the right-click menu.

The query window is divided into three areas:

  • an input pane for writing queries

  • an output pane to receive results

  • a scratch pad for making notes

The query windows allows the user to:

  • execute a query and see the results in the results pane

  • execute a query and save results to a text file

  • save a query as SQL

  • open a saved query

pgAdmin includes some standard scripts and functions that are available by right-clicking on table name. These allow you to view all, or a subset of the data in a table, or construct common SQL scripts.

5.1. Querying data

A simple query might return a sub-set of the data held within the database. In English there are multiple ways of posing a question, whereas in SQL you need to be specific about the language you use and the precise columns, tables, schemas and databases you are referring to. To generate a list of names of all the Parishes and their areas in hectares within the county of Surrey, the SQL query needed might look like this:

SELECT name, hectares
FROM boundaryline.parish
WHERE file_name = 'SURREY_COUNTY';

Note keywords or statements like SELECT, FROM and WHERE are not case case sensitive, but by convention we use uppercase for all SQL keywords in order to make queries easier to read. Queries can be composed as a single line, or spread over a number of lines to ease reading. A semicolon ( ; ) is used to signal to PostgreSQL the end of an SQL statement.

Single quotes contain string values e.g. name = ‘Epsom’. Only use these with string data types such as text and character varying.

String values are case sensitive so SELECT * FROM general settlement WHERE name like 'Epsom'; and SELECT * FROM general settlement WHERE name like 'ePsOm'; will produce different results. If the string itself includes a quote, replace the single quotes with $$, e.g. name = $$St. David's$$

Double quotes must enclose database object names that:

  • include a space

  • use upper case characters

  • use ‘special’ characters like punctuation

  • are a reserved SQL word

5.2. SELECT

The most basic form of the SELECT statement retrieves data from a single table. The syntax is as follows

SELECT [select_list]
FROM [table_name];

[select_list] can be a single column or a list of columns, where a comma is used to separate the individual columns. To return all columns of the table, use an asterisk ( * ) in place of [select_list]. The [select_list] may also contain an expressions or literal values.

The FROM clause specifies the name of the table from which you want to select data

The SELECT statement can extended by including additional clauses:

  • Select distinct rows using DISTINCT operator.

  • Sort rows using ORDER BY clause.

  • Filter rows using WHERE clause.

  • Select a subset of rows from a table using LIMIT or FETCH clause.

  • Group rows into groups using GROUP BY clause.

  • Filter groups using HAVING clause.

  • Join with other tables using joins such as INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, FULL OUTER JOIN, CROSS JOIN clauses.

  • Perform set operations using UNION, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT.

Retrieve data from a table

  1. Examine the structure of the general.school table in pgAdmin

  2. Open the Query Tool

  3. Compose a query to return the name of the school, postcode, and phase of education then, Execute (F5 or play button), for example
    SELECT "EstablishmentName","Postcode","PhaseOfEducation (name)"
    FROM general.school;

  4. Try different variation of column names, noting the order of the the column names in the query impacts the sequence of columns in the results

5.3. SELECT DISTINCT

The DISTINCT clause is used in a SELECT statement to remove duplicate values. It can be applied to one or more columns in a table.

5.3.1. Retrieve unique values from a table

  1. In the Query Tool compose a query to produce a list of wards in the general.school table, with no duplicates
    SELECT DISTINCT "administrativeward (name)" AS "Ward" FROM general.school;

5.4. Sorting results

The ORDER BY clause allows you to sort rows returned by a SELECT clause in ascending or descending order using ASC or DESC options. It is possible to sort based on multiple columns by separating expressions with a comma.

5.4.1. Sort data

  1. Create a query to list all schools by Trust, in order of largest capacity down to smallest

  2. Try sorting in ascending and descending order
    SELECT "Trusts (name)","EstablishmentName", "SchoolCapacity" FROM general.school ORDER BY "Trusts (name)" ASC, "SchoolCapacity" DESC;

  3. Note you can sort by more than one column

5.5. WHERE

The syntax of the WHERE clause can be used to return records that satisfy a specified condition. The condition must evaluate as true or false with only records where condition is true to be included within the result set. The following comparison and logical operators may be used to form the condition. Logical operators can be used to combine additional WHERE clauses.

Operator

Description

Operator

Description

Operator

Description

=

Equal

<> or !=

Not equal

BETWEEN

Return true if a value is between a range of values

>

Greater than

AND

Logical operator AND

LIKE

Return true if a value matches a pattern

<

Less than

OR

Logical operator OR

IS NULL

Return true if a value is NULL

>=

Greater than or equal

IN

Return true if a value matches any value in a list

NOT

Negate the result of other operators

<=

Less than or equal

5.5.1. Identify records that meet conditions

  1. Run the following query, to answer the question ‘which current schools have the DFEE code of 6386’?
    SELECT "EstablishmentNumber","EstablishmentName","EstablishmentStatus (name)"
    FROM general.school
    WHERE "EstablishmentNumber" = 6386 AND "EstablishmentStatus (name)" like 'Open';

  2. Write a new query to list all the primary schools in the parliamentary constituency of Guildford

  3. Write a query to identify all primary schools that are currently open and have a capacity between 300 and 500

5.6. SQL in QGIS

QGIS can be used as an alternative interface to pgAdmin for running SQL queries.

5.6.1. Display the distribution of data

  1. Launch QGIS and open the SQL Window in the DB Manager

  2. Run the last query above in the the DB Manager, then ensure Load as new layer is checked, and Execute

  3. The result of the query will be shown on the map