SELECT from nothing?

Question

Is it possible to have a statement like

SELECT \"Hello world\"
WHERE 1 = 1

in SQL?

The main thing I want to know, is can I SELECT f

Answer 1

Here is the most complete list of database support of dual from https://blog.jooq.org/tag/dual-table/:

In many other RDBMS, there is no need for dummy tables, as you can issue statements like these:

SELECT 1;
SELECT 1 + 1;
SELECT SQRT(2);

These are the RDBMS, where the above is generally possible:

• H2
• MySQL
• Ingres
• Postgres
• SQLite
• SQL Server
• Sybase ASE

In other RDBMS, dummy tables are required, like in Oracle. Hence, you’ll need to write things like these:

SELECT 1       FROM DUAL;
SELECT 1 + 1   FROM DUAL;
SELECT SQRT(2) FROM DUAL;

These are the RDBMS and their respective dummy tables:

• DB2: SYSIBM.DUAL
• Derby: SYSIBM.SYSDUMMY1
• H2: Optionally supports DUAL
• HSQLDB: INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SYSTEM_USERS
• MySQL: Optionally supports DUAL
• Oracle: DUAL
• Sybase SQL Anywhere: SYS.DUMMY

Ingres has no DUAL, but would actually need it as in Ingres you cannot have a WHERE, GROUP BY or HAVING clause without a FROM clause.