SELECT & FROM

Ask for columns from a table, and read the query back as a sentence

0 of 3 done · Lesson 1 of 9

Understand

Someone asks you for a list of the customers. The table is sitting there and you could scroll it, but you would have to do it again tomorrow. A query asks for the same thing in one line, and it answers two questions in a fixed order: which columns do you want, and which table are they in. SELECT answers the first. FROM answers the second. A star means every column, so you do not have to name them one at a time. The semicolon on the end says the command has finished. Read it back as a sentence and it says what it does: show me these columns from this table.

SELECT which_columns_you_want
FROM which_table;

SELECTwhich columns you wantFROMwhich table

The tables you are working with

10 rows

First rows of the customers table
customer_id	first_name	last_name	city	country	joined_date
1	Sarah	Smith	Auckland	New Zealand	2025-01-15
2	James	Brown	Wellington	New Zealand	2025-02-03
3	Aroha	Ngata	Christchurch	New Zealand	2025-02-20
4	Carlos	Garcia	Madrid	Spain	2025-03-11

6 more rows in the table. Your query sees all 10.

10 rows

First rows of the products table
product_id	product_name	category	price	stock
1	Coffee Mug	Kitchen	15	120
2	Water Bottle	Outdoors	25	80
3	Hiking Backpack	Outdoors	120	15
4	Notebook	Stationery	8.5	200

6 more rows in the table. Your query sees all 10.