How to do it...

Select all data from the departments table of the employee database. You can use an asterisk (*) to select all columns from a table. It is not recommended to use it, you should always select only the data you need:

mysql> SELECT * FROM departments;
+---------+--------------------+
| dept_no | dept_name          |
+---------+--------------------+
| d009    | Customer Service   |
| d005    | Development        |
| d002    | Finance            |
| d003    | Human Resources    |
| d001    | Marketing          |
| d004    | Production         |
| d006    | Quality Management |
| d008    | Research           |
| d007    | Sales              |
+---------+--------------------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)