Retrieves rows from the database and enables the selection of one or many rows or columns from one or many tables. The full syntax of the SELECT statement is complex, but the main clauses can be summarized as:
[ WITH <common_table_expression>]
SELECT select_list [ INTO new_table ]
[ FROM table_source ] [ WHERE search_condition ]
[ GROUP BY group_by_expression ]
[ HAVING search_condition ]
[ ORDER BY order_expression [ ASC | DESC ] ]
The UNION, EXCEPT and INTERSECT operators can be used between queries to combine or compare their results into one result set.
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Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions
Syntax
<SELECT statement> ::=
[WITH <common_table_expression> [,...n]]
<query_expression>
[ ORDER BY { order_by_expression | column_position [ ASC | DESC ] }
[ ,...n ] ]
[ COMPUTE
{ { AVG | COUNT | MAX | MIN | SUM } ( expression ) } [ ,...n ]
[ BY expression [ ,...n ] ]
]
[ <FOR Clause>]
[ OPTION ( <query_hint> [ ,...n ] ) ]
<query_expression> ::=
{ <query_specification> | ( <query_expression> ) }
[ { UNION [ ALL ] | EXCEPT | INTERSECT }
<query_specification> | ( <query_expression> ) [...n ] ]
<query_specification> ::=
SELECT [ ALL | DISTINCT ]
[TOP ( expression ) [PERCENT] [ WITH TIES ] ]
< select_list >
[ INTO new_table ]
[ FROM { <table_source> } [ ,...n ] ]
[ WHERE <search_condition> ]
[ <GROUP BY> ]
[ HAVING < search_condition > ]
Remarks
Because of the complexity of the SELECT statement, detailed syntax elements and arguments are shown by clause:
See Also