SQL SELECT

Syntax

SELECT _column1_, _column2_, ... FROM _table_name_;

Here, column1, column2, ... are the field names of the table you want to select data from.

The table_name represents the name of the table you want to select data from.

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Demo Database

Below is a selection from the Customers table used in the examples:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
1	Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Obere Str. 57	Berlin	12209	Germany
2	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y Helados	Ana Trujillo	Avda. de la Constitución 2222	México D.F.	05021	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mataderos 2312	México D.F.	05023	Mexico
4	Around the Horn	Thomas Hardy	120 Hanover Sq.	London	WA1 1DP	UK
5	Berglunds snabbköp	Christina Berglund	Berguvsvägen 8	Luleå	S-958 22	Sweden

Select ALL columns

If you want to return all columns without specifying every column name, you can use the SELECT * syntax:

Example

Return all the columns from the Customers table:

SELECT * FROM Customers;

SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

The SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

The SELECT DISTINCT statement is used to return only distinct (different) values.

Example

Select all the different countries from the "Customers" table:

SELECT DISTINCT Country FROM Customers;

Inside a table, a column often contains many duplicate values; and sometimes you only want to list the different (distinct) values.

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
1	Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Obere Str. 57	Berlin	12209	Germany
2	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y Helados	Ana Trujillo	Avda. de la Constitución 2222	México D.F.	05021	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mataderos 2312	México D.F.	05023	Mexico
4	Around the Horn	Thomas Hardy	120 Hanover Sq.	London	WA1 1DP	UK
5	Berglunds snabbköp	Christina Berglund	Berguvsvägen 8	Luleå	S-958 22	Sweden

SELECT Example Without DISTINCT

If you omit the DISTINCT keyword, the SQL statement returns the "Country" value from all the records of the "Customers" table:

Example

SELECT Country FROM Customers;

Count Distinct

By using the DISTINCT keyword in a function called COUNT, we can return the number of different countries.

Example

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Country) FROM Customers;

Note: The COUNT(DISTINCT _column_name_) is not supported in Microsoft Access databases.

Here is a workaround for MS Access:

Example

SELECT Count(*) AS DistinctCountries FROM (SELECT DISTINCT Country FROM Customers);

You will learn about the COUNT function later in this tutorial.