SELECT

Retrieves rows from the database and allows 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:

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 operator can be used between queries to combine their results into a single result set.

Syntax

SELECT statement ::=
    < query_expression >
    [ ORDER BY { order_by_expression | column_position [ ASC | DESC ] }
        [ ,...n ]    ]
    [ COMPUTE
        { { AVG | COUNT | MAX | MIN | SUM } ( expression ) } [ ,...n ]
        [ BY expression [ ,...n ] ]
    ]
    [ FOR { BROWSE | XML { RAW | AUTO | EXPLICIT }
            [ , XMLDATA ]
            [ , ELEMENTS ]
            [ , BINARY base64 ]
        }
]
    [ OPTION ( < query_hint > [ ,...n ]) ]

< query expression > ::=
    { < query specification > | ( < query expression > ) }
    [ UNION [ ALL ] < query specification | ( < query expression > ) [...n ] ]

< query specification > ::=
    SELECT [ ALL | DISTINCT ]
        [ { TOP integer | TOP integer PERCENT } [ WITH TIES ] ]
        < select_list >
    [ INTO new_table ]
    [ FROM { < table_source > } [ ,...n ] ]
    [ WHERE < search_condition > ]
    [ GROUP BY [ ALL ] group_by_expression [ ,...n ]
        [ WITH { CUBE | ROLLUP } ]
    ]
    [ HAVING < search_condition > ]

Because of the complexity of the SELECT statement, detailed syntax elements and arguments are shown by clause:

SELECT Clause
INTO Clause
FROM Clause
WHERE Clause
GROUP BY Clause
HAVING Clause
UNION Operator
ORDER BY Clause
COMPUTE Clause
FOR Clause
OPTION Clause