Query Data from a Single Table
This document describes how to use SQL and various programming languages to query data from a single table in a database.
Before you begin
The following content takes the Bookshop application as an example to show how to query data from a single table in TiDB.
Before querying data, make sure that you have completed the following steps:
- Build a TiDB cluster using TiDB Cloud.
Execute a simple query
In the database of the Bookshop application, the authors
table stores the basic information of authors. You can use the SELECT ... FROM ...
statement to query data from the database.
- SQL
- Java
Execute the following SQL statement in a MySQL client:
SELECT id, name FROM authors;
The output is as follows:
+------------+--------------------------+
| id | name |
+------------+--------------------------+
| 6357 | Adelle Bosco |
| 345397 | Chanelle Koepp |
| 807584 | Clementina Ryan |
| 839921 | Gage Huel |
| 850070 | Ray Armstrong |
| 850362 | Ford Waelchi |
| 881210 | Jayme Gutkowski |
| 1165261 | Allison Kuvalis |
| 1282036 | Adela Funk |
...
| 4294957408 | Lyla Nitzsche |
+------------+--------------------------+
20000 rows in set (0.05 sec)
In Java, to store the basic information of authors, you can declare a class Author
. You should choose appropriate Java data types according to the Data types and Value range in the database. For example:
- Use a variable of type
Int
to store data of typeint
. - Use a variable of type
Long
to store data of typebigint
. - Use a variable of type
Short
to store data of typetinyint
. - Use a variable of type
String
to store data of typevarchar
.
public class Author {
private Long id;
private String name;
private Short gender;
private Short birthYear;
private Short deathYear;
public Author() {}
// Skip the getters and setters.
}
public class AuthorDAO {
// Omit initialization of instance variables.
public List<Author> getAuthors() throws SQLException {
List<Author> authors = new ArrayList<>();
try (Connection conn = ds.getConnection()) {
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT id, name FROM authors");
while (rs.next()) {
Author author = new Author();
author.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
author.setName(rs.getString("name"));
authors.add(author);
}
}
return authors;
}
}
- After connecting to TiDB using the JDBC driver, you can create a
Statement
object withconn.createStatus()
.
- Then call
stmt.executeQuery("query_sql")
to initiate a database query request to TiDB. - The query results are stored in a
ResultSet
object. By traversingResultSet
, the returned results can be mapped to theAuthor
object.
Filter results
To filter query results, you can use the WHERE
statement.
For example, the following command queries authors who were born in 1998 among all authors:
- SQL
- Java
Add filter conditions in the WHERE
statement:
SELECT * FROM authors WHERE birth_year = 1998;
In Java, you can use the same SQL to handle data query requests with dynamic parameters.
This can be done by concatenating parameters into a SQL statement. However, this method poses a potential SQL Injection risk to the security of the application.
To deal with such queries, use a Prepared statement instead of a normal statement.
public List<Author> getAuthorsByBirthYear(Short birthYear) throws SQLException {
List<Author> authors = new ArrayList<>();
try (Connection conn = ds.getConnection()) {
PreparedStatement stmt = conn.prepareStatement("""
SELECT * FROM authors WHERE birth_year = ?;
""");
stmt.setShort(1, birthYear);
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery();
while (rs.next()) {
Author author = new Author();
author.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
author.setName(rs.getString("name"));
authors.add(author);
}
}
return authors;
}
Sort results
To sort query results, you can use the ORDER BY
statement.
For example, the following SQL statement is to get a list of the youngest authors by sorting the authors
table in descending order (DESC
) according to the birth_year
column.
