SQL Select

---

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(s) FROM table_name

and

SELECT * FROM table_name

 Note: SQL is not case sensitive. SELECT is the same as select.

---

An SQL SELECT Example

The "Persons" table:

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Timoteivn 10	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Storgt 20	Stavanger

Now we want to select the content of the columns named "LastName" and "FirstName" from the table above.
We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT LastName,FirstName FROM Persons

The result-set will look like this:

LastName	FirstName
Hansen	Ola
Svendson	Tove
Pettersen	Kari

---

SELECT * Example

Now we want to select all the columns from the "Persons" table.
We use the following SELECT statement: 

SELECT * FROM Persons

Tip: The asterisk (*) is a quick way of selecting all columns!
The result-set will look like this:

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Hansen	Ola	Timoteivn 10	Sandnes
2	Svendson	Tove	Borgvn 23	Sandnes
3	Pettersen	Kari	Storgt 20	Stavanger

---

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.