3/11/24, 10:51 PM 5 Practical Examples of Using ROWS BETWEEN in SQL

21st Sep 2021 11 minutes read

5 Practical Examples of Using ROWS BETWEEN in

SQL

Kateryna Koidan Sql Learn Sql Window Functions

SQL window functions are tremendously useful for calculating complex

aggregations like moving averages or running totals. The ROWS clause allows you
to specify rows for your calculations, enabling even more sophisticated window
frames. Here are five practical examples of leveraging the ROWS BETWEEN clause
in SQL.

Window functions (also called OVER functions) compute their result based on a
sliding window frame (i.e. a set of rows). They are similar to aggregate functions in
that you can calculate the average, total, or minimum/maximum value across a
group of rows. However, there are some important differences:

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Window functions do not collapse rows as aggregate functions do. Thus,

you can still mix attributes from an individual row with the results of a window
function.
Window functions allow sliding window frames, meaning that the set of
rows used for the calculation of a window function can be different for each
individual row.

The best way to learn window functions is our interactive Window Functions
course. There are 218 exercises that will teach you how window functions work,
what functions there are, and how to apply them to real-world problems. You only
need a web browser and some basic SQL knowledge.

The syntax of a window function is shown in blue text below:

Code

SELECT <column_1>, <column_2>,

OVER (
PARTITION BY <...>
ORDER BY <...>
<window_frame>) <window_column_alias>
FROM <table_name>;
</table_name></window_column_alias></window_frame></column_2></column_1>

When you use a window function in the SELECT statement, you basically calculate
another column with this function:

You start by specifying a function (e.g. AVG() , SUM() , or COUNT() ).

Then, you use the OVER keyword to define a set of rows. Optionally, you can:
Group the rows with PARTITION BY so that functions will be calculated
within these groups instead of the entire set of rows.
Sort the rows within a window frame using ORDER BY if the order of
rows is important (e.g. when calculating running totals).
Specify the window frame’s relation to the current row (e.g. the frame
should be the current row and two previous ones, or the current row and
all the following rows, etc.).

A window frame is defined using ROWS , RANGE , and GROUPS clauses. In this
article, we’ll focus on the ROWS clause and its options. To learn more about

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window functions and defining window frames, check out this article with window
functions examples, this explanation guide, and of course, our two-page SQL
Window Functions Cheat Sheet.

ROWS Clause: Syntax and

Options
The purpose of the ROWS clause is to specify the window frame in relation to
the current row. The syntax is:

ROWS BETWEEN lower_bound AND upper_bound

The bounds can be any of these five options:

UNBOUNDED PRECEDING – All rows before the current row.

n PRECEDING – n rows before the current row.
CURRENT ROW – Just the current row.
n FOLLOWING – n rows after the current row.
UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING – All rows after the current row.

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Source: SQL Window Functions Cheat Sheet

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when defining window frames with the
ROWS clause:

The window frame is evaluated separately within each partition.

The default option depends on if you use ORDER BY :
With ORDER BY , the default frame is RANGE BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING
AND CURRENT ROW .
Without ORDER BY , the default frame is ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED
PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING .
If one of your bounds is a current row, you can skip specifying this bound and
use a shorter version of the window frame definition:
UNBOUNDED PRECEDING is the same as BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND
CURRENT ROW .
n PRECEDING is the same as BETWEEN n PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW .
n FOLLOWING is the same as BETWEEN CURRENT ROW AND n FOLLOWING .
UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING is the same as BETWEEN CURRENT ROW AND UNBOUNDED
FOLLOWING .

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Let’s move to the examples to see how this works in practice.

5 Practical Examples of Using

ROWS in Window Functions

Example 1
To get started with the ROWS clause, we’ll use the following table with sales data
from a book store.

sales

record_id date revenue

1 2021-09-01 1515.45

2 2021-09-02 2345.35

3 2021-09-03 903.99

4 2021-09-04 2158.55

5 2021-09-05 1819.80

In our first example, we want to add another column that shows the total revenue
from the first date up to the current row’s date (i.e. running total). Here’s the query
we can use:

Code

SELECT date, revenue,

SUM(revenue) OVER (
ORDER BY date
ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) running_total
FROM sales
ORDER BY date;

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To calculate the running total using a window function, we go through the

following steps:

Calculating the total revenue using the SUM() aggregate function.