- SQL
- Java
SELECT id, name, birth_year
FROM authors
ORDER BY birth_year DESC;
public List<Author> getAuthorsSortByBirthYear() throws SQLException {
List<Author> authors = new ArrayList<>();
try (Connection conn = ds.getConnection()) {
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("""
SELECT id, name, birth_year
FROM authors
ORDER BY birth_year DESC;
""");
while (rs.next()) {
Author author = new Author();
author.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
author.setName(rs.getString("name"));
author.setBirthYear(rs.getShort("birth_year"));
authors.add(author);
}
}
return authors;
}
The result is as follows:
+-----------+------------------------+------------+
| id | name | birth_year |
+-----------+------------------------+------------+
| 83420726 | Terrance Dach | 2000 |
| 57938667 | Margarita Christiansen | 2000 |
| 77441404 | Otto Dibbert | 2000 |
| 61338414 | Danial Cormier | 2000 |
| 49680887 | Alivia Lemke | 2000 |
| 45460101 | Itzel Cummings | 2000 |
| 38009380 | Percy Hodkiewicz | 2000 |
| 12943560 | Hulda Hackett | 2000 |
| 1294029 | Stanford Herman | 2000 |
| 111453184 | Jeffrey Brekke | 2000 |
...
300000 rows in set (0.23 sec)
Limit the number of query results
To limit the number of query results, you can use the LIMIT
statement.
- SQL
- Java
SELECT id, name, birth_year
FROM authors
ORDER BY birth_year DESC
LIMIT 10;
public List<Author> getAuthorsWithLimit(Integer limit) throws SQLException {
List<Author> authors = new ArrayList<>();
try (Connection conn = ds.getConnection()) {
PreparedStatement stmt = conn.prepareStatement("""
SELECT id, name, birth_year
FROM authors
ORDER BY birth_year DESC
LIMIT ?;
""");
stmt.setInt(1, limit);
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery();
while (rs.next()) {
Author author = new Author();
author.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
author.setName(rs.getString("name"));
author.setBirthYear(rs.getShort("birth_year"));
authors.add(author);
}
}
return authors;
}
The result is as follows:
+-----------+------------------------+------------+
| id | name | birth_year |
+-----------+------------------------+------------+
| 83420726 | Terrance Dach | 2000 |
| 57938667 | Margarita Christiansen | 2000 |
| 77441404 | Otto Dibbert | 2000 |
| 61338414 | Danial Cormier | 2000 |
| 49680887 | Alivia Lemke | 2000 |
| 45460101 | Itzel Cummings | 2000 |
| 38009380 | Percy Hodkiewicz | 2000 |
| 12943560 | Hulda Hackett | 2000 |
| 1294029 | Stanford Herman | 2000 |
| 111453184 | Jeffrey Brekke | 2000 |
+-----------+------------------------+------------+
10 rows in set (0.11 sec)
With the LIMIT
statement, the query time is significantly reduced from 0.23 sec
to 0.11 sec
in this example. For more information, see TopN and Limit.
Aggregate queries
To have a better understanding of the overall data situation, you can use the GROUP BY
statement to aggregate query results.
For example, if you want to know which years there are more authors born, you can group the authors
table by the birth_year
column, and then count for each year:
- SQL
- Java
SELECT birth_year, COUNT (DISTINCT id) AS author_count
FROM authors
GROUP BY birth_year
ORDER BY author_count DESC;
public class AuthorCount {
private Short birthYear;
private Integer authorCount;
public AuthorCount() {}
// Skip the getters and setters.
}
public List<AuthorCount> getAuthorCountsByBirthYear() throws SQLException {
List<AuthorCount> authorCounts = new ArrayList<>();
try (Connection conn = ds.getConnection()) {
Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery("""
SELECT birth_year, COUNT(DISTINCT id) AS author_count
FROM authors
GROUP BY birth_year
ORDER BY author_count DESC;
""");
while (rs.next()) {
AuthorCount authorCount = new AuthorCount();
authorCount.setBirthYear(rs.getShort("birth_year"));
authorCount.setAuthorCount(rs.getInt("author_count"));
authorCounts.add(authorCount);
}
}
return authorCount;
}
The result is as follows:
+------------+--------------+
| birth_year | author_count |
+------------+--------------+
| 1932 | 317 |
| 1947 | 290 |
| 1939 | 282 |
| 1935 | 289 |
| 1968 | 291 |
| 1962 | 261 |
| 1961 | 283 |
| 1986 | 289 |
| 1994 | 280 |
...
| 1972 | 306 |
+------------+--------------+
71 rows in set (0.00 sec)
In addition to the COUNT
function, TiDB also supports other aggregate functions. For more information, see Aggregate (GROUP BY) Functions.
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