# Read data from a table using the CQL `SELECT` statement in Amazon Keyspaces
In the [Inserting and loading data into an Amazon Keyspaces table](getting-started.dml.create.md) section, you used the `SELECT` statement to verify that you had successfully added data to your table. In this section, you refine your use of `SELECT` to display specific columns, and only rows that meet specific criteria.
The general form of the `SELECT` statement is as follows.
```
SELECT column_list FROM table_name [WHERE condition [ALLOW FILTERING]] ;
```
**Topics**
+ [Select all the data in your table](#getting-started.dml.read.all)
+ [Select a subset of columns](#getting-started.dml.read.columns)
+ [Select a subset of rows](#getting-started.dml.read.rows)
## Select all the data in your table
The simplest form of the `SELECT` statement returns all the data in your table.
**Important**
In a production environment, it's typically not a best practice to run this command, because it returns all the data in your table.
**To select all your table's data**
1. Open AWS CloudShell and connect to Amazon Keyspaces using the following command. Make sure to update *us-east-1* with your own Region.
```
cqlsh-expansion cassandra.us-east-1.amazonaws.com 9142 --ssl
```
1. Run the following query.
```
SELECT * FROM catalog.book_awards ;
```
Using the wild-card character ( `*` ) for the `column_list` selects all columns. The output of the statement looks like the following example.
```
year | award | category | rank | author | book_title | publisher
------+------------------+-------------+------+--------------------+-----------------------+---------------
2020 | Wolf | Non-Fiction | 1 | Wang Xiulan | History of Ideas | AnyPublisher
2020 | Wolf | Non-Fiction | 2 | Ana Carolina Silva | Science Today | SomePublisher
2020 | Wolf | Non-Fiction | 3 | Shirley Rodriguez | The Future of Sea Ice | AnyPublisher
2020 | Kwesi Manu Prize | Fiction | 1 | Akua Mansa | Where did you go? | SomePublisher
2020 | Kwesi Manu Prize | Fiction | 2 | John Stiles | Yesterday | Example Books
2020 | Kwesi Manu Prize | Fiction | 3 | Nikki Wolf | Moving to the Chateau | AnyPublisher
2020 | Richard Roe | Fiction | 1 | Alejandro Rosalez | Long Summer | SomePublisher
2020 | Richard Roe | Fiction | 2 | Arnav Desai | The Key | Example Books
2020 | Richard Roe | Fiction | 3 | Mateo Jackson | Inside the Whale | AnyPublisher
```
## Select a subset of columns
**To query for a subset of columns**
1. Open AWS CloudShell and connect to Amazon Keyspaces using the following command. Make sure to update *us-east-1* with your own Region.
```
cqlsh-expansion cassandra.us-east-1.amazonaws.com 9142 --ssl
```
1. To retrieve only the `award`, `category`, and `year` columns, run the following query.
```
SELECT award, category, year FROM catalog.book_awards ;
```
The output contains only the specified columns in the order listed in the `SELECT` statement.
```
award | category | year
------------------+-------------+------
Wolf | Non-Fiction | 2020
Wolf | Non-Fiction | 2020
Wolf | Non-Fiction | 2020
Kwesi Manu Prize | Fiction | 2020
Kwesi Manu Prize | Fiction | 2020
Kwesi Manu Prize | Fiction | 2020
Richard Roe | Fiction | 2020
Richard Roe | Fiction | 2020
Richard Roe | Fiction | 2020
```
## Select a subset of rows
When querying a large dataset, you might only want records that meet certain criteria. To do this, you can append a `WHERE` clause to the end of our `SELECT` statement.
**To query for a subset of rows**
1. Open AWS CloudShell and connect to Amazon Keyspaces using the following command. Make sure to update *us-east-1* with your own Region.
```
cqlsh-expansion cassandra.us-east-1.amazonaws.com 9142 --ssl
```
1. To retrieve only the records for the awards of a given year, run the following query.
```
SELECT * FROM catalog.book_awards WHERE year=2020 AND award='Wolf' ;
```
The preceding `SELECT` statement returns the following output.
```
year | award | category | rank | author | book_title | publisher
------+-------+-------------+------+--------------------+-----------------------+---------------
2020 | Wolf | Non-Fiction | 1 | Wang Xiulan | History of Ideas | AnyPublisher
2020 | Wolf | Non-Fiction | 2 | Ana Carolina Silva | Science Today | SomePublisher
2020 | Wolf | Non-Fiction | 3 | Shirley Rodriguez | The Future of Sea Ice | AnyPublisher
```
### Understanding the `WHERE` clause
The `WHERE` clause is used to filter the data and return only the data that meets the specified criteria. The specified criteria can be a simple condition or a compound condition.
**How to use conditions in a `WHERE` clause**
+ A simple condition – A single column.
```
WHERE column_name=value
```
You can use a simple condition in a `WHERE` clause if any of the following conditions are met:
+ The column is the only partition key column of the table.
+ You add `ALLOW FILTERING` after the condition in the `WHERE` clause.
Be aware that using `ALLOW FILTERING` can result in inconsistent performance, especially with large, and multi-partitioned tables.
+ A compound condition – Multiple simple conditions connected by `AND`.
```
WHERE column_name1=value1 AND column_name2=value2 AND column_name3=value3...
```
You can use compound conditions in a `WHERE` clause if any of the following conditions are met:
+ The columns you can use in the `WHERE` clause need to include either all or a subset of the columns in the table's partition key. If you want to use only a subset of the columns in the `WHERE` clause, you must include a contiguous set of partition key columns from left to right, beginning with the partition key's leading column. For example, if the partition key columns are `year`, `month`, and `award` then you can use the following columns in the `WHERE` clause:
+ `year`
+ `year` AND `month`
+ `year` AND `month` AND `award`
+ You add `ALLOW FILTERING` after the compound condition in the `WHERE` clause, as in the following example.
```
SELECT * FROM my_table WHERE col1=5 AND col2='Bob' ALLOW FILTERING ;
```
Be aware that using `ALLOW FILTERING` can result in inconsistent performance, especially with large, and multi-partitioned tables.
### Try it
Create your own CQL queries to find the following from your `book_awards` table:
+ Find the winners of the 2020 Wolf awards and display the book titles and authors, ordered by rank.
+ Show the first prize winners for all awards in 2020 and display the book titles and award names.