What is the SELECT operator in SQL?

The SELECT operator is used to retrieve data from one or more tables in a database.

Main components of the SELECT operator:

• SELECT: Specifies the columns to be retrieved.
• FROM: Indicates the table(s) from which data is extracted.
• WHERE: Applies conditions to filter rows.
• GROUP BY: Groups rows with the same values in specified columns.
• HAVING: Applies conditions to groups created by GROUP BY.
• ORDER BY: Sorts the result set.

Example:

SELECT column1, column2 -- Select data from columns column1 and column2
FROM table_name          -- Retrieve data from the table named table_name
WHERE condition          -- Apply condition to filter rows
ORDER BY column1 DESC;   -- Sort the result in descending order of column1