Summary

In this chapter, we have looked at many variants of the SELECT clause to retrieve data from the database. Information can be selected using very basic SQL statements to very long and complicated queries. Understanding how to get and organize information is very important for both the database administrator and application developer. We have also taken a quick look at how to call a stored procedure using the DB2 Command Processor. DB2 introduced this capability with v7. Prior to this, stored procedures could only be called from an application program. Part 2, DB2 UDB Family Application Development, discusses stored procedures in greater detail.

Although we have covered numerous methods for retrieving data, the Database Administration Guide goes into more depth about data retrieval. In this chapter, we have covered enough to gain a good understanding of data retrieval for both the Fundamental Exam and the Application Development Exam.

In the next chapter, data manipulation language is expanded upon as we look at methods to modify the data that is in the database.