3.3.4. Retrieving Information from a Table

The SELECT statement is used to pull information from a table. The general form of the statement is:

SELECT what_to_selectFROM which_tableWHERE conditions_to_satisfy;

what_to_select indicates what you want to see. This can be a list of columns, or * to indicate "all columns." which_table indicates the table from which you want to retrieve data. The WHERE clause is optional. If it is present, conditions_to_satisfy specifies one or more conditions that rows must satisfy to qualify for retrieval.