SELECT — Retrieving Data from a Table

The SELECT Statement

SELECT is the most common SQL statement. It reads data from one or more tables and returns a result set. Every SELECT query must name at least one table using FROM.

-- Retrieve every column for every student
SELECT * FROM students;

-- Retrieve only specific columns
SELECT id, name, city FROM students;

-- Column aliases make output easier to read
SELECT name AS student_name, age AS student_age FROM students;

Choosing Columns Wisely

Using SELECT * is convenient for exploration but avoid it in production code. Listing columns explicitly makes queries self-documenting, prevents breakage when columns are added, and reduces the amount of data transferred from the database.