In this article, we are going to thoroughly explore the topic of Group by (SQL) and all aspects related to it. From its origin to its impact on current society, through its evolution over time and its influence on different fields of study. Group by (SQL) is a topic of great importance both historically and in the current context, and it is essential to understand it to have a complete vision of its relevance in today's world. Through this article, we are going to analyze in depth each aspect of Group by (SQL) and provide a detailed overview that helps us understand its role and meaning today.
A GROUP BY clause in SQL specifies that a SQL SELECT statement partitions result rows into groups, based on their values in one or several columns. Typically, grouping is used to apply some sort of aggregate function for each group.[1][2]
The result of a query using a GROUP BY clause contains one row for each group. This implies constraints on the columns that can appear in the associated SELECT clause. As a general rule, the SELECT clause may only contain columns with a unique value per group. This includes columns that appear in the GROUP BY clause as well as aggregates resulting in one value per group.[3]
Returns a list of Department IDs along with the sum of their sales for the date of January 1, 2000.
SELECT DeptID, SUM(SaleAmount) FROM Sales
WHERE SaleDate = '01-Jan-2000'
GROUP BY DeptID
In the following example one can ask "How many units were sold in each region for every ship date?":
| Sum of units | Ship date ▼ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region ▼ | 2005-01-31 | 2005-02-28 | 2005-03-31 | 2005-04-30 | 2005-05-31 | 2005-06-30 |
| East | 66 | 80 | 102 | 116 | 127 | 125 |
| North | 96 | 117 | 138 | 151 | 154 | 156 |
| South | 123 | 141 | 157 | 178 | 191 | 202 |
| West | 78 | 97 | 117 | 136 | 150 | 157 |
| (blank) | ||||||
| Grand total | 363 | 435 | 514 | 581 | 622 | 640 |
The following code returns the data of the above pivot table which answers the question "How many units were sold in each region for every ship date?":
SELECT Region, Ship_Date, SUM(Units) AS Sum_of_Units
FROM FlatData
GROUP BY Region, Ship_Date
Since SQL:1999, GROUP BY can be extended WITH ROLLUP to add a result line with a super-aggregator result. In the above example, it corresponds to the Grand total line.
Common grouping (aggregation) functions include: