How to Build a SQL Query

Need to retrieve data from a database?

A typical SQL query consists of these clauses:

• SELECT to choose columns
• FROM to specify the table
• JOIN to combine related tables
• WHERE to filter rows
• GROUP BY to group results
• HAVING to filter groups
• ORDER BY to sort data
• OFFSET / FETCH or LIMIT to paginate

Not every query needs every clause, but this is the structure you'll see in most SQL statements.

Understanding what each clause does makes reading and writing SQL much easier.