Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 DBA Survival Guide, Second Edition

An Overview of Basic SQL Statements

The number of different types of SQL statements you can execute is tremendous. Using SQL, you can perform tasks such as a simple table query, creating tables, executing stored procedures and even assigning user rights. This primer will focus on retrieving, updating, and reporting on data from client applications. For this purpose, the most important SQL statements you need to know are SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE...TABLE, and SELECT...INTO. A brief description of these commands is shown in Table 21.1.

Table 21.1. Important SQL Statements

Command	Description
SELECT	Retrieves columns and rows from a table or tables
INSERT	Adds rows to a table
UPDATE	Updates columns in existing rows in a table
DELETE	Deletes rows ...