SQL Basics for Everyone — Part 2: SQL Select with Examples 🔦

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The SELECT statement allows you to retrieve data from one or more tables.

The most basic SELECT Query contains two essential SQL keywords: SELECT followed by FROM.

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name;

🔸SELECT tells the database that you want to output data, and is followed by the specific names of the columns you wish the database to print out.

🔸FROM tells the database which specific table contains that data we want to output.

🔸When evaluating the SELECT statement, the database system evaluates the FROM clause first and then the SELECT clause.

🔸The semicolon (;) is not part of a query. The database server uses the semicolon to separate two SQL statements.

👉 For example, if you execute two SELECT statements, you need to separate them using a semicolon (;)

If you want to retrieve data from all the columns of the table, you can list all the columns in the SELECT clause like this:

SELECT
  column1,
  column2,
  column3
FROM
  table_name;

Alternatively, you can use the star (*) operator as the shorthand for all columns:

SELECT * FROM table_name;