Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 24 Hours

By Ron Plew and Ryan Stephens

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Authors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: A SQL Concepts Overview
  • Hour 1. Welcome to the World of SQL
  • Part II: Building Your Database
  • Hour 2. Defining Data Structures
  • Hour 3. Managing Database Objects
  • Hour 4. The Normalization Process
  • Hour 5. Manipulating Data
  • Hour 6. Managing Database Transactions
  • Part III: Getting Effective Results from Queries
  • Hour 7. Introduction to the Database Query
  • Hour 8. Using Operators to Categorize Data
  • Hour 9. Summarizing Data Results from a Query
  • Hour 10. Sorting and Grouping Data
  • Hour 11. Restructuring the Appearance of Data
  • Hour 12. Understanding Dates and Times
  • Part IV: Building Sophisticated Database Queries
  • Hour 13. Joining Tables in Queries
  • Hour 14. Using Subqueries to Define Unknown Data
  • Hour 15. Combining Multiple Queries into One
  • Part V: SQL Performance Tuning
  • Hour 16. Using Indexes to Improve Performance
  • Hour 17. Improving Database Performance
  • Part VI: Using SQL to Manage Users and Security
  • Hour 18. Managing Database Users
  • Hour 19. Managing Database Security
  • Part VII: Summarized Data Structures
  • Hour 20. Creating and Using Views and Synonyms
    • What Is a View?
    • Creating Views
    • Dropping a View
    • What Is a Synonym?
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 21. Working with the System Catalog
  • Part VIII: Applying SQL Fundamentals in Today's World
  • Hour 22. Advanced SQL Topics
  • Hour 23. Extending SQL to the Enterprise, the Internet, and the Intranet
  • Hour 24. Extensions to Standard SQL
  • Part IX: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Common SQL Commands
  • Appendix B. Using MySQL for Exercises
  • Appendix C. Answers to Quizzes and Exercises
  • Appendix D. CREATE TABLE Statements for Book Examples
  • Appendix E. INSERT Statements for Data in Book Examples
  • Appendix F. Glossary
  • Appendix G. Bonus Exercises

Summary

Views and synonyms, two important features in SQL, were discussed this hour. In many cases, these features are not used when they could aid in the overall functionality of relational database users. Views were defined as virtual tables—objects that look and act like tables, but do not take physical space like tables. Views are actually defined by queries against tables and possible other views in the database. Views are typically used to restrict data that a user sees and to simplify and summarize data. Views can be created from views, but care must be taken not to embed views too deeply, to avoid losing control over their management. There are various options when creating views, and some are implementation-specific.

Synonyms, objects in the database that represent other objects, were also discussed. Synonyms are used to simplify the name of another object in the database, either by creating a synonym with a short name for an object with a long name or by creating a synonym on an object owned by another user to which you have access. There are two types of synonyms: PUBLIC and PRIVATE. A PUBLIC synonym is one that is accessible to all database users, whereas a PRIVATE synonym is accessible to a single user. A DBA typically creates a PUBLIC synonym, wheras each individual user normally creates his or her own PRIVATE synonyms.

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