where-transact-sql.md

title	description	author	ms.author	ms.date	ms.service	ms.subservice	ms.topic	ms.custom	f1_keywords	helpviewer_keywords	dev_langs	monikerRange
WHERE (Transact-SQL)	WHERE (Transact-SQL)	VanMSFT	vanto	08/09/2017	sql	t-sql	reference	ignite-2024	WHERE_TSQL WHERE	retrieving rows clauses [SQL Server], WHERE WHERE clause, about WHERE clause row retrieval [SQL Server], WHERE clause WHERE clause	TSQL	>=aps-pdw-2016 || =azuresqldb-current || =azure-sqldw-latest || >=sql-server-2016 || >=sql-server-linux-2017 || =azuresqldb-mi-current || =fabric

WHERE (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw-fabricse-fabricdw-fabricsqldb]

Specifies the search condition for the rows returned by the query.

:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

[ WHERE <search_condition> ]  

Arguments

< search_condition > Defines the condition to be met for the rows to be returned. There is no limit to the number of predicates that can be included in a search condition. For more information about search conditions and predicates, see Search Condition (Transact-SQL).

Examples

The following examples show how to use some common search conditions in the WHERE clause.

A. Finding a row by using a simple equality

-- Uses AdventureWorksDW  
  
SELECT EmployeeKey, LastName  
FROM DimEmployee  
WHERE LastName = 'Smith' ;  

B. Finding rows that contain a value as part of a string

-- Uses AdventureWorksDW  
  
SELECT EmployeeKey, LastName  
FROM DimEmployee  
WHERE LastName LIKE ('%Smi%');  

C. Finding rows by using a comparison operator

-- Uses AdventureWorksDW  
  
SELECT EmployeeKey, LastName  
FROM DimEmployee  
WHERE EmployeeKey  <= 500;  

D. Finding rows that meet any of three conditions

-- Uses AdventureWorksDW  
  
SELECT EmployeeKey, LastName  
FROM DimEmployee  
WHERE EmployeeKey = 1 OR EmployeeKey = 8 OR EmployeeKey = 12;  

E. Finding rows that must meet several conditions

-- Uses AdventureWorksDW  
  
SELECT EmployeeKey, LastName  
FROM DimEmployee  
WHERE EmployeeKey <= 500 AND LastName LIKE '%Smi%' AND FirstName LIKE '%A%';  

F. Finding rows that are in a list of values

-- Uses AdventureWorksDW  
  
SELECT EmployeeKey, LastName  
FROM DimEmployee  
WHERE LastName IN ('Smith', 'Godfrey', 'Johnson');  

G. Finding rows that have a value between two values

-- Uses AdventureWorksDW  
  
SELECT EmployeeKey, LastName  
FROM DimEmployee  
WHERE EmployeeKey Between 100 AND 200;  

See Also

DELETE (Transact-SQL)
Predicates (Transact-SQL)
Search Condition (Transact-SQL)
SELECT (Transact-SQL)
UPDATE (Transact-SQL)
MERGE (Transact-SQL)