SQL GROUP BY and HAVING: Pivot Tables Written in SQL

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If you can build a pivot table, you already understand GROUP BY. It is the SQL way to say “one row per region, with totals”.

The pivot-table equivalent

SELECT region, SUM(amount) AS total_sales, COUNT(*) AS orders
FROM sales
GROUP BY region
ORDER BY total_sales DESC;

Rows area = GROUP BY region; Values area = SUM(amount), COUNT(*).

Group by more than one column

SELECT region, product, SUM(amount) AS total
FROM sales
GROUP BY region, product;

WHERE vs HAVING

• WHERE filters rows before grouping (like a report filter).
• HAVING filters groups after grouping (like filtering the pivot’s totals).

SELECT customer, SUM(amount) AS total
FROM sales
WHERE order_date >= '2018-01-01'        -- only this year's rows
GROUP BY customer
HAVING SUM(amount) > 100000;            -- only big customers

Useful aggregates

Practise these queries in the browser in the SQL Playground.