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

In Oracle:

SELECT 'Hello world' FROM dual

Dual equivalent in SQL Server:

SELECT 'Hello world' 

Answer 2

For DB2:

`VALUES('Hello world')`

You can do multiple "rows" as well:

`VALUES('Hello world'),('Goodbye world');`

You can even use them in joins as long as the types match:

VALUES(1,'Hello world')
UNION ALL
VALUES(2,'Goodbye world');

Answer 3

Try this.

Single:

SELECT *  FROM (VALUES ('Hello world')) t1 (col1) WHERE 1 = 1

Multi:

SELECT *  FROM (VALUES ('Hello world'),('Hello world'),('Hello world')) t1 (col1) WHERE 1 = 1

more detail here : http://modern-sql.com/use-case/select-without-from

Answer 4

There is another possibility - standalone VALUES():

VALUES ('Hello World');

Output:

column1
Hello World

---

It is useful when you need to specify multiple values in compact way:

VALUES (1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c');

Output:

column1     column2
      1     a
      2     b
      3     c

DBFiddle Demo

This syntax is supported by SQLite/PostgreSQL/DB LUW/MariaDB 10.3.

Answer 5

You can. I'm using the following lines in a StackExchange Data Explorer query:

SELECT
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM VotesOnPosts WHERE VoteTypeName = 'UpMod' AND UserId = @UserID AND PostTypeId = 2) AS TotalUpVotes,
(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Answers WHERE UserId = @UserID) AS TotalAnswers

The Data Exchange uses Transact-SQL (the SQL Server proprietary extensions to SQL).

You can try it yourself by running a query like:

SELECT 'Hello world'

Answer 6

In Standard SQL, no. A WHERE clause implies a table expression.

From the SQL-92 spec:

7.6 "where clause"

Function

Specify a table derived by the application of a "search condition" to the result of the preceding "from clause".

In turn:

7.4 "from clause"

Function

Specify a table derived from one or more named tables.

A Standard way of doing it (i.e. should work on any SQL product):

SELECT DISTINCT 'Hello world' AS new_value
  FROM AnyTableWithOneOrMoreRows
 WHERE 1 = 1;

...assuming you want to change the WHERE clause to something more meaningful, otherwise it can be omitted.