The SQL statement used to retrieve data from a database is the SELECT statement.



The SELECT statement is one of the most commonly used statements in SQL (Structured Query Language) and is used to retrieve data from one or more tables in a database. It allows you to specify the columns and rows you want to retrieve, as well as any conditions or filters to apply to the data.



The basic syntax of the SELECT statement is as follows:

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

- SELECT: This keyword is used to specify the columns or expressions that you want to retrieve from the database.
- column1, column2, ...: These are the names of the columns you want to retrieve. You can specify multiple columns separated by commas or use the "*" wildcard character to retrieve all columns.
- FROM: This keyword is used to specify the table or tables from which you want to retrieve data.
- table_name: This is the name of the table from which you want to retrieve data.
- WHERE: This keyword is used to specify the conditions or filters to apply to the data. It is optional, but commonly used to retrieve specific rows based on certain criteria.



Let's consider an example to better understand the usage of the SELECT statement. Suppose we have a table named "employees" with the following columns: "id", "name", "age", and "salary". We want to retrieve the names and salaries of all employees whose age is greater than 30.

The SQL statement would be:

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
WHERE age > 30;

This statement will retrieve the "name" and "salary" columns from the "employees" table, but only for those employees whose age is greater than 30.

In summary, the SELECT statement is used to retrieve data from a database by specifying the columns and rows you want to retrieve, as well as any conditions or filters to apply to the data.