The following table shows us how to retrieve information for some commonly used functions:
| Function | Hive |
| Retrieving Information (General) | SELECT from_columns FROM table WHERE conditions; |
| Retrieving All Values | SELECT * FROM table; |
| Retrieving Some Values | SELECT * FROM table WHERE rec_name = "value"; |
| Retrieving With Multiple Criteria | SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE rec1 = "value1" AND rec2 = "value2"; |
| Retrieving Specific Columns | SELECT column_name FROM table; |
| Retrieving Unique Output | SELECT DISTINCT column_name FROM table; |
| Sorting | SELECT col1, col2 FROM table ORDER BY col2; |
| Sorting Reverse | SELECT col1, col2 FROM table ORDER BY col2 DESC; |
| Counting Rows | SELECT COUNT(*) FROM table; |
| Grouping With Counting | SELECT owner, COUNT(*) FROM table GROUP BY owner; |
| Maximum Value | SELECT MAX(col_name) AS label FROM table; |
| Selecting from multiple tables (Join same table using alias w/"AS") | SELECT pet.name, comment FROM pet JOIN event ON (pet.name = event.name) |