Manuals / SQL / Ch 3

A · QueryBeginner35 min read

3. WHERE, ORDER BY & LIMIT

SQL · 48 pages source format

Filter rows with WHERE. Sort with ORDER BY. Paginate with LIMIT/OFFSET. The bread and butter of exploratory queries.

What you'll learn

  • WHERE conditions
  • ORDER BY
  • LIMIT/OFFSET
  • AND/OR with parentheses

WHERE operators

=, !=, <, >, BETWEEN, IN, LIKE, IS NULL. AND/OR — use parentheses when mixing.

SELECT id, name, email
FROM users
WHERE active = 1
  AND created_at >= '2024-01-01'
ORDER BY name ASC
LIMIT 10;

Do this now

SQLBolt lessons 2–5. Save each to sql-notes/queries/.

Clear?

LIKE and NULL

LIKE 'A%' prefix match. IS NULL / IS NOT NULL — never = NULL (always unknown).

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Find users with NULL phone. Find emails ending in @company.com.

Clear?

Sort and paginate

ORDER BY created_at DESC, id ASC for tie-break. LIMIT 20 OFFSET 40 = page 3 at size 20.

Do this now

Query: newest 10 orders over $100. Second query: page 2 of active users.

Clear?

Checklist