Oracle^® Business Intelligence Server Administration Guide > Oracle BI Server SQL Reference > SQL Syntax and Semantics >

SELECT Query Specification Syntax

The SELECT statement is the basis for querying any structured query language (SQL) database. The Oracle BI Server accepts logical requests to query objects in a repository, and users (or query tools) make those logical requests with ordinary SQL SELECT statements. The server then translates the logical requests into physical queries against one or more data sources, combines the results to match the logical request, and returns the answer to the end user.

The SELECT statement, or query specification as it is sometimes referred to, is the way to query a decision support system through the Oracle BI Server. A SELECT statement returns a table to the client that matches the query. It is a table in the sense that the results are in the form of rows and columns.

The following is the basic syntax for the SELECT statement. The individual clauses are defined in the subsections that follow.

SELECT [DISTINCT] select_list

FROM from_clause

[WHERE search_condition]

[GROUP BY column {, column}

     [HAVING search_condition]]

[ORDER BY column {, column}]

where: