---
title: "Overview"
id: queries-overview
pg_version: "20devel"
---

<a id="queries-overview"></a>

## 7.1. Overview

The process of retrieving or the command to retrieve data from a database is called a *query*. In SQL the [`SELECT`](sql-select.md) command is used to specify queries. The general syntax of the `SELECT` command is ```
WITH with_queries SELECT select_list FROM table_expression sort_specification
```

 The following sections describe the details of the select list, the table expression, and the sort specification. `WITH` queries are treated last since they are an advanced feature. 

A simple kind of query has the form: 
SELECT * FROM table1;
 Assuming that there is a table called `table1`, this command would retrieve all rows and all user-defined columns from `table1`. (The method of retrieval depends on the client application. For example, the psql program will display an ASCII-art table on the screen, while client libraries will offer functions to extract individual values from the query result.) The select list specification `*` means all columns that the table expression happens to provide. A select list can also select a subset of the available columns or make calculations using the columns. For example, if `table1` has columns named `a`, `b`, and `c` (and perhaps others) you can make the following query: 
SELECT a, b + c FROM table1;
 (assuming that `b` and `c` are of a numerical data type). See [Section 7.3](queries-select-lists.md) for more details. 

`FROM table1` is a simple kind of table expression: it reads just one table. In general, table expressions can be complex constructs of base tables, joins, and subqueries. But you can also omit the table expression entirely and use the `SELECT` command as a calculator: 
SELECT 3 * 4;
 This is more useful if the expressions in the select list return varying results. For example, you could call a function this way: 
SELECT random();