Use a SELECT statement to specify criteria for returning
rows from a database table.
Before you begin
The SELECT statement is made up of several clauses including
the SELECT clause, FROM clause, WHERE clause, ORDER BY clause, GROUP
BY clause and HAVING clause.
Restriction: You cannot
create a query by using a view that is derived from a user-defined
function.
Before you specify a SELECT statement, create the statement in the SQL Query
Builder.
Procedure
To specify a SELECT statement in the SQL Query Builder:
- Add one or more tables to
the statement.
- Optional: Create one or more
join conditions.
- Optional: To eliminate all but one of each set of duplicate
rows of the final results table, select the DISTINCT check
box in the Design pane.
- To specify the columns to use in the statement:
- Click the Columns tab in the
Design pane.
- In the first available cells under the Column heading,
select one or more columns to use in the statement, or type one or
more expressions, or both. To use a wizard to create a complex expression,
click Expression Builder at the end of the
list of columns in a cell, and then press Enter.
- Optional: Type an alias for the column or expression. You cannot use any spaces in the alias. When you run the SQL
statement, the alias appears in the results table instead of the column
or expression name.
- To show a column or expression in the results table
when you run the statement, select its Output check
box. To use a column or expression in the statement, but not use it
when you run the statement, clear its Output check
box. For example, you might want to do this if you are
defining an ORDER BY clause on a column and you still want to show
all columns in the result set: SELECT * FROM DEPT ORDER BY DEPT.NUMBER.
- Optional: To specify the order of the rows in the results
table, create an ORDER BY clause for
the SELECT statement.
- Optional: To specify which rows of the database table to
return in the results table, define conditions for
the SELECT statement. If you do not specify a condition,
all rows of the target database table are returned.
- Optional: To define groupings for the statement, create GROUP BY clauses.
- Run the statement. The output is shown in the SQL Results view.