1) Data processing needs taking or receiving the data from a source and doing something with it. The same can be said about the transaction processing. When working along with a file, whether it be a fixed length, variable length, XML, or some other format, you have particular steps which should be followed to successfully obtain the data. Working along with the database is in many ways the same. Thus, the question here is just where does the SELECT statement fall into this process? Just what is this thing known as a SELECT statement?