MySQL SELECT Statement: Syntax, Examples & Usage

The SELECT statement in MySQL is used to retrieve data from one or more tables in a database. It is the most commonly used SQL command for querying data.

Basic Syntax:

SELECT column1, column2 FROM table_name;

Here, column1, column2, ... are the field names of the table you want to select data from. If you want to select all the fields available in the table, use the following syntax:

SELECT * FROM students;

Table:

Below is a selection from the "students" table in the school_db database:

student_id	name	gender	city	age	score	course_id	email	phone_number
1	Alice	Female	Delhi	20	85	101	NULL	1234567890
2	Bob	Male	Mumbai	22	75	NULL	bob@email.com	NULL
3	Charlie	Male	Delhi	21	95	102	NULL	NULL
4	David	Male	Bangalore	23	65	101	david@email.com	NULL
5	Eve	Female	Mumbai	20	80	103	NULL	NULL
6	Frank	Male	Delhi	22	90	103	NULL	NULL
7	Alice	Female	Mumbai	19	60	102	NULL	NULL

SELECT * Example

The following SQL statement selects ALL the columns from the "students" table:

Example

SELECT * FROM students;

Try it yourself

SELECT Column Example

The following SQL statement selects the "name" column from the "students" table:

Example

SELECT name FROM students;

Try it yourself

The MySQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

The SELECT DISTINCT statement removes duplicate values and returns only unique records.

Syntax:

SELECT DISTINCT column_name FROM table_name;

Example (removing duplicates)

The following SQL statement selects only DISTINCT values from the "Country" column in the "students" table:

Example

SELECT DISTINCT name FROM students;

Try it yourself

SELECT Example Without DISTINCT

The following SQL statement selects all (including the duplicates) values from the "name" column in the "students" table:

Example

SELECT name FROM students;

Try it yourself

Key Differences: SELECT vs SELECT DISTINCT

Feature	SELECT	SELECT DISTINCT
Returns duplicates?	Yes	No
Use case	When you need all records	When you need unique values
Performance	Faster	Slightly slower (removes duplicates)

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