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Here's a preview from my zine, Become a SELECT Star!! If you want to see more comics like this, sign up for my saturday comics newsletter or browse more comics!

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A SQL database contains a bunch of tables

sales:

client item
x x
x x
x x

clients:

id name
x x
x x
x x

cats:

owner name
x x
x x
x x

Every SELECT query takes data from those tables and outputs table of results.

cats:

owner name
1 daisy
1 dragonsnap
3 buttercup
4 rose

query:

SELECT *
FROM cats
WHERE owner = 1

query output

owner name
1 daisy
1 dragonsnap

A few basic facts to start out:

  • SELECT queries have to be written in the order:
    SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE ... GROUP BY ... HAVING ... ORDER BY ... LIMIT
  • SQL isn’t case sensitive: select * from table is fine too.

This zine will use ALL CAPS for SQL keywords like FROM.

smiling stick figure with curly hair: there are other kinds of queries like INSERT/ UPDATE / DELETE but this zine is just about SELECT