Generating Multi-table Queries - Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.4 for Effective MySQL Management - page 214

To display all the columns in the author table, we would choose `author`.* and
check the Show checkbox, without entering anything in the Sort and the Criteria
boxes. In our case, we select `author`.`name` , as we want to enter some criteria for
the author's name.
Sorting columns
For each selected individual column, we can specify a sort (in Ascending or
Descending order), or let this line remain intact (no sorting, which is the default
behavior). If we choose more than one sorted column, the sorting will be carried out
from left to right.
When we ask for a column to be sorted, we normally check the
Show checkbox. But this is not necessary, as we might want to do
just the sorting operation without displaying this column.
Showing a column
We check the Show checkbox so that we can see the column in the results.
Sometimes, we may just want to apply a criterion on a column, and not include it
in the resulting page. Here, we add the phone column, ask for it to be sorted, and
choose to show both the name and the phone number. We also ask for a sort on the
name in the ascending order. The sort will be done first by name, and then by the
phone number if the names are identical. This is because the name is in a column
criterion to the left of the phone column, and thus has a higher priority.
Updating the query
At any point, we can click on the Update Query button to see the progress of our
generated query. We have to click it at least once before executing the query. For
now, let us click it and see the query generated in the query area. In the following
examples, we will click on the Update Query button after each modification.