# Reading Data

Use the `SELECT` statement to read data. You can specify restrictions with
the `WHERE` clause. For example:

```default
SELECT * FROM my_keyspace.users
  WHERE user_id = 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000;
```

Let’s break down the components of this `SELECT` statement:

**Keyspace and Table**

`my_keyspace.users`: This specifies the keyspace and table from which you
want to retrieve data. In this example, you are selecting data from a table
named `users` within the `my_keyspace` keyspace.

**Columns to Retrieve**
In this example, `*` is used as a wildcard character to select all columns
from the specified table. This means that you want to retrieve all columns of
data for rows that match the specified restriction.

**WHERE Clause**

`WHERE user_id = 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000`: This part of
the statement specifies a restriction for filtering the rows to retrieve.

When you execute this `SELECT` statement, ScyllaDB will retrieve all columns
for rows that meet the specified restriction from the `users` table within
the `my_keyspace` keyspace. You can use more complex restrictions in
the `WHERE` clause to filter data based on various criteria.

In summary, the `SELECT` statement in ScyllaDB is used to query data from
a table within a keyspace. You can specify which columns to retrieve and apply
filtering restrictions using the `WHERE` clause to fetch specific rows that
match your criteria.

See the details about the [SELECT statement](https://docs.scylladb.com/manual/stable/cql/dml/select.html)
in the ScyllaDB documentation.