SQLPond

For dipping your toes into the SQL Pond!

This repository is filled with examples of SQL code that can be used to build and explore data, focused on commonly used data in the State of Minnesota. It has been used to teach various audiences (GIS professionals, non-programmer IT professionals) some basic SQL concepts

More Docs

For learning how to query file-based geodatabases (FGDB) with SQL, see the File-based Geodatabase (FGDB) Queries document.
Coming someday: intermediate SQL in ArcGIS Pro with GeoPackages

SQL Playgrounds

Want to test out this code? Try using one of the following:

SQL Fiddle: Has worked for small numbers of users at a time, not so much when more than 5 users hitting at the same time. Note you have to build the full schema (including inserts) before doing queries. When successful, links will be posted below.
DB Fiddle : Tested with PostgreSQL v15 option, seems very performant. But also seems to run the entire schema build along with the query, not separately. The "collaborate" function looks like it could be good for teaching others.
W3 Schools : build a db in your browser (SQLite back end). Kind of tedious (build one table at a time, and do inserts only one record at a time), but works and has a quick Restore function

Fiddle Links

The links below are to saved Fiddles that demonstrate some of the concepts shown in this tutorial.

A unique list of cities with manipulated names based on various conditions in sql fiddle and in db-fiddle
The last query with the schools schema with various joins and condistions in sql fiddle and in db-fiddle

Formatted SQL Exercises

In the sections below, you'll find SQL you can copy and paste into a website like sqlfiddle.com (be sure to double check your database version! These have been tested with MS SQL Server in sqlfiddle.com and with PostgreSQL at db-fiddle.com). Build the schema first, then query it.

Build and Query County and City database

SQL to build and query a database of some common cities (and townships and unorganized territories - aka CTUs) and counties in Minnesota. We create two very basic tables and populate them with just a sampling of records - if we wanted to add records for every county and city, we'd have 87 county rows and thousands of CTUs.

Build Schema

/******BEGIN BUILD SCHEMA *********/
--create the county table
CREATE TABLE COUNTY(
	COUNTYFIPS smallint NOT NULL,
	CTY_NAME varchar(20) NULL
);

--create the CTU table
CREATE TABLE CTU(
    GNISTXT varchar(8) NOT NULL,
	FEATNAME varchar(40) NULL,
    CTUTYPE varchar(24) NULL,
	CTYNUM varchar(3) NULL
);

--Insert values into COUNTY table
INSERT INTO COUNTY (COUNTYFIPS,CTY_NAME) VALUES (27003,'Anoka');
INSERT INTO COUNTY (COUNTYFIPS,CTY_NAME) VALUES (27053,'Hennepin');
INSERT INTO COUNTY (COUNTYFIPS,CTY_NAME) VALUES (27145,'Stearns');
INSERT INTO COUNTY (COUNTYFIPS,CTY_NAME) VALUES (27123,'Ramsey');
INSERT INTO COUNTY (COUNTYFIPS,CTY_NAME) VALUES (27021,'Cass');
INSERT INTO COUNTY (COUNTYFIPS,CTY_NAME) VALUES (27147,'Steele');

--Insert values into the CITY table
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02396471','Saint Anthony','City','053');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02396471','Saint Anthony','City','123');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02396472','Saint Anthony','City','145');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('00663943','Deerfield','Township','021');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('00663944','Deerfield','Township','147');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('00663487','Avon','Township','145');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02394043','Avon','City','145');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02394183','Blaine','City','003');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02394183','Blaine','City','123');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02395261','North Saint Paul','City','123');
INSERT INTO CTU (GNISTXT,FEATNAME,CTUTYPE,CTYNUM) VALUES ('02396511','Saint Paul','City','123');
/******END BUILD SCHEMA *********/

Query the city and county tables

The following sections are individual queries you can use against the above schema. Try them out!

Techniques: Aliasing column names, conditional field calculations, string concatenation, joins, filtering with "WHERE", grouping, and subqueries

--Get all records from the COUNTY table
SELECT * FROM COUNTY;

--Query the COUNTY table with a filter
SELECT *
FROM COUNTY
WHERE COUNTYFIPS > 27100
;

Q: What does that WHERE clause above do exactly? Can you think of a reason to filter county records like this?

--Query the COUNTY table with some basic manipulations
SELECT 
COUNTYFIPS AS "CODE"
,CTY_NAME AS "NAME"
FROM COUNTY;

--Query the COUNTY table and modify the name column
SELECT 
COUNTYFIPS AS "CODE"
,CONCAT(CTY_NAME, ' County') AS "NAME"
FROM COUNTY;

Can you imagine a situation where you'd want the word "County" at the end of each county record?

