Summary  
This chapter explains how to filter results in a SELECT statement using the WHERE clause to specify conditions and how to place ORDER BY after WHERE for sorted results.

General domain of usage  
Relational database querying

In databases, tables typically hold substantial volumes of data. However, frequently we're interested in retrieving specific portions of the data rather than the entirety. To accomplish this, we need to define the conditions for data retrieval, which are referred to as filtering criteria.

Data is filtered using a `WHERE` clause specifying the search criteria in a `SELECT` statement. The `WHERE` clause appears immediately after the table name.

When specifying a string value, such as a country name, we need to enclose the text in single quotes (`'`).



SELECT name, continent 
FROM country 
WHERE continent='Europe';

The `SELECT` statement gets 2 columns from the `country` table and returns only rows with the continent value `'Europe'`.

### Clause Position

When we use the `ORDER BY` and `WHERE` clauses, we ensure the `ORDER BY` comes after the `WHERE` clause. 



SELECT capital, continent 
FROM country 
WHERE continent='Asia'
ORDER BY continent DESC;

import unittest
import psycopg2
import pandas as pd

class TestTask(unittest.TestCase):
    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        cls.connection = psycopg2.connect(
            host="localhost",
            user="agent",
            password="qwerty",
            dbname="testdb",
            sslmode="disable"
        )
        cls.cursor = cls.connection.cursor()

    def test_query_returns_correct_rows(self):
        """Check that only countries from 'North America' are returned with correct columns."""
        with open("query.sql", "r") as file:
            query = file.read()
        # Run user query
        self.cursor.execute(query)
        rows = self.cursor.fetchall()
        columns = [desc[0] for desc in self.cursor.description]
        df = pd.DataFrame(rows, columns=columns)

        # Solution dataframe
        self.cursor.execute("""
            SELECT id, name, region FROM country WHERE continent='North America';
        """)
        sol_rows = self.cursor.fetchall()
        sol_columns = [desc[0] for desc in self.cursor.description]
        sol_df = pd.DataFrame(sol_rows, columns=sol_columns)

        # Check matching rows and shape
        condition = df.shape == sol_df.shape and df.equals(sol_df)
        _dynamic_test(
            self,
            condition,
            "Query returns only the correct rows from 'North America' with correct columns.",
            f"Query did not return the correct rows or columns for 'North America'. Expected:\\n{sol_df}\\nGot:\\n{df}"
        )

    def test_column_order_and_names(self):
        """Check that columns are exactly id, name, region (in this order)."""
        with open("query.sql", "r") as file:
            query = file.read()
        self.cursor.execute(query)
        columns = [desc[0] for desc in self.cursor.description]
        expected = ["id", "name", "region"]
        condition = columns == expected
        _dynamic_test(
            self,
            condition,
            "Columns are in the correct order: id, name, region.",
            f"Columns are not in the correct order. Expected: {expected}, Got: {columns}"
        )

def _dynamic_test(test_case, condition, success_message, failure_message):
    if condition:
        test_case._testMethodName = success_message
        test_case.assertTrue(True, success_message)
    else:
        test_case._testMethodName = failure_message
        test_case.fail(failure_message)

def normalize_text(text):
    text = text.lower()
    text = re.sub(r"\s{2,}", " ", text)
    text = re.sub(r"\s*([,:?])\s*", r"\1 ", text)
    return text.strip()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    unittest.main()


test_solution.py

Learn the core fundamentals of SQL and relational databases. Understand how databases store and organize data, write basic SQL queries, work with tables and perform essential operations. Build a strong foundation for working with databases in backend development.

Using the WHERE Clause

Clause Position

Soluzione