Syntax of Teradata SQL

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** Things under legendu.net/outdated are outdated technologies that the author does not plan to update any more. Please look for better alternatives. **

Syntax¶

1. Each Teradata SQL statement must be ended by a semicolon.

2. The keyword inner is optional in an inner join.

3. To estimate the time and space complexity, you can prefix your SQL code by explain, or you can just press the Explain button if you use Teradata SQL Assistant.

4. Column names in select and group by, order by, etc. are separated by comma. There can be no comma after the last column name. This is easy to understand. If you put comma after the last column in a, e.g., select clause, the from keyword will be treated as the last column and results in syntax error.

Common Syntax Errors¶

1. Using a comma after the last column or missing a comma after a non-last column in the select clause.

2. Miss then in a case statement.

    :::sql
    case 
        when condition_1 then v_1 
        when condition_2 then v_2 
        ...
        else v_k 
    end 

3. For with data or with no data when creating a table. CREATE TABLE Failed. 3706: Syntax error: expected something between ‘)’ and ‘;’.

SQL Style¶

1. It is suggested that you write SQL code in the following style.

   create table t0 as (
   select distinct top 5 *
   from
       t1
   inner join
       t2
   on
       condition
   where
       condition
   group by
       1
   having
       condition
   order by
       1
   )
   with data
   primary index (f1, f2)