SELECT within SELECT Tutorial

SELECT within SELECT

This tutorial looks at how we can use SELECT statements within SELECT statements to perform more complex queries.

Using nested SELECT

Summary

Exercises

List each country name where the population is larger than 'Russia'.

bbc(name, region, area, population, gdp)

SELECT name FROM bbc
  WHERE population >
     (SELECT population FROM bbc
      WHERE name='Russia')

SELECT name FROM bbc
  WHERE population >
     (SELECT population FROM bbc
      WHERE name='Russia')

List the name and region of countries in the regions containing 'India', 'Iran'.

SELECT name,region FROM bbc
  WHERE region IN
    (SELECT region FROM bbc
     WHERE name IN ('India','Iran'))

Show the countries in Europe with a per capita GDP greater than 'United Kingdom'.

The per capita GDP is the gdp/population

SELECT name FROM bbc
  WHERE region='Europe' AND gdp/population >
     (SELECT gdp/population FROM bbc
      WHERE name='United Kingdom')

Which country has a population that is more than Canada but less than Algeria?

SELECT name FROM bbc WHERE
 population >
 (SELECT population
  FROM bbc WHERE name='Canada') 
    AND
  population <
 (SELECT population
  FROM bbc WHERE name='Algeria')

To get a well rounded view of the important features of SQL you should move on to the next tutorial concerning aggregates.

To gain an absurdly detailed view of one insignificant feature of the language, read on.

We can use the word ALL to allow >= or > or < or <=to act over a list.

Which countries have a GDP greater than any country in Europe? [Give the name only.]

SELECT name FROM bbc 
  WHERE gdp > ALL
   (SELECT MAX(gdp) FROM bbc
    WHERE region = 'Europe' 
      AND gdp IS NOT NULL)

We can refer to values in the outer SELECT within the inner SELECT. We can name the tables so that we can tell the difference between the inner and outer versions.

Find the largest country in each region, show the region, the name and the population:

SELECT region, name, population FROM bbc x
  WHERE population >= ALL
    (SELECT population FROM bbc y
        WHERE y.region=x.region
          AND population>0)

SELECT region, name, population FROM bbc x
  WHERE population >= ALL
    (SELECT population FROM bbc y
        WHERE y.region=x.region
          AND population>0)

The following questions are very difficult:

Find each country that belongs to a region where all populations are less than 25000000. Show name, region and population.

SELECT name,region,population FROM bbc x
  WHERE 25000000 >= ALL (
    SELECT population FROM bbc y
     WHERE x.region=y.region
       AND y.population>0)

Some countries have populations more than three times that of any of their neighbours (in the same region). Give the countries and regions.

SELECT name, region FROM bbc x WHERE
 population > ALL
 (SELECT population*3 FROM bbc y
 WHERE y.region = x.region
 AND y.name != x.name)

Clear your results

Nested SELECT Quiz