Gain insights into fundamental database concepts, relational databases, and entity-relationship diagrams. Learn about normalization techniques and basics of SQL to enhance database efficiency.

Databases are universal - they underlie the technology you use every day. They're a crucial component of everything from telecommunications systems, banking systems, and video games to just about any other software system that maintains some amount of persistent data.

In this course, you'll learn about the fundamental concepts of databases, why and when they're used, what relational databases are, and entity-relationship diagrams. You will also be exposed to techniques like normalization that help to increase the efficiency of databases. You'll wrap up with a look at the basics of Structured Query Language (SQL). 

After completing this course, you will be able to move onto more advanced courses involving database systems and SQL.

Database Design Fundamentals for Software Engineers

## The SELECT clause

The SQL **SELECT** statement is used to fetch the data from a database table that returns this data in the form of a result table. These result tables are called **result-sets**.

### Syntax

The basic syntax of the `SELECT` statement is as follows:

```sql
SELECT column1, column2, ... columnN FROM table_name;
```

Here, `SELECT` specifies the column1, column2… to be selected and the `FROM` clause specifies from which table these columns are to be selected.
 
If you want to fetch all the fields available in the table, then you can use the following syntax:

```sql
SELECT * FROM table_name;
```

### Example

Consider the CUSTOMERS table we used in the last lesson:

| ID  | NAME| AGE  | ADDRESS  | SALARY |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1     | Mark  |  32   | Texas | 50000.00 |
| 2    | John   |  25   | NY    | 65000.00  |
| 3    | Emily |   23   | Ohio   | 20000.00 |
| 4    | Bill |   25    | Chicago | 75000.00 |
| 5    | Tom   | 27     | Washington | 35000.00    |
| 6     | Jane    |  22 |  Texas | 45000.00    |

# The SELECT clause

The SQL **SELECT** statement is used to fetch the data from a database table that returns this data in the form of a result table. These result tables are called **result-sets**.

## Syntax

The basic syntax of the `SELECT` statement is as follows:

```sql
SELECT column1, column2, ... columnN FROM table_name;
```

Here, `SELECT` specifies the column1, column2… to be selected and the `FROM` clause specifies from which table these columns are to be selected.
 
If you want to fetch all the fields available in the table, then you can use the following syntax:

```sql
SELECT * FROM table_name;
```

## Example

Consider the CUSTOMERS table we used in the last lesson:

| ID  | NAME| AGE  | ADDRESS  | SALARY |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1     | Mark  |  32   | Texas | 50000.00 |
| 2    | John   |  25   | NY    | 65000.00  |
| 3    | Emily |   23   | Ohio   | 20000.00 |
| 4    | Bill |   25    | Chicago | 75000.00 |
| 5    | Tom   | 27     | Washington | 35000.00    |
| 6     | Jane    |  22 |  Texas | 45000.00    |

In this lesson, we will take a look at the SELECT statement.

Introduction

Fundamental Concepts

Data Modeling

Entity-Relationship Data Model

The Relational Data Model

Functional Dependencies

Normalization

Structured Query Language

Conclusion

The SELECT Clause

The SELECT clause

Syntax