Group Functions

ICST211 Database Management Systems 1

Objectives
y Identify the available group functions.
y Describe the use of group functions.
y Group data using the GROUP BY clause.
y Include or exclude grouped rows by using the HAVING
clause.
What are Group Functions?
Types of Group Functions
Group Function SYNTAX
Using AVG and SUM functions
y You use AVG and SUM for numeric data.

y The given example displays the average, highest, lowest and

sum of monthly salaries for all sales representative.
Using MIN and MAX Functions
y You can use MIN and MAX for any data type.

y The given example displays the most junior and the most
senior employee.
Using the COUNT function
y COUNT(*) returns the number of rows in a table.

y The given example count the number of employees in

department 50.
Using the COUNT function
y COUNT(expr) returns the number of rows with non-null
values for the expr.

y The given example display the number of employees in

department 80 who can earn a commission.
Using the DISTINCT keyword in COUNT
function
y COUNT(DISTINCT expr) returns the number of distinct
nonnull values of the expr.

y The given example display the number of distinct

departments in the employees table.
Group Functions and Null Values
• Group functions ignore null values in the column.

• In the given example, the average is calculated based only on

the rows in the table where a valid value is stored in the
COMMISSION_PCT column.
Creating Groups of Data
Using the GROUP BY clause
y Divide rows in a table into smaller groups.

y In the syntax:
y group_by_expression specifies columns whose values determine
the basis for grouping rows.
Using the GROUP BY clause
• All columns in the SELECT clause that are not in group
functions must be in the GROUP BY clause.

• The given example displays the department number, and the

average salary for each department.
Using the GROUP BY clause
y The Group by column does not have to be in the SELECT
clause.
Grouping by more than one column
Using Group by clause on multiple
columns
y You can return summary results for groups and subgroups by
listing more than one group by column.
Are the queries correct?
Query #1:
SELECT department_id, count(last_name)
FROM employees;

Query #2:
SELECT department_id, AVG(salary)
FROM employees
WHERE AVG(salary) > 8000
GROUP BY department_id;
Excluding Group Results
Using the HAVING clause
1. Rows are grouped.
2. The group function is applied
3. Groups matching the HAVING clause are displayed.
Using the HAVING clause

• The given example displays department numbers and

maximum salaries for those departments whose maximum
salary is greater than 10000.
Using the HAVING clause
y The given example displays the job ID and total monthly for
each job with a total payroll exceeding 13,000, excluding
sales representatives. The list is sorted by the total monthly
payroll.
Nesting Group Functions
y Display the maximum average salary.