count 2 value in a table

hi all pls kindly help
need to know how to do a count for 2 value in a column

example :
my table(entries)
has the field name 'selection'
under this selection, data inside have is e.g(apple,apple,pear,pear,pear,orange)
i need to do a COUNT on how many apple and pear there is inside this table

but i seriously have no idea, pls kindly help thanksThis sounds like homework from an "Introduction to databases" course, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt...SELECT Count(*), selection
FROM entries
GROUP BY selection
ORDER BY Count(*) DESC -- gratis-PatP|||SELECT Count(*), selection
FROM entries
GROUP BY selection
ORDER BY Count(*) DESC -- gratis

sorry for my ignorance..
wat u meant by DESC over here??

wat i want is to count how many pears and apple there is in that table but not orange|||DESC means descending, and you don't have to use it if you don't want to

did you want the total of apples and pears? that's different --

SELECT count(*) as applesandpears
FROM entries
WHERE selection in ('apple','pear')|||thanks so much...
really so basic

need to read up my books again :(|||Sorry, my background is showing :rolleyes:

Gratis is a Latin vulgate term that means "free of charge" or "complimentary". When I used it in a comment, I meant that I expected it to make things easier to use, without actually impacting the solution at all.

As Rudy pointed out, in this case it simply orders the result set so that the most frequently occuring items appear at the top of the list. You can safely ignore it if it doesn't help you.

-PatP|||ok got it ..
but still appreciated
:)