Selects

Specifying A Select Clause

You may not always want to select all columns from a database table. You can influence the select list of a query with the following methods.

Individual columns can contain fully-qualified names (some_table.some_column), table aliases (alias.some_column), and even set column aliases themselves (some_column AS c). The columns argument can be a single column, a list of columns (comma-separated), or an array of columns.

select

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

columns

string | array

false

"*"

A single column, list of columns, or array of columns to retrieve.

When calling select any previous columns are discarded. If you want to incrementally select columns, use the addSelect method.

If you pass no columns to this method, it will default to "*".

QueryBuilder
query.select( [ "fname AS firstName", "age" ] ).from( "users" );
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT `fname` AS `firstName`, `age` FROM `users`

distinct

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

state

boolean

false

true

Value to set the distinct flag.

Calling distinct will cause the query to be executed with the DISTINCT keyword.

QueryBuilder
query.select( "username" ).distinct().from( "users" );
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT DISTINCT `username` FROM `users`

distinct applies to the entire query, not just certain fields.

addSelect

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

columns

string | array

true

A single column, list of columns, or array of columns to add to the select.

This method adds the columns passed to it to the currently selected columns.

If the QueryBuilder is currently selecting all columns ("*") when this method is called, the incoming columns will becoming the only columns selected.

QueryBuilder
query.addSelect( [ "fname AS firstName", "age" ] ).from( "users" );
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT `fname` AS `firstName`, `age` FROM `users`

selectRaw

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

expression

any

true

The raw expression for the select statement.

bindings

array

false

[]

Any bindings needed for the raw expression.

A shortcut to use a raw expression in the select clause.

The expression is added to the other already selected columns.

(To learn more about raw and expressions, check out the docs on Raw Expressions.)

QueryBuilder
query.selectRaw( "YEAR(birthdate) AS birth_year" ).from( "users" );
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT YEAR(birthdate) AS birth_year FROM `users`

subSelect

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

alias

string

true

The alias for the subselect expression.

query

Function | QueryBuilder

true

The callback or query to use in the subselect.

The method lets you pass either a callback or a QueryBuilder instance to be used as a subselect expression. If a callback is passed it will be passed a new query instance as the only parameter.

The subselect is added to the other already selected columns.

QueryBuilder
query.subSelect( "last_login_date", function( q ) {
    q.selectRaw( "MAX(created_date)" )
        .from( "logins" )
        .whereColumn( "users.id", "logins.user_id" );
} ) ).from( "users" );
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT (
    SELECT MAX(created_date)
    FROM `logins`
    WHERE `users`.`id` = `logins`.`user_id`
) AS `last_login_date`
FROM `users

clearSelect

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

No arguments

``

Clears out the selected columns for a query along with any configured select bindings.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .select( [ "fname AS firstName", "age" ] )
    .clearSelect();
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT * FROM `users`

reselect

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

columns

string | array

false

"*"

A single column, list of columns, or array of columns to retrieve.

Clears out the selected columns for a query along with any configured select bindings. Then sets a selection of columns to select from the query. Any valid argument to select can be passed here.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .select( [ "fname AS firstName", "age" ] )
    .reselect( "username" );
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT `username` FROM `users`

reselectRaw

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

expression

any

true

The raw expression for the select statement.

bindings

array

false

[]

Any bindings needed for the raw expression.

Clears out the selected columns for a query along with any configured select bindings. Then adds an Expression or array of expressions to the already selected columns.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .select( [ "fname AS firstName", "age" ] )
    .reselectRaw( "YEAR(birthdate) AS birth_year" );
SQL (MySQL)
SELECT YEAR(birthdate) AS birth_year FROM `users`

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