You use the SELECT statement to choose rows and columns from tables. You can use it for selections (retrieving a subset of the rows in one or more tables), projections (retrieving a subset of the columns in one or more tables), and joins (linking rows in two or more tables to retrieve cross-table data).
This chapter discusses how to use SELECT to choose the specific columns and rows you want from a database and how to query the database using various comparison and logical operators. It also shows how to format the results of a query, including adding elementary computed values, processing and sorting results, and producing simple summary reports.