Lesson · 6 min

Select columns

Tables hold rows

A database stores data in tables. A table has columns (the kinds of facts) and rows (one record each). This course uses a small table named books:

id	title	author	genre	year	price
1	The Salt Road	Ines Marchetti	Adventure	2016	14.50
2	Paper Lanterns	Haruka Mori	Fantasy	2019	12.00

The table has eight books. The two rows above are only the start.

SELECT and FROM

A query says which columns you want and which table they come from.

SELECT genre FROM books;

SELECT lists the columns.
FROM names the table.
The semicolon ends the query.

To get more than one column, separate the names with commas.

SELECT title, year FROM books;

Your turn

Write one query for each task, one after the other. Each query ends with a semicolon. When you press Run, you get one result table for each query. Task 1 checks the first table, and task 2 checks the second.

Tasks

2 to do

Task 1, not checked yet. Write a query that selects only the title column from the books table.
Task 2, not checked yet. Below it, write a second query that selects the title and author columns, in that order.

Task 1 of 2

Write a query that selects only the title column from the books table.

All tasks

Select columns

Tables hold rows

SELECT and FROM

Your turn

Tasks

Output