> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kinetica.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# SELECT Statement

```sql title="SELECT Statement Syntax" theme={null}
SELECT [DISTINCT | TOP <n>]
    <column expression> [EXCLUDE(<column exclusion list>)],...
FROM [<schema name>.]<table name> [<table alias>]
    [<join type> JOIN <join table name> [<join alias>] ON <join expr>],...
[WHERE <filtering expression list>]
[GROUP BY <grouping expression list>]
[HAVING <group filtering expression list>]
[ORDER BY <ordering expression list>]
[LIMIT [<offset>, ]<num rows>]
```

<Info>
  * In any *column expression*, a wildcard like `*` can be used to specify
    all columns, while `<table name/alias>.*` can be used to specify all
    columns from the given table.

  * The `EXCLUDE` function can be used to list columns to exclude from the
    wildcard expression it follows; for instance, the following can be
    used to select all columns from the employee table except for the `ssn`
    & `date_of_birth` columns:

    ```sql title="EXCLUDE Example" theme={null}
    SELECT e.* EXCLUDE(ssn, date_of_birth)
    FROM employee e
    ```

  * Table & column names can be double-quoted to use reserved words, e.g.,
    `"PERCENT"`; or to use numbers or special characters in column names,
    e.g., `"1234"` or `"key:value"`.

  * `TOP <n>` returns the first *n* records (up to *20000* records by
    default).

  * The *grouping expression list* may contain column names, aliases,
    expressions, or positions (e.g., `GROUP BY 2` to aggregate on the 2nd
    column in the `SELECT` list).

  * The *having expression list* may contain grouping expressions or any
    grouping expression aliases defined in the `SELECT` list.

  * The *ordering expression list* may contain column names, expressions, or
    column positions (e.g., `ORDER BY 2` to aggregate on the 2nd column in
    the `SELECT` list).  The default ordering is `ASC`.  The default null
    ordering is `NULLS FIRST` when using ascending order and `NULLS LAST`
    when using descending order.  The general format for each
    comma-separated ordering expression in the list is:

    ```sql title="ORDER BY Expression Syntax" theme={null}
    <column name/alias/expression/position> [ASC | DESC] [NULLS FIRST | NULLS LAST]
    ```

  * `LIMIT` applies paging to the result set, starting at the 0-based
    *offset* (if specified) and returning *num rows* records.
</Info>

```sql SELECT Example theme={null}
SELECT
    e.last_name || ', ' || e.first_name AS "Employee_Name",
    m.last_name || ', ' || m.first_name AS "Manager_Name"
FROM
    example.employee e
    LEFT JOIN example.employee m ON e.manager_id = m.id
WHERE
    e.dept_id IN (1, 2, 3)
ORDER BY
    m.id ASC NULLS FIRST,
    e.hire_date
```