Retrieving Multiple Columns
To retrieve multiple columns from a table, the same SELECT statement is used. The only difference is that multiple column names must be specified after the SELECT keyword, and each column must be separated by a comma.
Caution
Take Care with Commas When selecting multiple columns be sure to specify a comma between each column name, but not after the last column name. Doing so will generate an error.
The following SELECT statement retrieves three columns from the products table:
SELECT prod_id, prod_name, prod_price FROM Products;
Just as in the prior example, this statement uses the SELECT statement to retrieve data from the products table. In this example, three column names are specified, each separated by a comma. The output from this statement is shown below:
prod_id prod_name prod_price --------- -------------------- ---------- BNBG01 Fish bean bag toy 3.4900 BNBG02 Bird bean bag toy 3.4900 BNBG03 Rabbit bean bag toy 3.4900 BR01 8 inch teddy bear 5.9900 BR02 12 inch teddy bear 8.9900 BR03 18 inch teddy bear 11.9900 RGAN01 Raggedy Ann 4.9900
Note
Presentation of Data As you will notice in the above output, SQL statements typically return raw, unformatted data. Data formatting is a presentation issue, not a retrieval issue. Therefore, presentations (for example, displaying the above price values as currency amounts with the correct number of decimal places) are specified in the application that displays the data. Actual retrieved data (without application-provided formatting) is rarely used.