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Create Sample SQL Server Database and Data: GROUING SETS. These Options Are Similar, But Produce Different Results

The document discusses various ways to use the GROUP BY clause in SQL Server queries, including with optional components like CUBE, ROLLUP, and GROUPING SETS. It provides examples demonstrating how to group data by department and category, use HAVING to filter groups, and shows the different output produced by CUBE, ROLLUP, and GROUPING SETS. The author concludes that GROUPING SETS is a preferable and scalable option for reporting purposes compared to CUBE and ROLLUP.

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Servicios Gerenciales Integrales C.A.
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52 views9 pages

Create Sample SQL Server Database and Data: GROUING SETS. These Options Are Similar, But Produce Different Results

The document discusses various ways to use the GROUP BY clause in SQL Server queries, including with optional components like CUBE, ROLLUP, and GROUPING SETS. It provides examples demonstrating how to group data by department and category, use HAVING to filter groups, and shows the different output produced by CUBE, ROLLUP, and GROUPING SETS. The author concludes that GROUPING SETS is a preferable and scalable option for reporting purposes compared to CUBE and ROLLUP.

Uploaded by

Servicios Gerenciales Integrales C.A.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Problem

The GROUP BY clause in SQL Server allows grouping of rows of a query.


Generally, GROUP BY is used with an aggregate SQL Server function, such as
SUM, AVG, etc. In addition, the GROUP BY can also be used with optional
components such as Cube, Rollup and Grouping Sets. In this tip, I will demonstrate
various ways of building a GROUP BY along with output explained.
Solution
When building queries for reports, we often use the GROUP BY clause.  There are
also cases where having subtotals and totals as part of the output is helpful and
this is where we will use the optional operators like: CUBE, ROLLUP and
GROUING SETS. These options are similar, but produce different results.
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Create Sample SQL Server Database and Data


First, we will create a sample database, table and insert some data for our
examples.
USE MASTER
GO

CREATE DATABASE EmpTest


GO

USE EmpTest
GO

CREATE TABLE EmpSalary


(
id INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY(1,1),
EmpName varchar (200),
Department varchar(100),
Category char(1),
Salary money
)
 
INSERT EmpSalary
SELECT 'Bhavesh Patel','IT','A',$8000
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Alpesh Patel','Sales','A',$7000
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Kalpesh Thakor','IT','B',$5000
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Jay Shah','Sales','B',$4000
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Ram Nayak','IT','C',$3000
UNION ALL
SELECT 'Jay Shaw','Sales','C',$2000

Here is the data we just created.


SELECT * FROM EmpSalary
SQL Server GROUP BY Example
Below is a simple Group By query we SUM the salary data.  In the first query, we
group by Department and the second query we group by Department and
Category.
SELECT
Department,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY Department
 
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY Department, Category

Below are the results.  The first query returns 2 rows by Department with Salary
totals, since there are 2 departments.  The second query returns 6 rows by
Department and Category with Salary totals, since there are 2 departments with 3
categories in each department.

SQL Server GROUP BY with HAVING Example


In the next example, we use the same group by, but we limit the data using
HAVING which filters the data.  In the examples below, for the first query we only
want to see Departments where the total equals 16000 and for the second where
the Department and Category total equals 8000.
SELECT
Department,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY Department
HAVING SUM(salary) = 16000
 
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY Department, Category
HAVING SUM(salary) = 8000

Below are the only 2 rows that meet the criteria.  We can double check this by
looking at the query results from the first set of queries above.
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SQL Server GROUP BY CUBE Example


This example allows us to show all combinations of the data.  This includes totals
for the group combinations.
SELECT
Department,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY CUBE(Department)
 
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY CUBE(Department, Category)

The first query results show the 2 Departments and the total, but also the grand
total for these 2 Departments.  The second query results show us all of the
combinations of Department and Category.  For example, we see IT (department)
and A (category) and 16000 (total), then Sales (department) and A (category) and
7000 (total) and then NULL (both departments) and A (category) and 15000
(total).  In the chart, I break down the different groupings that are part of this
second query.

SQL Server GROUP BY ROLLUP Example


This is similar to the Group By Cube, but you will see the output is slightly different
where we don't get as many rows returned for the second query.
SELECT
Department,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY ROLLUP(Department)
 
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY ROLLUP(Department, Category)

We can see the first query results are the same as Group By Rollup example, but
the second query only returns 9 rows instead of 12 that we got in the Group By
Rollup query.  The second query does the rollup first by Department and then by
Category, which is different from the Group By Cube which did the rollup in both
directions.  This allows us to get subtotals for each Department and an overall total
for all Departments.
We could change the second query, as shown below, to first rollup by Category
and then Department.
SELECT
Department,
SUM(Salary) as salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY ROLLUP(Department)
 
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY ROLLUP (Category, Department)

We can see the results for the second query now do the grouping based on
Category and then Department. And we still get the subtotals and totals.
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SQL Server GROUP BY ROLLUP with GROUPING_ID
Example
Another option is to use GROUPING_ID as part of the result set to show each
group.
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary,
GROUPING_ID(Category, Department) as GroupingID
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY ROLLUP(Category, Department)

We can see we have the same results as above, but now we have a grouping
value for each of these groups.
 
SQL Server GROUP BY GROUPING SETS Example
With grouping sets, we can determine how we want the data to be put together.
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY GROUPING SETS(Category, Department,(Category, Department),())

Below we can see we did a group for Category, another group for Department,
another group for Category and Department and the last group for NULL.

Here is another example by Department and Category and an overall group for
NULL.
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY GROUPING SETS((Department, Category),())
We could also take this a step further and use CUBE and ROLLUP for the different
grouping sets.
SELECT
Department,
Category,
SUM(Salary) as Salary
FROM EmpSalary
GROUP BY GROUPING SETS(CUBE(Department, Category), ROLLUP(Department,
Category))

Here is the output.


Summary
As per the reporting purpose for preparing a summarized output, we can use
optional operators such as CUBE, ROLLUP, and GROUPING SETS in the query.
GROUPING SETS is a controllable and scalable option, so I prefer to using it in
lieu of ROLLUP and CUBE.

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