What is the relationship between the SELECT and WHERE operators in SQL queries?

The SELECT operator in SQL is responsible for choosing specific columns from a table, i.e., defining what data we want to retrieve. The WHERE operator is used for filtering rows — it sets the condition for selecting only those records that satisfy it.

The relationship is that first WHERE filters the needed rows from the table, and then SELECT chooses the specified columns from these rows. For example:

SELECT name, age FROM users WHERE age > 18;

Here, first all users older than 18 are selected (WHERE age > 18), and then only the name and age columns are retrieved.,