VALUES clause for inline data in PostgreSQL - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using VALUES Clause for Inline Data in PostgreSQL

📖 Scenario: You are managing a small bookstore database. You want to quickly add some new books' data inline without creating a permanent table first.

🎯 Goal: Build a PostgreSQL query using the VALUES clause to create inline data for books with their title and price. Then select all the data from this inline table.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create inline data using the VALUES clause with three books

Each book entry must have a title and a price

Assign column names title and price to the inline data

Write a SELECT query to retrieve all rows from the inline data

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Inline data with VALUES is useful when you want to quickly test queries or join small sets of data without creating permanent tables.

💼 Career

Database developers and analysts often use VALUES for quick data input, testing, or combining data from different sources in PostgreSQL.

1

Create inline data with VALUES clause

Write a PostgreSQL query that uses the VALUES clause to create inline data with these exact rows: ('The Hobbit', 15.99), ('1984', 12.50), and ('Dune', 18.00). Do not assign column names yet.

PostgreSQL

# Write the VALUES clause with the three book rows
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the VALUES keyword followed by parentheses for each row, separated by commas.

2

Assign column names to inline data

Add column names title and price to the inline data by adding AS books(title, price) after the VALUES clause.

PostgreSQL

VALUES ('The Hobbit', 15.99), ('1984', 12.50), ('Dune', 18.00)
-- Add column names using AS books(title, price) below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use AS followed by a table alias and parentheses with column names.

3

Select all data from inline table

Write a SELECT query to retrieve all columns from the inline table named books.

PostgreSQL

VALUES ('The Hobbit', 15.99), ('1984', 12.50), ('Dune', 18.00) AS books(title, price)
-- Write SELECT query to get all columns from books below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Wrap the VALUES clause in parentheses and use SELECT * FROM to get all rows.

4

Complete the inline data query

Ensure the full query selects all columns from the inline data with alias books and columns title and price. The query should be exactly: SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('The Hobbit', 15.99), ('1984', 12.50), ('Dune', 18.00)) AS books(title, price).

PostgreSQL

SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('The Hobbit', 15.99), ('1984', 12.50), ('Dune', 18.00)) AS books(title, price)
-- Finalize the query if needed
# Your code here

Need a hint?

This is the complete query to get all inline book data.