Using Conditional Retrieval › The WHERE Clause

The WHERE Clause

You can screen the data being retrieved by using the WHERE clause in a SELECT statement. In the WHERE clause, you specify selection criteria. The WHERE clause filters out rows that do not meet the selection criteria. The WHERE clause follows the FROM clause:

select ...
       from ...
       where ...
       order by ...;

Components of the WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause is made up of two components:

• The keyword WHERE
• A search condition

A search condition is made up of predicates. In general, predicates compare values to one another. If the values meet the comparison, the row is selected.