SQL GROUP BY

The SQL GROUP BY Statement

The GROUP BY statement categorizes rows with identical values into summary rows, such as determining the count of customers in each country.

It’s commonly paired 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);

Demo Database

The following excerpt is taken from the “Customers” table within 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

SQL GROUP BY Examples

This SQL statement displays the count of customers in each country:

Example

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

The following SQL statement presents the count of customers in each country, arranged from highest to lowest:

Example

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

Demo Database

The text below is an excerpt 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

Here’s an excerpt from the “Shippers” table:

ShipperID	ShipperName
1	Speedy Express
2	United Package
3	Federal Shipping

GROUP BY With JOIN Example

This SQL statement displays the count 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;