The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.
The SQL SELECT Statement
The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.
The result is stored in a result table, called the result-set.
SQL SELECT Syntax
SELECT column_name,column_name
FROM table_name;
and
SELECT * FROM table_name;
Demo Database
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.
Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:
| CustomerID | CustomerName | ContactName | Address | City | PostalCode | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Alfreds Futterkiste | Maria Anders | Obere Str. 57 | Berlin | 12209 | Germany |
| 2 | Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados | Ana Trujillo | Avda. de la Constitucion 2222 | Mexico D.F. | 05021 | Mexico |
| 3 | Antonio Moreno Taqueria | Antonio Moreno | Mataderos 2312 | Mexico D.F. | 05023 | Mexico |
| 4 |
Around the Horn | Thomas Hardy | 120 Hanover Sq. | London | WA1 1DP | UK |
| 5 | Berglunds snabbkop | Christina Berglund | Berguvsvagen 8 | Lulea | S-958 22 | Sweden |
SELECT Column Example
The following SQL statement selects the "CustomerName" and "City" columns from the "Customers" table:
SELECT * Example
The following SQL statement selects all the columns from the "Customers" table:
Navigation in a Result-set
Most database software systems allow navigation in the result-set with programming functions, like: Move-To-First-Record, Get-Record-Content, Move-To-Next-Record, etc.
Programming functions like these are not a part of this tutorial. To learn about accessing data with function calls, please visit our ASP tutorial or our PHP tutorial.