Greetings! In the previous lessons, we immersed ourselves in the basics of SQL, learned about databases, and discussed the SELECT statement. We practiced those concepts using data from an online shopping platform. This lesson brings us to another important aspect of SQL — the WHERE clause. With this tool, we'll be able to narrow down our data retrieval to only select the records that meet certain conditions.

The WHERE clause is an essential part of SQL used to filter records. This clause extracts only those records from a table that fulfill a specified condition. The WHERE clause can be used with SQL commands like SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, etc. It significantly enhances our ability to interact with a database by allowing us to retrieve targeted data instead of complete sets of records.

The syntax of the WHERE clause looks like this:

In this syntax, after the SELECT statement and the FROM statement, we add the WHERE clause followed by a condition. The condition is what we set to filter our data. If the condition is true for a record, then that record is selected.

Before we dive into examples of using the WHERE clause, let's familiarize ourselves with the Orders table. This table stores details about orders placed on the online shopping platform and includes the following columns:

Let's see the WHERE clause in action to fetch orders from a specific year. Suppose you want to know all the orders placed after the year 2020. Here's how you would write the SQL query:

This query uses the WHERE clause to filter orders where the order_date year is greater than 2020. Note how we used the YEAR() function on order_date for this query, as order_date is a DATE type column.

Well done for getting through this new concept. We've just learned what the WHERE clause is, how its syntax works, and how it helps us customize our data retrieval process. By using the WHERE clause, we were able to retrieve all orders placed after 2020 from the Orders table.

Next, in our practice exercises, we'll be using the WHERE clause extensively to create more selective queries. Remember, mastery comes with practice. So head over to the exercises and give it a go! Soon enough, you'll be navigating SQL databases like a pro!