SQL Operators

SQL Operators: If you’re new to SQL, this article will help you understand what operators are and the different types of operators available in SQL. You’ll also find SQL query examples showing how they can be used.

We use SQL queries to access the database table’s data. But still, we need to manipulate and retrieve the data as per our requirements. Therefore, we need to perform various arithmetic operations, logical operations, comparison operations, compound operations, etc.

What are SQL Operators?

Operators in SQL are keywords or symbols that can perform specific logical and mathematical operations on operands. We often use the SQL WHERE clause with logical or mathematical Operators to retrieve results based on a specific requirement.

Operators are used to manipulating data and producing a resultset based on the operator’s function. And also, SQL operators are important when creating a SQL query because they connect two or more conditions. There are various types of SQL operators depending on the operation they perform.

Types of SQL Operators

SQL operator is categorized into different categories based on the operation they are responsible for performing. Here are the different types of operators in SQL:

Now we are going to every operator and discuss their use in detail and understand how these operators in SQL work in a query with the help of examples.

SQL Arithmetic Operators 

The Arithmetic operator in SQL performs arithmetic computations and operations on numerical data found in database tables. This operator can perform all arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and modulus.

Operator	Description
Plus (+)	used for adding the numeric operands on either side of the operator
Minus (-)	used for subtracting the right numeric operand from the left numeric operand.
Multiplication (*)	used for multiplying a given numeric value to the operand given on the other side of the operator or multiplying the numeric columns provided on either side of the operator.
Division (/)	used for returning a quotient by dividing the first operand by the second or one numeric column by another.
Modulus (%)	used to return the remainder by dividing the first operand by the second or one numeric column by another.

SQL Logical Operators

The Logical operator in SQL compares two data values in the database tables and determines whether they meet specific conditions. The Logical operator will return True if both values meet the specified conditions. Otherwise, it will return False.

Operator	Description
AND	This operator returns TRUE if all the mentioned conditions separated by AND are met; otherwise returns FALSE.
OR	This operator returns TRUE if at least one of the given conditions separated by OR is fulfilled, otherwise returns FALSE.
NOT	This operator has been used for the negation of the output of any logical operator. It checks for the reverse of a given logical expression.

We have some special logical operators used to select records from the table. These operators are commonly used inside the WHERE clause or with the HAVING statement.

Here is the list of special logical operators with descriptions.

Operator	Description
ALL	This operator compares the provided value to all the values of a column returned from the sub-query. It selects all the records of an inner SELECT statement.
ANY	This operator returns records when any one value returned from the sub-query satisfies the provided condition. It must match with at least one record of the inner query.
SOME	This operator is used to compare each value of the data set. It checks whether a particular value matches some values in the given data set.
IN	This operator is a short-hand for multiple OR operations where you can compare the values of selected columns to those in a given list. It returns TRUE if at least one match from the list is found, else returns FALSE.
BETWEEN	This operator is used to retrieve records within the provided range. BETWEEN operator can work with numbers, characters, dates, and times. The range is specified using another logical operator AND.
IS NULL	This operator is useful in fetching the rows for which the value for a certain field is NULL.
EXISTS	This operator determines if a certain row exists in a database table.
LIKE	The LIKE operator retrieves those records from a table that matches the provided pattern. The LIKE operator often uses two wild cards, % (percentage) and _ (underscore). The % sign represents 0 or more characters, _ sign represents a single character.

Comparison Operator In SQL

The SQL Comparison operator is used to compare two data values present in database tables. The comparison operators can also compare one expression to another expression.

A comparison operation can produce the results TRUE, FALSE, or UNKNOWN. If any of the expressions or both are NULL, the operation returns UNKNOWN.

Operator	Description
Greater than (>)	This operator shows data greater than the query’s provided value.
Less than(<)	This operator shows data that are less than the provided value in the query.
Equal to (=)	This operator shows data that matches the provided value in the query.
Greater than or equal to(>=)	This operator shows data greater than and equal to the provided value in the query.
Less than or equal to (<=)	This operator shows data that are less than and equal to the provided value in the query.
Not equal to (<> or!=)	This operator shows data that do not match the query’s provided value.

SQL Set Operators

The SQL Set operators combine two or more similar data present in different SQL databases. The SQL Set operators merge the result retrieved from each query is combined into a single query result.

Data Type	Description
UNION	This operator merges the result from two or more SELECT statements into a single query result. The data type and the number of columns used with the UNION operator must be the same for each SELECT statement.
UNION ALL	This operator merges the result from two or more SELECT statements into a single query result. The UNION ALL operator also shows duplicate or repeated values from both queries.
INTERSECT	This operator fetches the common records from two or more SELECT statements. The data type and the number of columns used with the INTERSECT operator must be the same for each SELECT statement.
MINUS	This operator combines the result retrieved from two or more SELECT statements but only shows the results from the first data set.

Conclusion:

SQL operators are an essential component of the SQL language, which provides a powerful way to manipulate data within a database. They enable users to perform various functions, including filtering, sorting, grouping and joining data from multiple tables. By understanding the different types of operators available in SQL, users can efficiently write complex queries to extract the desired information from large databases. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced SQL user, you should be a master in SQL operators to work with data effectively and efficiently.

We hope this article on SQL operators will guide you with basic ideas on different types of SQL operators like SQL Arithmetic Operators, SQL Logical Operators, Comparison Operators In SQL, and SQL Set Operators. You can follow our detailed guide on sql tutorial for beginners if you want more concepts of SQL Server.

SQL Operators FAQs