SQL SELECT Statement

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

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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;

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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 Constitución 2222	México D.F.	05021	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mataderos 2312	México D.F.	05023	Mexico
4	Around the Horn	Thomas Hardy	120 Hanover Sq.	London	WA1 1DP	UK
5	Berglunds snabbköp	Christina Berglund	Berguvsvägen 8	Luleå	S-958 22	Sweden

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SELECT Column Example

The following SQL statement selects the "CustomerName" and "City" columns from the "Customers" table:

Example

SELECT CustomerName,City FROM Customers;

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SELECT * Example

The following SQL statement selects all the columns from the "Customers" table:

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers;

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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.