SQL SELECT for beginners: your first query

Tables and your first SELECT

Every app you use is secretly a pile of tables. Your messages, your playlist, your high scores: rows in a database, waiting to be asked for.

A database is a collection of tables. A table looks like a spreadsheet:

each column is one kind of fact (title, genre, year)
each row is one thing (one game)

The difference from a spreadsheet is that you don't scroll and click. You ask, using a language called SQL (say it "S-Q-L" or "sequel", people fight about this, nobody wins).

The most basic question is "show me everything in this table":

SELECT * FROM games;

Read it out loud: "select everything from games". SELECT says what columns you want, * means "all of them", and FROM games says which table. The semicolon ends the statement, like a full stop.

A few things worth knowing early:

SQL keywords are not case sensitive. select * from games works too. Writing keywords in CAPITALS is just a habit that makes queries easier to read.
Table names must match what exists. Ask for FROM gamez and you get an error saying there is no such table. That is the database being literal, not you being bad at this.
The result of a query is itself a little table. That idea comes back again and again.

The sample tables for each lesson are shown above the editor. The === setup code that built them is ordinary SQL too, and by the end of this track you will be able to read all of it.

Tables in this lesson

games 7 rows

id	title	genre	year	rating
1	Minecraft	sandbox	2011	9.0
2	Among Us	party	2018	7.5
3	Hollow Knight	platformer	2017	9.5
4	Stardew Valley	farming	2016	9.0
5	Fall Guys	party	2020	7.0
6	Celeste	platformer	2018	9.0
7	Goat Simulator	chaos	2014	6.5

players 5 rows

id	gamertag	country
1	NoScopeNan	UK
2	xX_Toast_Xx	Canada
3	LagIsMyFault	Australia
4	QuietKeyboard	Ireland
5	BrbSnacks	USA

Show the SQL that built them

CREATE TABLE games (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, title TEXT, genre TEXT, year INTEGER, rating REAL);
INSERT INTO games VALUES
 (1, 'Minecraft', 'sandbox', 2011, 9.0),
 (2, 'Among Us', 'party', 2018, 7.5),
 (3, 'Hollow Knight', 'platformer', 2017, 9.5),
 (4, 'Stardew Valley', 'farming', 2016, 9.0),
 (5, 'Fall Guys', 'party', 2020, 7.0),
 (6, 'Celeste', 'platformer', 2018, 9.0),
 (7, 'Goat Simulator', 'chaos', 2014, 6.5);
CREATE TABLE players (id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, gamertag TEXT, country TEXT);
INSERT INTO players VALUES
 (1, 'NoScopeNan', 'UK'),
 (2, 'xX_Toast_Xx', 'Canada'),
 (3, 'LagIsMyFault', 'Australia'),
 (4, 'QuietKeyboard', 'Ireland'),
 (5, 'BrbSnacks', 'USA');

Try it yourself

Edit it. Break it. Run it again.

-- Everything from the games table
SELECT * FROM games;

Your turn

Type it yourself. That is the whole trick.

1Meet the players

There is a second table called players. Show every row and every column from it.

-- Ask for everything from the players table
SELECT * FROM

2Lowercase works too

Show every row and column of the games table, but write the whole query in lowercase letters to prove to yourself that SQL does not care.

-- Your query here, in lowercase