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- <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>2.7. Aggregate Functions</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1" /><link rel="prev" href="tutorial-join.html" title="2.6. Joins Between Tables" /><link rel="next" href="tutorial-update.html" title="2.8. Updates" /></head><body><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">2.7. Aggregate Functions</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tutorial-join.html" title="2.6. Joins Between Tables">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="tutorial-sql.html" title="Chapter 2. The SQL Language">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 2. The <acronym xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="acronym">SQL</acronym> Language</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 12.4 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="tutorial-update.html" title="2.8. Updates">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="sect1" id="TUTORIAL-AGG"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">2.7. Aggregate Functions</h2></div></div></div><a id="id-1.4.4.8.2" class="indexterm"></a><p>
- Like most other relational database products,
- <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> supports
- <em class="firstterm">aggregate functions</em>.
- An aggregate function computes a single result from multiple input rows.
- For example, there are aggregates to compute the
- <code class="function">count</code>, <code class="function">sum</code>,
- <code class="function">avg</code> (average), <code class="function">max</code> (maximum) and
- <code class="function">min</code> (minimum) over a set of rows.
- </p><p>
- As an example, we can find the highest low-temperature reading anywhere
- with:
-
- </p><pre class="programlisting">
- SELECT max(temp_lo) FROM weather;
- </pre><p>
-
- </p><pre class="screen">
- max
- -----
- 46
- (1 row)
- </pre><p>
- </p><p>
- <a id="id-1.4.4.8.5.1" class="indexterm"></a>
-
- If we wanted to know what city (or cities) that reading occurred in,
- we might try:
-
- </p><pre class="programlisting">
- SELECT city FROM weather WHERE temp_lo = max(temp_lo); <em class="lineannotation"><span class="lineannotation">WRONG</span></em>
- </pre><p>
-
- but this will not work since the aggregate
- <code class="function">max</code> cannot be used in the
- <code class="literal">WHERE</code> clause. (This restriction exists because
- the <code class="literal">WHERE</code> clause determines which rows will be
- included in the aggregate calculation; so obviously it has to be evaluated
- before aggregate functions are computed.)
- However, as is often the case
- the query can be restated to accomplish the desired result, here
- by using a <em class="firstterm">subquery</em>:
-
- </p><pre class="programlisting">
- SELECT city FROM weather
- WHERE temp_lo = (SELECT max(temp_lo) FROM weather);
- </pre><p>
-
- </p><pre class="screen">
- city
- ---------------
- San Francisco
- (1 row)
- </pre><p>
-
- This is OK because the subquery is an independent computation
- that computes its own aggregate separately from what is happening
- in the outer query.
- </p><p>
- <a id="id-1.4.4.8.6.1" class="indexterm"></a>
- <a id="id-1.4.4.8.6.2" class="indexterm"></a>
-
- Aggregates are also very useful in combination with <code class="literal">GROUP
- BY</code> clauses. For example, we can get the maximum low
- temperature observed in each city with:
-
- </p><pre class="programlisting">
- SELECT city, max(temp_lo)
- FROM weather
- GROUP BY city;
- </pre><p>
-
- </p><pre class="screen">
- city | max
- ---------------+-----
- Hayward | 37
- San Francisco | 46
- (2 rows)
- </pre><p>
-
- which gives us one output row per city. Each aggregate result is
- computed over the table rows matching that city.
- We can filter these grouped
- rows using <code class="literal">HAVING</code>:
-
- </p><pre class="programlisting">
- SELECT city, max(temp_lo)
- FROM weather
- GROUP BY city
- HAVING max(temp_lo) < 40;
- </pre><p>
-
- </p><pre class="screen">
- city | max
- ---------+-----
- Hayward | 37
- (1 row)
- </pre><p>
-
- which gives us the same results for only the cities that have all
- <code class="structfield">temp_lo</code> values below 40. Finally, if we only care about
- cities whose
- names begin with <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">S</code></span>”</span>, we might do:
-
- </p><pre class="programlisting">
- SELECT city, max(temp_lo)
- FROM weather
- WHERE city LIKE 'S%' -- <span id="co.tutorial-agg-like"></span>(1)
- GROUP BY city
- HAVING max(temp_lo) < 40;
- </pre><p>
- </p><div class="calloutlist"><table border="0" summary="Callout list"><tr><td width="5%" valign="top" align="left"><p><a href="#co.tutorial-agg-like">(1)</a> </p></td><td valign="top" align="left"><p>
- The <code class="literal">LIKE</code> operator does pattern matching and
- is explained in <a class="xref" href="functions-matching.html" title="9.7. Pattern Matching">Section 9.7</a>.
- </p></td></tr></table></div><p>
- </p><p>
- It is important to understand the interaction between aggregates and
- <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym>'s <code class="literal">WHERE</code> and <code class="literal">HAVING</code> clauses.
- The fundamental difference between <code class="literal">WHERE</code> and
- <code class="literal">HAVING</code> is this: <code class="literal">WHERE</code> selects
- input rows before groups and aggregates are computed (thus, it controls
- which rows go into the aggregate computation), whereas
- <code class="literal">HAVING</code> selects group rows after groups and
- aggregates are computed. Thus, the
- <code class="literal">WHERE</code> clause must not contain aggregate functions;
- it makes no sense to try to use an aggregate to determine which rows
- will be inputs to the aggregates. On the other hand, the
- <code class="literal">HAVING</code> clause always contains aggregate functions.
- (Strictly speaking, you are allowed to write a <code class="literal">HAVING</code>
- clause that doesn't use aggregates, but it's seldom useful. The same
- condition could be used more efficiently at the <code class="literal">WHERE</code>
- stage.)
- </p><p>
- In the previous example, we can apply the city name restriction in
- <code class="literal">WHERE</code>, since it needs no aggregate. This is
- more efficient than adding the restriction to <code class="literal">HAVING</code>,
- because we avoid doing the grouping and aggregate calculations
- for all rows that fail the <code class="literal">WHERE</code> check.
- </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tutorial-join.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="tutorial-sql.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="tutorial-update.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">2.6. Joins Between Tables </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 2.8. Updates</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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