GROUP BY (Aggregate) Functions
This section describes group (aggregate) functions that operate on sets of values. Unless otherwise stated, group functions ignore NULL values.
If you use a group function in a statement containing no GROUP BY clause, it is equivalent to grouping on all rows. For more information, see , "GROUP BY and HAVING with Hidden Columns".
For numeric arguments, the variance and standard deviation functions return a DOUBLE value. The SUM() and AVG() functions return a DECIMAL value for exact-value arguments (integer or DECIMAL), and a DOUBLE value for approximate-value arguments (FLOAT or DOUBLE).
The SUM() and AVG() aggregate functions do not work with temporal values. (They convert the values to numbers, losing everything after the first nonnumeric character.) To work around this problem, convert to numeric units, perform the aggregate operation, and convert back to a temporal value. Examples:
SELECT SEC_TO_TIME(SUM(TIME_TO_SEC(time_col))) FROMtbl_name; SELECT FROM_DAYS(SUM(TO_DAYS(date_col))) FROMtbl_name;
Functions such as SUM() or AVG() that expect a numeric argument cast the argument to a number if necessary. For SET or ENUM values, the cast operation causes the underlying numeric value to be used.
AVG([DISTINCT]expr)Returns the average value of
. TheexprDISTINCToption can be used to return the average of the distinct values ofexpr.AVG()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student_name, AVG(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;BIT_AND(expr)Returns the bitwise
ANDof all bits inexpr. The calculation is performed with 64-bit (BIGINT) precision.This function returns
18446744073709551615if there were no matching rows. (This is the value of an unsignedBIGINTvalue with all bits set to 1.)BIT_OR(expr)Returns the bitwise
ORof all bits inexpr. The calculation is performed with 64-bit (BIGINT) precision.This function returns
0if there were no matching rows.BIT_XOR(expr)Returns the bitwise
XORof all bits inexpr. The calculation is performed with 64-bit (BIGINT) precision.This function returns
0if there were no matching rows.COUNT(expr)Returns a count of the number of non-
NULLvalues ofexprin the rows retrieved by aSELECTstatement. The result is aBIGINTvalue.COUNT()returns0if there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student.student_name,COUNT(*)->FROM student,course->WHERE student.student_id=course.student_id->GROUP BY student_name;COUNT(*)is somewhat different in that it returns a count of the number of rows retrieved, whether or not they containNULLvalues.COUNT(*)is optimized to return very quickly if theSELECTretrieves from one table, no other columns are retrieved, and there is noWHEREclause. For example:mysql>
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM student;This optimization applies only to
MyISAMtables only, because an exact row count is stored for this storage engine and can be accessed very quickly. For transactional storage engines such asInnoDB, storing an exact row count is more problematic because multiple transactions may be occurring, each of which may affect the count.COUNT(DISTINCTexpr,[expr...])Returns a count of the number of rows with different non-
NULLexprvalues.COUNT(DISTINCT)returns0if there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT results) FROM student;In MySQL, you can obtain the number of distinct expression combinations that do not contain
NULLby giving a list of expressions. In standard SQL, you would have to do a concatenation of all expressions insideCOUNT(DISTINCT ...).GROUP_CONCAT(expr)This function returns a string result with the concatenated non-
NULLvalues from a group. It returnsNULLif there are no non-NULLvalues. The full syntax is as follows:GROUP_CONCAT([DISTINCT]
expr[,expr...] [ORDER BY {unsigned_integer|col_name|expr} [ASC | DESC] [,col_name...]] [SEPARATORstr_val])mysql>
SELECT student_name,->GROUP_CONCAT(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;Or:
mysql>
SELECT student_name,->GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT test_score->ORDER BY test_score DESC SEPARATOR ' ')->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;In MySQL, you can get the concatenated values of expression combinations. To eliminate duplicate values, use the
DISTINCTclause. To sort values in the result, use theORDER BYclause. To sort in reverse order, add theDESC(descending) keyword to the name of the column you are sorting by in theORDER BYclause. The default is ascending order; this may be specified explicitly using theASCkeyword. The default separator between values in a group is comma (","). To specify a separator explicitly, useSEPARATORfollowed by the string value that should be inserted between group values. To eliminate the separator altogether, specifySEPARATOR ''.The result is truncated to the maximum length that is given by the
group_concat_max_lensystem variable, which has a default value of 1024. The value can be set higher, although the effective maximum length of the return value is constrained by the value ofmax_allowed_packet. The syntax to change the value ofgroup_concat_max_lenat runtime is as follows, wherevalis an unsigned integer:SET [GLOBAL | SESSION] group_concat_max_len =
val;The return value is a nonbinary or binary string, depending on whether the arguments are nonbinary or binary strings. The result type is
TEXTorBLOBunlessgroup_concat_max_lenis less than or equal to 512, in which case the result type isVARCHARorVARBINARY.See also
CONCAT()andCONCAT-WS(): , "String Functions".MAX([DISTINCT]expr)Returns the maximum value of
expr.MAX()may take a string argument; in such cases, it returns the maximum string value. See , "How MariaDB Uses Indexes". TheDISTINCTkeyword can be used to find the maximum of the distinct values ofexpr, however, this produces the same result as omittingDISTINCT.MAX()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student_name, MIN(test_score), MAX(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;For
MAX(), MariaDB currently comparesENUMandSETcolumns by their string value rather than by the string's relative position in the set. This differs from howORDER BYcompares them. This is expected to be rectified in a future MariaDB release.MIN([DISTINCT]expr)Returns the minimum value of
expr.MIN()may take a string argument; in such cases, it returns the minimum string value. See , "How MariaDB Uses Indexes". TheDISTINCTkeyword can be used to find the minimum of the distinct values ofexpr, however, this produces the same result as omittingDISTINCT.MIN()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student_name, MIN(test_score), MAX(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;For
MIN(), MariaDB currently comparesENUMandSETcolumns by their string value rather than by the string's relative position in the set. This differs from howORDER BYcompares them. This is expected to be rectified in a future MariaDB release.STD(expr)Returns the population standard deviation of
expr. This is an extension to standard SQL. The standard SQL functionSTDDEV_POP()can be used instead.This function returns
NULLif there were no matching rows.STDDEV(expr)Returns the population standard deviation of
expr. This function is provided for compatibility with Oracle. The standard SQL functionSTDDEV_POP()can be used instead.This function returns
NULLif there were no matching rows.STDDEV_POP(expr)Returns the population standard deviation of
expr(the square root ofVAR_POP()). You can also useSTD()orSTDDEV(), which are equivalent but not standard SQL.STDDEV_POP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.STDDEV_SAMP(expr)Returns the sample standard deviation of
expr(the square root ofVAR_SAMP().STDDEV_SAMP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.SUM([DISTINCT]expr)Returns the sum of
expr. If the return set has no rows,SUM()returnsNULL. TheDISTINCTkeyword can be used to sum only the distinct values ofexpr.SUM()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.VAR_POP(expr)Returns the population standard variance of
expr. It considers rows as the whole population, not as a sample, so it has the number of rows as the denominator. You can also useVARIANCE(), which is equivalent but is not standard SQL.VAR_POP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.VAR_SAMP(expr)Returns the sample variance of
expr. That is, the denominator is the number of rows minus one.VAR_SAMP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.VARIANCE(expr)Returns the population standard variance of
expr. This is an extension to standard SQL. The standard SQL functionVAR_POP()can be used instead.VARIANCE()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.