MySQL SELECT Statement Tutorial with Examples

SELECT is the single most important statement in SQL — data analysts spend 90% of their time reading data, not writing it. This tutorial covers the building blocks you will combine in every query.

Key Points

• Select everything: SELECT * FROM employees; (fine for exploring, avoid in production)
• Select specific columns: SELECT name, salary FROM employees;
• Rename output with aliases: SELECT salary * 12 AS annual_salary
• Remove duplicates: SELECT DISTINCT department FROM employees;
• Combine with WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT for targeted results
• Use expressions and functions directly: SELECT UPPER(name), ROUND(salary, 0)