Select Statement in MySQL

In this article, we cover the Select statement in MySQL. As the term/keyword itself suggests, it is used to select the data from a database. To understand it better, we take a reference database with the table: test.

Customer_ID	Customer_Name	City
1	ABC	London
2	XYZ	Amsterdam
3	QWERTY	New York
4	DHG	Boston
5	YTU	San Francisco

 

Most of the time, you would see both SELECT and FROM in the commands.

Select Statement in MySQL

We begin with the basic Select command:

mysql> SELECT * FROM test;

The asterisk (*) here returns with all the columns from the mentioned table (i.e. test) through FROM. It is important to put a semicolon (;) at the end of the SQL statement. It will only execute those statements that have a semicolon (;) at the end. If you forget to put it there then, you can use it in the new line. For instance,

mysql> SELECT * FROM test
    -> ;

Furthermore, the database we have chosen has three columns. And, if want it to select just two columns then, we can modify the statement:

mysql> SELECT Customer_ID, Customer_Name FROM test;

If we have got duplicate values in the columns then by default it selects all the entries. To get rid of repetitions, use DISTINCT:

mysql> SELECT DISTINCT Customer_ID, Customer_Name FROM test;

If you wish to select only that data where Customer_ID is greater than 2 then, use WHERE:

SELECT * FROM test WHERE Customer_ID>2;

In conclusion, we have covered here the Select Statement in MySQL.