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SQL WITH Clause

The SQL WITH clause allows defining temporary relations that can be referenced in the main SQL query. It is used to break down complex queries into smaller subqueries for readability and debugging. Example uses include finding employees with salaries above average and airlines with total pilot salaries above the overall average.

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Shobha Kumari Choudhary
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74 views

SQL WITH Clause

The SQL WITH clause allows defining temporary relations that can be referenced in the main SQL query. It is used to break down complex queries into smaller subqueries for readability and debugging. Example uses include finding employees with salaries above average and airlines with total pilot salaries above the overall average.

Uploaded by

Shobha Kumari Choudhary
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SQL | WITH clause

The SQL WITH clause was introduced by Oracle in the Oracle 9i release 2
database. The SQL WITH clause allows you to give a sub-query block a
name (a process also called sub-query refactoring), which can be referenced
in several places within the main SQL query. 
 
 The clause is used for defining a temporary relation such that the output
of this temporary relation is available and is used by the query that is
associated with the WITH clause.
 Queries that have an associated WITH clause can also be written using
nested sub-queries but doing so add more complexity to read/debug the
SQL query.
 WITH clause is not supported by all database system.
 The name assigned to the sub-query is treated as though it was an inline
view or table
 The SQL WITH clause was introduced by Oracle in the Oracle 9i release
2 database.
Syntax: 
WITH temporaryTable (averageValue) as
(SELECT avg(Attr1)
FROM Table)
SELECT Attr1
FROM Table, temporaryTable
WHERE Table.Attr1 > temporaryTable.averageValue;

In this query, WITH clause is used to define a temporary relation


temporaryTable that has only 1 attribute averageValue. averageValue holds
the average value of column Attr1 described in relation Table. The SELECT
statement that follows the WITH clause will produce only those tuples where
the value of Attr1 in relation Table is greater than the average value obtained
from the WITH clause statement. 
Note: When a query with a WITH clause is executed, first the query
mentioned within the  clause is evaluated and the output of this evaluation is
stored in a temporary relation. Following this, the main query associated with
the WITH clause is finally executed that would use the temporary relation
produced. 
 
Queries
Example 1:  Find all the employee whose salary is more than the average
salary of all employees. 
Name of the relation: Employee 
 
EmployeeI
D Name Salary
100011 Smith 50000
100022 Bill 94000
100027 Sam 70550
100845 Walden 80000
115585 Erik 60000
1100070 Kate 69000
SQL Query: 
WITH temporaryTable(averageValue) as
(SELECT avg(Salary)
from Employee)
SELECT EmployeeID,Name, Salary
FROM Employee, temporaryTable
WHERE Employee.Salary > temporaryTable.averageValue;
Output: 
 
EmployeeI
D Name Salary
100022 Bill 94000
100845 Walden 80000
Explanation: The average salary of all employees is 70591. Therefore, all
employees whose salary is more than the obtained average lies in the output
relation. 
 
Example 2: Find all the airlines where the total salary of all pilots in that
airline is more than the average of total salary of all pilots in the database. 
Name of the relation: Pilot 
 
EmployeeI
D Airline Name Salary
70007 Airbus 380 Kim 60000
70002 Boeing Laura 20000
10027 Airbus 380 Will 80050
Warre
10778 Airbus 380 n 80780
115585 Boeing Smith 25000
114070 Airbus 380 Katy 78000
SQL Query: 
WITH totalSalary(Airline, total) as
(SELECT Airline, sum(Salary)
FROM Pilot
GROUP BY Airline),
airlineAverage(avgSalary) as
(SELECT avg(Salary)
FROM Pilot )
SELECT Airline
FROM totalSalary, airlineAverage
WHERE totalSalary.total > airlineAverage.avgSalary;
Output: 
 
Airline
Airbus 380
Explanation: The total salary of all pilots of Airbus 380 = 298,830 and that of
Boeing = 45000. Average salary of all pilots in the table Pilot = 57305. Since
only the total salary of all pilots of Airbus 380 is greater than the average
salary obtained, so Airbus 380 lies in the output relation. 
Important Points: 
 The SQL WITH clause is good when used with complex SQL statements
rather than simple ones
 It also allows you to break down complex SQL queries into smaller ones
which make it easy for debugging and processing the complex queries.
 The SQL WITH clause is basically a drop-in replacement to the normal
sub-query.

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