--Get all records from the CTU table
SELECT * FROM CTU;

--Query the CTU table with a filter
SELECT *
FROM CTU
WHERE CTYNUM = '145'
;

--Query the CTU table with some manipulations
SELECT
CONCAT('27',CTYNUM,GNISTXT) AS "GNISID"
,CASE WHEN CTUTYPE = 'Township' THEN CONCAT(FEATNAME,' Twp.')
	WHEN GNISTXT = '02396471' THEN 'St. Anthony Village'
	ELSE FEATNAME
END AS "NAME"
FROM CTU;

Q: Can you think why would we need to build a more complex "GNISID" that incorporates county identifiers?

--Have some fun with column names and records
SELECT
CONCAT('27',CTYNUM,GNISTXT) AS "GNISID"
,CTYNUM AS "OLDSKOOLCOUNTYCODE"
,CASE WHEN CTUTYPE = 'Township' THEN CONCAT(FEATNAME,' Twp.')
	WHEN GNISTXT = '02396471' THEN 'St. Anthony Village'
    WHEN GNISTXT = '02396472' THEN 'St. Anthony (Stearns County Doncha Know)'
	ELSE FEATNAME
END AS "NAME"
FROM CTU;

Q: Have you seen counties identified with other codes before?

--Join the two tables to see how all columns look together
SELECT * FROM CTU
LEFT JOIN COUNTY ON CAST(CTU.CTYNUM AS INT)+27000 = COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS;

--Now change some columns to get a customized view
SELECT
CTU.FEATNAME
,CTU.CTUTYPE AS TYPE
,COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS
,CONCAT(COUNTY.CTY_NAME,' County') AS COUNTY
FROM CTU
LEFT JOIN COUNTY ON CAST(CTU.CTYNUM AS INT)+27000 = COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS;

Q: Why do the column definitions look different now? What happens if we don't preface them with the table name?

--Let's pull that all together
SELECT 
CONCAT('27',CTYNUM,GNISTXT) AS "GNISID"
,CASE WHEN CTU.CTUTYPE = 'Township' THEN CONCAT(FEATNAME,' Twp.')
	WHEN CTU.GNISTXT = '02396471' THEN 'St. Anthony Village'
	ELSE CTU.FEATNAME
END AS "NAME"
,CTU.CTUTYPE AS TYPE
,COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS
,COUNTY.CTY_NAME AS COUNTY
FROM CTU
LEFT JOIN COUNTY ON CAST(CTU.CTYNUM AS INT)+27000 = COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS;

--What if we want to know more about some duplicate names?
SELECT
FEATNAME
,COUNT(FEATNAME) AS "COUNT"
FROM CTU
GROUP BY FEATNAME
HAVING COUNT(FEATNAME) > 1;

Q: What does "HAVING" mean or do?

--so if we wanted to qualify township names with county names:
SELECT 
CONCAT('27',CTYNUM,GNISTXT) AS "GNISID"
,CASE WHEN DUPES.FEATNAME IS NOT NULL AND CTU.CTUTYPE = 'Township' THEN CONCAT(CTU.FEATNAME,' Twp.',' (',COUNTY.CTY_NAME,')')
	WHEN DUPES.FEATNAME IS NULL AND CTU.CTUTYPE = 'Township' THEN CONCAT(CTU.FEATNAME,' Twp.')
	WHEN CTU.GNISTXT = '02396471' THEN 'St. Anthony Village'
	ELSE CTU.FEATNAME
END AS "NAME"
,CTU.CTUTYPE AS TYPE
,COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS
FROM CTU
LEFT JOIN COUNTY ON CAST(CTU.CTYNUM AS INT)+27000 = COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS
LEFT JOIN (SELECT
	FEATNAME --note we only want the feature name, don't need the count
	FROM CTU
	WHERE CTU.CTUTYPE = 'Township' --note we only care about townships
	GROUP BY FEATNAME
	HAVING COUNT(FEATNAME) > 1) AS DUPES ON CTU.FEATNAME = DUPES.FEATNAME;

Q: What is going on in the bottom half of these final two queries?

--or if we wanted to qualify ANY duplicate names with the county:
SELECT 
CONCAT('27',CTYNUM,GNISTXT) AS "GNISID"
,CASE WHEN DUPES.FEATNAME IS NOT NULL AND CTU.CTUTYPE = 'Township' THEN CONCAT(CTU.FEATNAME,' Twp.',' (',COUNTY.CTY_NAME,')')
    WHEN DUPES.FEATNAME IS NOT NULL AND CTU.CTUTYPE = 'City' THEN CONCAT(CTU.FEATNAME,' (',COUNTY.CTY_NAME,')') --note we added this line
    WHEN DUPES.FEATNAME IS NULL AND CTU.CTUTYPE = 'Township' THEN CONCAT(CTU.FEATNAME,' Twp.')
    ELSE CTU.FEATNAME
END AS "NAME"
,CTU.CTUTYPE AS TYPE
,COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS
FROM CTU
LEFT JOIN COUNTY ON CAST(CTU.CTYNUM AS INT)+27000 = COUNTY.COUNTYFIPS
LEFT JOIN (SELECT
	FEATNAME
	FROM CTU --note we removed the WHERE clause filtering on ctutype
	GROUP BY FEATNAME
	HAVING COUNT(FEATNAME) > 1) AS DUPES ON CTU.FEATNAME = DUPES.FEATNAME;

Build and Query Schools and School District database

SQL to build and query a database of some schools and districts in Minnesota. Notice how we're building the schema in a slightly different order this time - that's OK!

