SQL SELECT

The command you'll type more than any other — it decides which columns come back, and nothing else.

What & Why

SELECT is how you choose which columns of a table you want returned. It doesn't filter rows (that's WHERE) and it doesn't limit how many come back (that's LIMIT) — it only decides which columns show up in the result.

See How It Works

BUSINESS QUESTION

Marketing wants a report that only shows campaign names and spend values — nothing else in the table.

Watch SELECT narrow the columnsStep 1 of 3

SELECT * FROM marketing.campaigns

id	name	channel	spend	start_date	status
1	Spring Launch	google_ads	55000	2024-01-15	active
2	Retention Webinar	email	45000	2024-02-10	active
3	Finance Retargeting	linkedin	50000	2024-03-12	active

SELECT * keeps every column.

Syntax Pattern

See explanation

SELECT column_1, column_2
FROM schema.table_name;

-- Explore every column
SELECT *
FROM schema.table_name
LIMIT 10;

Now You Try

Practice this concept

Marketing wants a report that contains only each campaign name and spend value.

Available schema

marketing

Prefix tables with marketing.table_name.

namespend

marketing.campaigns

Column	Type
id	integer
name	text
channel	text
spend	numeric
start_date	date
end_date	date
status	text
target_segment	text
legacy_id	text

query.sql

Beginner business practice