SQL Where

The SQL Where clause in the SQL Language allows you to filter data when you query a database.

Let-s look at the following query that gets data from the customer table:

select * from customer;

Here are the results:

![SNAGHTML12455244](../../assets/blog/2012/06/SNAGHTML12455244_thumb.png)

Now, I only need to get the -Dell- customers. In order to do that, I have to use the **where** clause.

Let-s add that to the query:

select * from customer where customer_company='Dell';

When I execute this query, I get the following results:

![SNAGHTML12483938](../../assets/blog/2012/06/SNAGHTML12483938_thumb.png)

So I have filtered the records from 6 down to 2.

Notice the following part of the query:

customer_company='Dell';

The red part is how Microsoft SQL Server represents a string. It knows it is a string, because of the single tick (’) marks.

All strings need to be enclosed in these.

Let-s show an example where we want everyone except for Dell customers:

select * from customer where customer_company != 'Dell';

Instead of using the -=- sign, we use the -!=- which says -Not Equal-.

Here are the results:

We have filtered out the 2 Dell records.

That is the basics of the where clause.

Please leave any comments or questions below.