Create table STUDENT.

Worked Examples · Example 9.1

Q. Create table STUDENT.

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Concept understanding — Table Creation

Table Creation: The Art of Organising Information

Think of the last time you tried to find a specific contact in your phone. If all your contacts were just listed in one long, unbroken list — no groups, no alphabetical order, no search — you would have to scroll through every single name to find the one you need. That is the problem that table creation solves.

In everyday life, we create tables all the time without thinking about it. A timetable for your classes, a cricket scorecard, a menu with prices — each of these is a table. The instinct to arrange information into rows and columns is natural because it makes comparison and retrieval fast. Table creation, in the context of your studies, is simply the deliberate, systematic act of doing this with data so that it becomes meaningful and usable.

What Exactly Is a Table?

A table is a structured arrangement of data in rows and columns. Each row typically represents one complete record or observation — for example, one student, one month, one product. Each column represents a particular characteristic or variable of that record — for example, name, marks, price, date.

The power of a table lies in its ability to show relationships at a glance. When data is scattered in a paragraph, you have to read and mentally compare. When it is in a table, your eye can move vertically down a column or horizontally across a row, spotting patterns, extremes, and gaps instantly.

Note

In your NCERT textbooks for commerce and humanities subjects — especially in Economics, Statistics, and Business Studies — tables are the primary tool for presenting data before any analysis begins. They are not decorative; they are the foundation on which interpretation is built.

The Core Elements of a Table

Every proper table has a few essential parts. Understanding these will help you both read tables and create your own.

Title: A clear, concise heading that tells the reader what the table contains. It should answer the questions: what, where, and when. For example, "Monthly Sales of ABC Ltd., April–September 2023" is far better than just "Sales Data."
Column Headings (Captions): These label each column and describe the type of data it holds. They must be precise — "Revenue (in ₹ lakh)" is clearer than just "Revenue."
Row Headings (Stubs): These label each row, usually on the leftmost column. They identify what each row represents — for instance, the names of months, products, or regions.
Body of the Table: The actual data cells where numbers or text entries sit. This is the heart of the table.
Source Note: A line below the table stating where the data came from. This is crucial for credibility, especially in exam answers and project work.
Footnotes (if needed): Any clarification about a specific entry — for example, an asterisk explaining that a figure is an estimate.

Why Table Creation Matters for You

In your exams and assignments, you will often be asked to present raw data in tabular form. This is not busywork. The examiner wants to see that you can:

Identify the key variables in a given set of information.
Classify and group data logically.
Present it without ambiguity so that anyone reading can understand it immediately.

A well-created table can turn a confusing jumble of numbers into a clear story. For instance, if you are given the population figures of five states over three census years, a table lets you see at once which state grew fastest, which declined, and how each compares to the others. Without the table, you would have to hold all those numbers in your head. …

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This is the chapter's running example: creating the STUDENT table inside the StudentAttendance database, using the exact schema already worked out in Table 9.3. The book creates the table here without inline constraints (other than the primary key) for simplicity — additional constraints like NOT NULL and the GUID foreign key are added afterwards, using ALTER TABLE, in Section 9.4.4.

CREATE TABLE STUDENT(
    RollNumber INT,
    SName VARCHAR(20),
    SDateofBirth DATE,
    GUID CHAR(12),
    PRIMARY KEY (RollNumber));

Running this at the mysql> prompt gives:

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.91 sec)

RollNumber is declared INT (a class has at most 100 students, so 3 digits are enough) and made the PRIMARY KEY. SName uses VARCHAR(20) for a variable-length name up to 20 characters. SDateofBirth is a DATE. GUID — the guardian's 12-digit Aadhaar number — is CHAR(12), since it is always exactly 12 digits and no arithmetic is ever performed on it. …

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Example 9.1 asks you to create the STUDENT table for the StudentAttendance database using the exact schema already worked out in Table 9.3 — RollNumber, SName, SDateofBirth, GUID — with only the primary key declared inline.

Why This Table, These Columns

This example is not a generic "design any student table" exercise — it is the payoff of the planning done earlier in the chapter. Section 9.4.2 walked through why each attribute of STUDENT gets the data type it has: RollNumber is INT because a class has at most 100 students (3 digits suffice); SName is VARCHAR(20) for a variable-length name; SDateofBirth is DATE; and GUID — the guardian's 12-digit Aadhaar number — is CHAR(12), a fixed-length code with no arithmetic ever performed on it. Table 9.3 lays these out formally, including that RollNumber is the PRIMARY KEY and GUID is eventually a FOREIGN KEY.

The SQL Solution

For simplicity, this first CREATE TABLE statement leaves out constraints other than the primary key — NOT NULL and the foreign key relationship on GUID are added afterwards using ALTER TABLE, in Section 9.4.4:

mysql> CREATE TABLE STUDENT(
    -> RollNumber INT,
    -> SName VARCHAR(20),
    -> SDateofBirth DATE,
    -> GUID CHAR(12),
    -> PRIMARY KEY (RollNumber));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.91 sec)

Key Lines Explained

RollNumber INT — a whole number, large enough for roll numbers 1–100.
SName VARCHAR(20) — variable-length text, no NOT NULL yet (added later in 9.4.4(F)).
SDateofBirth DATE — a calendar date in 'YYYY-MM-DD' format.
GUID CHAR(12) — a fixed 12-character code; becomes a FOREIGN KEY to GUARDIAN only later, in 9.4.4(B). …

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←Previous section · 9.4.2CREATE Table →Next question · 9.4.2Activity 9.4 — Create the other two relations GUARDIAN and ATTENDANCE as per data typ…

Q.Create table STUDENT.

Why This Table, These Columns

The SQL Solution

Key Lines Explained

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