VOOZH about

URL: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-select-rows-from-tables-in-sql

⇱ How To SELECT Rows FROM Tables in SQL | DigitalOcean


How To SELECT Rows FROM Tables in SQL

Published on December 19, 2020

By Mark Drake

Manager, Developer Education

πŸ‘ How To SELECT Rows FROM Tables in SQL

Introduction

One of the most fundamental parts of working with databases is the practice of retrieving information about the data held within them. In relational database management systems, any operation used to retrieve information from a table is referred to as a query.

In this guide, we will discuss the syntax of queries in Structured Query Language (SQL) as well as some of their more commonly used functions and operators.

Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.

Learn more about our products

Tutorial Series: How To Use SQL

Series Description

Structured Query Language β€” commonly known as SQL β€” is a language used to define, control, manipulate, and query data held in a relational database. SQL has been widely adopted since it was first developed in the 1970s, and today it’s the predominant language used to manage relational database management systems.

Ideal for managing structured data (data that can fit neatly into an existing data model), SQL is an essential tool for developers and system administrators in a wide variety of contexts. Also, because of its maturity and prevalence, candidates with SQL experience are highly sought after for jobs across a number of industries.

This series is intended to help you get started with using SQL. It includes a mix of conceptual articles and tutorials which provide introductions to various SQL concepts and practices. You can also use the entries in this series for reference while you continue to hone your skills with SQL.

Note: Please be aware that the tutorials in this series use MySQL in examples, but many RDBMSs use their own unique implementations of SQL. Although the commands outlined in this tutorial will work on most RDBMSs, the exact syntax or output may differ if you test them on a system other than MySQL.

About the author

πŸ‘ Mark Drake
Mark Drake
Author
Manager, Developer Education
See author profile

Former Technical Writer at DigitalOcean. Focused on SysAdmin topics including Debian 11, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Databases, SQL and PostgreSQL.

Category:

Still looking for an answer?

Was this helpful?

This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

πŸ‘ Creative Commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Deploy on DigitalOcean

    Click below to sign up for DigitalOcean's virtual machines, Databases, and AIML products.

Become a contributor for community

Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.

DigitalOcean Documentation

Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.

Resources for startups and AI-native businesses

The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.

Get our newsletter

Stay up to date by signing up for DigitalOcean’s Infrastructure as a Newsletter.

New accounts only. By submitting your email you agree to our Privacy Policy

The developer cloud

Scale up as you grow β€” whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Start building today

From GPU-powered inference and Kubernetes to managed databases and storage, get everything you need to build, scale, and deploy intelligent applications.

Β© 2026 DigitalOcean, LLC.Sitemap.
Dark mode is coming soon.