SELECT Statement

The SELECT statement is the most important command in SQL — it is how you retrieve data from a table. The result of a SELECT query is always displayed in tabular form, just like the original table.

Syntax:

SELECT attribute1, attribute2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

Here, attribute1, attribute2, ... are the names of the columns you want to see. The FROM clause is mandatory — it tells the database which table to look in. The WHERE clause is optional; you use it only when you need to filter rows that meet a specific condition.

Selecting all columns

If you want to see every column of a table, you do not have to list them all. Instead, use the asterisk (*) as a shortcut:

SELECT * FROM table_name;

This returns the entire table — all rows and all columns.

Key points to remember

• SELECT is used to retrieve data; the output is always tabular.
• FROM is compulsory — it names the table. …