Build Schema

/******BEGIN BUILD SCHEMA *********/
--Create the school district table
CREATE TABLE SCHOOL_DISTRICT(
	ORGID numeric(12, 0) NULL,
	NAME varchar(50) NULL,
    TYPE varchar(2) NULL,
    NUMBER varchar(4) NULL
);

--Add records to the school district table
INSERT INTO SCHOOL_DISTRICT (ORGID,NAME,TYPE,NUMBER) VALUES (10001000000,'Aitkin','01','0001');
INSERT INTO SCHOOL_DISTRICT (ORGID,NAME,TYPE,NUMBER) VALUES (30001000000,'Minneapolis','03','0001');
INSERT INTO SCHOOL_DISTRICT (ORGID,NAME,TYPE,NUMBER) VALUES (10625000000,'St. Paul','01','0625');
INSERT INTO SCHOOL_DISTRICT (ORGID,NAME,TYPE,NUMBER) VALUES (10621000000,'Mounds View','01','0621');
INSERT INTO SCHOOL_DISTRICT (ORGID,NAME,TYPE,NUMBER) VALUES (12909000000,'Rock Ridge','01','2909');

--Create the schools table
CREATE TABLE SCHOOLS(
	ORGID numeric(12, 0) NULL,
	SCHNAME varchar(50) NULL,
	ADDRESS varchar(40) NULL,
	CITY varchar(35) NULL,
	ZIP varchar(10) NULL,
	ALT_NAME varchar(50) NULL
);

--Add records to the schools table
--start with district offices
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP,ALT_NAME) VALUES (30001000000,'Minneapolis District Office','1250 West Broadway Ave','Minneapolis','55411','Minneapolis');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP,ALT_NAME) VALUES (12909000000,'Rock Ridge District Office','411 5th Ave S','Virginia','55792','Rock Ridge');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP,ALT_NAME) VALUES (10625000000,'St. Paul District Office','360 Colborne St','Saint Paul','55102','St. Paul');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP,ALT_NAME) VALUES (10621000000,'Mounds View District Office','4570 Victoria St N','Shoreview','55126','Mounds View');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP,ALT_NAME) VALUES (10001000000,'Aitkin District Office','306 2nd St NW','Aitkin','56431','Aitkin');

--Some Mpls schools (notice since we don't mention ALT_NAME, we can just skip it)
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (30001309000,'Anwatin Middle','256 Upton Ave S','Minneapolis','55405');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (30001249000,'Bryn Mawr','252 Upton Ave S','Minneapolis','55405');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (30001136000,'Kenwood','2013 Penn Ave S','Minneapolis','55405');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (30001130000,'Hiawatha Elem','4201 42nd Ave S','Minneapolis','55406');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (30001104000,'Lake Harriet Lower','4030 Chowen Ave S','Minneapolis','55410');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (30001360000,'Roosevelt Senior High','4029 28th Ave S','Minneapolis','55406');

--Sample schools for the remaining districts
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (10001001000,'Aitkin High','306 2nd St NW','Aitkin','56431');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (10625510000,'Linwood-Monroe Arts Lower','1023 Osceola Ave','Saint Paul','55105');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (10625310000,'Battle Creek Middle','2121 Park Dr N','Saint Paul','55119');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (10625210000,'Central High','275 Lexington Pkwy N','Saint Paul','55104');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (10621066000,'Edgewood Middle','5100 Edgewood Dr N','Mounds View','55112');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (10621065000,'Irondale High','2425 Long Lake Rd','New Brighton','55112');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (12909031000,'Eveleth-Gilbert Jr. High','1 Summit St S','Gilbert','55741');
INSERT INTO SCHOOLS (ORGID,SCHNAME,ADDRESS,CITY,ZIP) VALUES (12909030000,'Roosevelt Elem','411 5th Ave S','Virginia','55792')

/******END BUILD SCHEMA *********/

Query the school district and schools tables

The following sections are individual queries for the above schema. Give 'em a whirl!

