Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Unleashed, Second Edition

SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE

Four basic SQL statements allow you to retrieve and modify data in tables. SELECT retrieves data from one or more tables, INSERT inserts rows into one table, UPDATE modifies rows in one table, and DELETE removes rows from one table.

NOTE If you are already familiar with these statements, you might want to just skim this section.

You could easily fill a book with examples and explanations of these statements (in fact, many authors already have). This section covers the major parts of syntax and shows some basic examples.

The SELECT Statement

The SELECT statement has the following basic syntax:

SELECT [DISTINCT] [TOP N [PERCENT]] column1 [AS column_heading] 
       [, column2 [AS column_heading], ...]
 [INTO new_table_name ...