When we want to get information for a SQL table, we use the SELECT statement, or a query. Within a query is what data we want, where to get it from, and any additional formatting we want done before we get said data.

When selecting information from a table, we have to understand the make-up of a table. Let’s say we have a reptiles table. There might be different types of reptiles (snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles) but each reptile has characteristics that make it unique. These characteristics are broken down into the different columns within a table, and each entry of a reptile is denoted by the rows.

This is important for understanding how we write queries. The syntax looks like this:

SELECT skin_color, avg_body_temp, has_teeth 
FROM reptiles; 

The above will grab some data from some columns from a reptile table I made up. Let’s say we wanted to grab everything from the reptile table, we could use this:

SELECT *
FROM reptiles;

Note that in both, we must end our query with a semicolon. The newline in-between parts of our query is optional but a good convention to follow to make reading easier.

Next: Lesson 2 & 3