FROM clause

The FROM clause is used to specify the table or view to query. It can also be used to specify targets beyond just a single table or record name.

Syntax

Clause Syntax
STATEMENT
    [FROM [ONLY] @targets;]

Data retrieval

One of the most common use cases for the FROM clause is to specify the table or view to query. You can use this clause to pull data from single or multiple tables.

All the ways you can use the FROM clause
-- Selects all records from both 'user' and 'admin' tables.
SELECT * FROM user, admin;

-- Selects all records from the table named in the variable '$table',
-- but only if the 'admin' field of those records is true.
-- Equivalent to 'SELECT * FROM user WHERE admin = true'.
LET $table = "user";
SELECT * FROM type::table($table) WHERE admin = true;

-- Selects a single record from:
-- * the table named in the variable '$table',
-- * and the identifier named in the variable '$id'.
-- This query is equivalent to 'SELECT * FROM user:admin'.
LET $table = "user";
LET $id = "admin";
SELECT * FROM type::thing($table, $id);

-- Selects all records for specific users 'tobie' and 'jaime',
-- as well as all records for the company 'surrealdb'.
SELECT * FROM user:tobie, user:jaime, company:surrealdb;

-- Selects records from a list of identifiers. The identifiers can be numerical,
-- string, or specific records such as 'person:lrym5gur8hzws72ux5fa'.
SELECT * FROM [3648937, "test", person:lrym5gur8hzws72ux5fa, person:4luro9170uwcv1xrfvby];

-- Selects data from an object that includes a 'person' key,
-- which is associated with a specific person record, and an 'embedded' key set to true.
SELECT * FROM { person: person:lrym5gur8hzws72ux5fa, embedded: true };

-- This command first performs a subquery, which selects all 'user' records and adds a
-- computed 'adult' field that is true if the user's 'age' is 18 or older.
-- The main query then selects all records from this subquery where 'adult' is true.
SELECT * FROM (SELECT age >= 18 AS adult FROM user) WHERE adult = true;

Using the ONLY keyword

The ONLY keyword can be used to specify that only the specified targets should be retrieved. This is useful when you want to retrieve data from a single table or view. The ONLY keyword can be used in conjunction with the LIMIT clause to specify that only the specified number of records should be retrieved.

This keyword can be particularly useful with SDKs as it can guaranteed to have just a single object and that makes it nicer to deserialise.

Using the ONLY keyword
-- Select only the 'user' table.
SELECT * FROM ONLY user:one ;

-- Selects only the first 10 records from the 'user' table.
SELECT * FROM ONLY user LIMIT 10;