Techniques: string concatenation, filtering with "WHERE", joins, ordering, finding within a string, aliasing tables, conditional field calculations

--Get records from the school district table
SELECT * FROM SCHOOL_DISTRICT;

--Get TYPE 1 records from the school district table
SELECT * FROM SCHOOL_DISTRICT WHERE TYPE = '01';

Q: Why is "type" important with these identifiers?

--Do some manipulations to get formatted IDs
SELECT 
    ORGID
    ,NAME
    ,CONCAT(NUMBER,'-',TYPE) as formattedID
FROM SCHOOL_DISTRICT;

--Do a join to get the district office address
SELECT 
    d.ORGID
    ,d.NAME as districtName
    ,CONCAT(d.NUMBER,'-',d.TYPE) as formattedID
    ,CONCAT(s.ADDRESS,', ',s.CITY,', MN ',s.ZIP) as Address
FROM SCHOOL_DISTRICT d
LEFT JOIN SCHOOLS s ON d.ORGID = s.ORGID;

Q: Wait - what do "d" and "s" mean in the query above?

--Get records from the schools table
SELECT * FROM SCHOOLS;

--Get just the schools, not the offices
SELECT * FROM SCHOOLS
WHERE ALT_NAME IS NULL;

--Sort the schools by zip code
SELECT * FROM SCHOOLS
WHERE ALT_NAME IS NULL
ORDER BY ZIP;

--Do some column manipulations
SELECT
    ORGID as schoolId
    ,SCHNAME as schoolName
    ,CONCAT(ADDRESS,', ',CITY,', MN ',ZIP) as Address
FROM SCHOOLS;

--Create a column for the districtID
SELECT
    ORGID as schoolId
    ,FLOOR(ORGID/1000000)*1000000 as districtID
    ,SCHNAME as schoolName
    ,CONCAT(ADDRESS,', ',CITY,', MN ',ZIP) as Address
FROM SCHOOLS;

Q: What kind of assumption does this make about the school and district IDs?

--Use that calculation to figure out the name of the district
SELECT
    s.ORGID as schoolId
    ,FLOOR(s.ORGID/1000000)*1000000 as districtID
    ,d.NAME as districtName
    ,s.SCHNAME as schoolName
    ,CONCAT(s.ADDRESS,', ',s.CITY,', MN ',s.ZIP) as Address
FROM SCHOOLS s
LEFT JOIN SCHOOL_DISTRICT d ON d.ORGID = FLOOR(s.ORGID/1000000)*1000000;

--Get the formatted ID for the school
SELECT
    s.ORGID as schoolId
    ,FLOOR(s.ORGID/1000000)*1000000 as districtID
    ,CONCAT(d.NUMBER,'-',d.TYPE,'-',SUBSTRING(CAST(s.ORGID AS varchar(12)),6,3)) as formattedID --derive from district number and type, and the 3 digits from 6-8 in the school ID
    ,d.NAME as districtName
    ,s.SCHNAME as schoolName
    ,CONCAT(s.ADDRESS,', ',s.CITY,', MN ',s.ZIP) as Address
FROM SCHOOLS s
LEFT JOIN SCHOOL_DISTRICT d ON d.ORGID = FLOOR(s.ORGID/1000000)*1000000;

Q: That "CONCAT" looks pretty complicated - break it down to understand what it does (the comment has hints)

--But wait we don't want the 000 at the end of a district formatted ID
SELECT
    s.ORGID as schoolId
    ,FLOOR(s.ORGID/1000000)*1000000 as districtID
    ,CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(CAST(s.ORGID AS varchar(12)),6,3) = '000' THEN CONCAT(d.NUMBER,'-',d.TYPE)
        ELSE CONCAT(d.NUMBER,'-',d.TYPE,'-',SUBSTRING(CAST(s.ORGID AS varchar(12)),6,3)) --derive from district number and type, and the 3 digits from 6-8 in the school ID
    END AS formattedID
    ,d.NAME as districtName
    ,s.SCHNAME as schoolName
    ,CONCAT(s.ADDRESS,', ',s.CITY,', MN ',s.ZIP) as Address
FROM SCHOOLS s
LEFT JOIN SCHOOL_DISTRICT d ON d.ORGID = FLOOR(s.ORGID/1000000)*1000000;

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 19 Commits
pg		pg
school_data.gdb		school_data.gdb
.gitignore		.gitignore
Dipping Your Toes in the SQL Pond.pdf		Dipping Your Toes in the SQL Pond.pdf
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
citycounty.sql		citycounty.sql
fgdb_queries.aprx		fgdb_queries.aprx
fgdb_queries.md		fgdb_queries.md
gpkg_queries.aprx		gpkg_queries.aprx
school_data.gpkg		school_data.gpkg
schoolsdistricts.sql		schoolsdistricts.sql

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Build and Query County and City database

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Build and Query County and City database

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Query the city and county tables

Build and Query Schools and School District database

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Query the school district and schools tables

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