PostgreSQL 7.1.3 Documentation
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# 4.5. Querying a Table

The `weather` table can be queried with normal relational selection and projection queries. A SQL SELECT statement is used to do this. The statement is divided into a target list (the part that lists the columns to be returned) and a qualification (the part that specifies any restrictions). For example, to retrieve all the rows of weather, type:

    SELECT * FROM weather;

and the output should be:

    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+
    |city          | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date       |
    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+
    |San Francisco | 46      | 50      | 0.25 | 1994-11-27 |
    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+
    |San Francisco | 43      | 57      | 0    | 1994-11-29 |
    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+
    |Hayward       | 37      | 54      |      | 1994-11-29 |
    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+

You may specify any arbitrary expressions in the target list. For example, you can do:

    SELECT city, (temp_hi+temp_lo)/2 AS temp_avg, date FROM weather;

Arbitrary Boolean operators (AND, OR and NOT) are allowed in the qualification of any query. For example,

    SELECT * FROM weather
        WHERE city = 'San Francisco'
        AND prcp > 0.0;

results in:

    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+
    |city          | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date       |
    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+
    |San Francisco | 46      | 50      | 0.25 | 1994-11-27 |
    +--------------+---------+---------+------+------------+

As a final note, you can specify that the results of a select can be returned in a sorted order or with duplicate rows removed.

    SELECT DISTINCT city
        FROM weather
        ORDER BY city;

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