User's Guide Part II. TutorialsThis tutorial introduces the SELECT statement, the statement you use to retrieve information from databases. SELECT statements are commonly called queries, because they ask the database engine about the information in a database.
| Before you begin the tutorial The SELECT statement is a versatile command. SELECT statements can become highly complex in applications retrieving very specific information from large databases. This tutorial uses only simple SELECT statements: more advanced queries are described in later tutorials.For more information about the full syntax of the select statement, see "SELECT statement". |
Ideally, you should be running the SQL Anywhere software on your computer while you read and work through the tutorial lessons.
Each lesson instructs you to type commands into the computer and describes what you will see on your computer screen. If you cannot run the software as you read the tutorials, you will still be able to learn about SQL but you will not have the opportunity to experiment on your own.
This tutorial assumes that you have already started ISQL and connected to the sample database. If you have not already done so, see the chapter "Using ISQL" or "Using Character-Mode ISQL".
Looking at the information in a table Ordering query results Selecting columns from a table Selecting rows from a table Comparing dates in queries Compound search conditions in the WHERE clause Pattern matching in search conditions Matching rows by sound Short cuts for typing search conditions