SQL SELECT Statement

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The SQL SELECT statement is used to retrieve data from one or more database tables. It allows you to specify the columns you want to retrieve and apply various conditions to filter the data. The basic syntax of a SELECT statement is as follows:

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

Let’s break down the various parts of the SELECT statement:

  • SELECT: This keyword is used to specify the columns you want to retrieve. You can either specify specific column names or use an asterisk (*) to select all columns.
  • FROM: This keyword is used to specify the table or tables from which you want to retrieve the data.
  • WHERE: This optional keyword is used to specify conditions that the retrieved data must meet. It allows you to filter the data based on certain criteria. If you don’t specify a WHERE clause, all rows from the specified table(s) will be returned.
  • condition: This is a logical expression that evaluates to either true or false. It is used to filter the data based on specific criteria. For example, you can use conditions to retrieve rows where a certain column equals a specific value, or where a column value is greater than a certain value.

Here’s an example of a SELECT statement:

SELECT first_name, last_name, age
FROM employees
WHERE department = 'IT' AND salary > 50000;

This query selects the columns first_name, last_name, and age from the employees table. It only retrieves rows where the department is ‘IT’ and the salary is greater than 50000.

Note that this is a basic example, and there are many more advanced features and clauses that can be used in conjunction with the SELECT statement, such as JOINs, ORDER BY, GROUP BY, and more.