Learn From - Interactive SQL



SQL SELECT Statement


SQL Select statement is used to retrieve records from one or more tables. It is the most commonly used DML statement.

SQL SELECT Syntax


To retrieve all the records from the Table.

Select * From table_name

To retrieve specific columns in the records from the Table.

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name

Note: It is advised that you use the column names instead of asterix(*) in the select statement when quering large data from tables. This produces result faster and prevents data from unnecessary columns.

Database Tables


A database contains usually one or more tables. Each table is identified by a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Employees"). Tables contain many records with data. A table is a datastructure where information is stored in the form of rows and columns.

Below is shown the "Customers" table:

CustomerID CustomerName EmailID Address City PostalCode Country
C001 Fredrick Johnson FJohnson@yahoo.com Berkeley Gardens 12 Brewery London WX1 6LT UK
C002 Mary Davidson Mary@gmail.com 35 King George Madrid 28023 Spain
C003 George Clooney George@hotmail.com Obere Str. 57 Berlin 12209 Germany
C004 David Louis David@mail.com 2743 Bering St. NewJersy 07019 USA
C005 Johnny Anderson Johnny@gmail.com 55 Grizzly Peak Rd. NewJersy 07019 USA
C006 Paul Henriot PaulHenriot@yahoo.com 59 rue de l'Abbaye Paris 51100 France
C007 Henry King Henry@mail.com 120 Hanover Sq. London WA1 1DP UK
C008 Robert John Robert@gmail.com 87 Polk St. Suite 5 San Francisco 94117 USA

Type or Copy the SQL into the Text Editor, click the "View Result" button, to see the result.

The Select Statement Example


To retrieve all the records from the Customers table.

Select * from Customers ;

Retrieve Customer details with the name Fredrick Johnson

Select * from Customers
where CustomerName ='Fredrick Johnson';

Retrieve all customers from USA

Select * from Customers
Where Country = 'USA';

SQL in Text Editor: