# Related Sites > SQL Course >  Hello, rank beginner here. Extremely basic question....

## Rymbeld

Hi,
I've started teaching myself SQL for fun. I read "The Manga Guide to Databases" to get an overview then discovered this site. At any rate, I just started and am curious about the very first set of exercises. When I write:




> select *
> from empinfo
> where age > 40;


I get an error. The correct answer is




> select * from empinfo
> where age > 40;


Is there a special property of "*" such that it needs to be on the same line as the FROM statement? Because the following two are equivalent and return the same thing, and neither give me an error message:




> select age 
> from empinfo





> select age from empinfo


I realise this is probably a silly question, but there you have it.

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## SpywareDr

According to w3schools.com, it looks like the correct SQL SELECT Syntax is:

SELECT _column_name,column_name_
FROM _table_name;_
and

SELECT * FROM _table_name;_
It doesn't explain why, just that's the way it is. <shrug>  :Smilie:

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