The SQL GROUP BY Statement

The SQL GROUP BY Statement

The GROUP BY statement groups rows that have the same values into summary rows, like "find the number of customers in each country".

The GROUP BY statement is often used with aggregate functions (COUNT, MAX, MIN, SUM, AVG) to group the result-set by one or more columns.

GROUP BY Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
GROUP BY column_name(s)
ORDER BY column_name(s);

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Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table in the Northwind sample database:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
1	Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Obere Str. 57	Berlin	12209	Germany
2	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados	Ana Trujillo	Avda. de la Constitución 2222	México D.F.	05021	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mataderos 2312	México D.F.	05023	Mexico
4	Around the Horn	Thomas Hardy	120 Hanover Sq.	London	WA1 1DP	UK
5	Berglunds snabbköp	Christina Berglund	Berguvsvägen 8	Luleå	S-958 22	Sweden

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SQL GROUP BY Examples

The following SQL statement lists the number of customers in each country:

Example

SELECT COUNT(CustomerID), Country
FROM Customers
GROUP BY Country;

Try it Yourself »

The following SQL statement lists the number of customers in each country, sorted high to low:

Example

SELECT COUNT(CustomerID), Country
FROM Customers
GROUP BY Country
ORDER BY COUNT(CustomerID) DESC;

Try it Yourself »

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Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Orders" table in the Northwind sample database:

OrderID	CustomerID	EmployeeID	OrderDate	ShipperID
10248	90	5	1996-07-04	3
10249	81	6	1996-07-05	1
10250	34	4	1996-07-08	2

And a selection from the "Shippers" table:

ShipperID	ShipperName
1	Speedy Express
2	United Package
3	Federal Shipping

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GROUP BY With JOIN Example

The following SQL statement lists the number of orders sent by each shipper:

Example

SELECT Shippers.ShipperName, COUNT(Orders.OrderID) AS NumberOfOrders FROM Orders
LEFT JOIN Shippers ON Orders.ShipperID = Shippers.ShipperID
GROUP BY ShipperName;

Try it Yourself »