PostgreSQL supports various commands and queries to manipulate the tables' data. For example, the CREATE TABLE command creates a new table, the UPDATE TABLE command modifies an existing table, and the DROP TABLE removes a table, etc.

SELECT is one of the most often-used commands in Postgres that selects a specific record, multiple records, or all records from a specific table. The SELECT command is executed with the “*” symbol to select all data from a Postgres table.

This post demonstrates how to select all from a specific Postgres table.

How to Select/Fetch All From a Postgres Table?

Use the “SELECT *” command followed by the FROM clause and then the table’s name to select all from a specific Postgres table:

SELECT * 
FROM tab_name;

Let’s understand it via the following example.

Example 1: Selecting All From a Table

We have already created a Postgres table named “emp_data”. To fetch all from the “emp_data” table, use the “SELECT *” command:

SELECT * FROM emp_data;

The SELECT * command retrieves all the records from the “emp_data” table.

Example 2: SELECT * With ORDER BY Clause

The ORDER BY clause is optional for sorting a table in ascending or descending order.

SELECT * 
FROM tab_name
[ORDER BY col_name ASC | DESC];

The below code demonstrates how to get all table data in a particular order:

SELECT * 
FROM emp_data
ORDER BY emp_id ASC;

This time, the SELECT * command returns the table’s records in ascending order. To get the data in descending order, use the “DESC” keyword in the ORDER BY clause:

SELECT * 
FROM emp_data
ORDER BY emp_id DESC;

The SELECT * command fetches the table’s data in descending order.

Example 3: SELECT * With GROUP BY Clause

Use the GROUP BY clause with the “SELECT *” command to fetch all the records and divide them into a specific group:

SELECT joining_date, COUNT(emp_id)
FROM emp_data
GROUP BY joining_date;

In the above snippet, the COUNT() function counts the number of employee ids, and the GROUP BY clause groups the employee’s ids based on their joining_date:

This way, the group by clause groups the table’s data into specific groups.

Conclusion

In PostgreSQL, the SELECT command selects a specific record, multiple records, or all records of a specific table. The SELECT statement is executed with the “*” symbol to select all the data from a particular Postgres table. The ORDER BY clause can be used with the SELECT * command to sort the result set in a particular order. This post presented detailed knowledge on selecting all from a Postgres table.