What does the SQL clause SELECT and FROM do?

• A. Select column from table
• B. Filter by a condition
• C. Sort results
• D. Delete rows

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how data is retrieved from a database. The SELECT part decides which columns or expressions you want to see in the result. The FROM part identifies where those columns come from—the table (or tables) that hold the data.

For example, asking for SELECT name, salary FROM employees asks the database to fetch the name and salary columns from the employees table and return them in the result set. The SELECT clause shapes the output, while the FROM clause specifies the data source.

Other common SQL actions live in different parts of a query: filtering rows you use a WHERE clause, sorting results you use ORDER BY, and removing data you use a DELETE statement.