SELECT Statement: The GROUP BY Clause in SQL
- 10.1 Introduction
- 10.2 Grouping on One Column
- 10.3 Grouping on Two or More Columns
- 10.4 Grouping on Expressions
- 10.5 Grouping of Null Values
- 10.6 Grouping with Sorting
- 10.7 General Rules for the GROUP BY Clause
- 10.8 The GROUP_CONCAT Function
- 10.9 Complex Examples with GROUP BY
- 10.10 Grouping with WITH ROLLUP
- 10.11 Answers
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
10.1 Introduction
The GROUP BY clause groups rows on the basis of similarities among them. For example, we could group all the rows in the PLAYERS table on the basis of the place of residence. The result would be one group of players per town. From there, we could query the number of players in each group. The final result answers the question, how many players live in each town? Other examples are: How many matches has each team played, and how much has each player incurred in penalties? In short, the GROUP BY clause is frequently used to formulate questions based on the word per.
By adding aggregation functions, such as COUNT and SUM, to a select block with the use of a GROUP BY clause, data can be aggregated. These functions owe their name to this. Aggregation means that we ask for summations, averages, frequencies, and subtotals instead of individual values.