Select

The SQL SELECT statement is one of the fundamental commands used in relational databases to retrieve data. It allows users to query a database table and return a set of data that meets specific criteria.

Syntax

The basic syntax of the SELECT statement is as follows:

SELECT column1, column2, ..., columnN
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

SELECT specifies the columns that you want to retrieve data from.
FROM specifies the table that you want to retrieve data from.
WHERE specifies the condition that the data must meet in order to be retrieved.

For example, let’s say you have a table called “employees” with columns “id”, “name”, “age”, and “department”. To retrieve the names and ages of all employees who work in the “sales” department, you would use the following SQL statement:

SELECT name, age
FROM employees
WHERE department = 'sales';

This would return a table with two columns: “name” and “age”, and rows that meet the condition of working in the “sales” department.

The SELECT statement can be used with many other SQL commands, such as JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, and more. It is a powerful tool for retrieving data from databases and is essential for any database developer or analyst.