Ordering the records in the window frame by date (the default is in ascending
order), since the order of rows matters when calculating a running total.
Specifying the window frame by defining the lower bound as UNBOUNDED
PRECEDING and the upper bound as CURRENT ROW . This will include all rows up
to and including the current one. Note that the default behavior without the
ROWS clause specified would be the same in this case. The default frame uses
RANGE , not ROWS . As each day appears only once in the table, the result will
be the same for RANGE and ROWS . Thus, we could also use the following
query to get the same results:

Code

SELECT date, revenue,

SUM(revenue) OVER (
ORDER BY date) running_sum
FROM sales
ORDER BY date;

date revenue running_total

2021-09-01 1515.45 1515.45

2021-09-02 2345.35 3860.80

2021-09-03 903.99 4764.79

2021-09-04 2158.55 6923.34

2021-09-05 1819.80 8743.14

As you see, the query worked as intended and we got the running total in our third
column. On the first day, it equals the sales from this day – $1515.45; on the
second day, it equals the sum of sales from the first and second days – $3860.80;
in the next row, we get the sum of sales from the first three days – $4764.79, etc.

In our next examples, we’ll see how the ROWS clause works when the records are
divided into several groups.
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To practice defining window frames, check out this interactive Window Functions
course with 200+ coding challenges.

Example 2
For the next couple of examples, we’ll use the table below. It contains fictional
data on average temperature (in °C) and total precipitation (in mm) in two Italian
cities (Rome and Florence) over five consecutive days.

weather

record_id date city temperature precipi

2021-
101 09- Rome 18.5 7
01

2021-
102 09- Florence 17.3 5
01

2021-
103 09- Rome 18.0 20
02

2021-
104 09- Florence 17.0 15
02

2021-
105 09- Rome 20.1 12
03

2021-
106 09- Florence 19.0 10
03

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weather

2021-
107 09- Rome 20.2 0
04

2021-
108 09- Florence 19.6 0
04

2021-
109 09- Rome 22.5 0
05

2021-
110 09- Florence 20.4 0
05

We want to calculate the three-days moving average temperature separately for

each city. To separate the calculations for the two cities, we’ll include the
PARTITION BY clause. Then, when specifying the window frame, we’ll be
considering the current day and the two preceding days:

Note also that we’ve put our window function inside the ROUND() function so that
the three-day moving average is rounded to one decimal place. Here’s the result:

city date temperature mov_avg_3d_city

2021-
Florence 09- 17.3 17.3
01

2021-
Florence 09- 17.6 17.5
02

2021-
Florence 09- 19.0 18.0
03

2021-
Florence 09- 19.6 18.7
04

Florence 2021- 20.4 19.7

09-

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city date temperature mov_avg_3d_city

05

2021-
Rome 09- 18.5 18.5
01

2021-
Rome 09- 19.0 18.8
02

2021-
Rome 09- 20.1 19.2
03

2021-
Rome 09- 20.2 19.8
04

2021-
Rome 09- 22.5 20.9
05

The moving average was calculated separately for Florence and Rome. For
September 1st, the moving average equals the average daily temperature, as we
don’t have any preceding records. Then, on September 2nd, the moving average is
calculated as the average temperature for the 1st and 2nd (17.5 °C in Florence and
18.8 °C in Rome, respectively). On September 3rd, we finally have enough data to
calculate the average temperature for three days (the two preceding and the
current day), which turns out to be 18.0 °C in Florence and 19.2°C in Rome. Then,
the three-day moving average for Sep 4th is calculated as the average temperature
for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, and so on.

Here’s one more thing to note: The order of records in the window frame has a
key role in specifying which rows to consider.

In the query above, we have ordered the records in the window frame by date in
ascending order (using the default setting), i.e. we’re starting with the earliest date.
Then, to include two days before the current day in our calculations, we have set
the lower bound as 2 PRECEDING .

However, we could get the exact same window frame by ordering the records in
descending order, and then changing the ROWS option to include 2 FOLLOWING
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instead of 2 PRECEDING :

Code

SELECT city, date, temperature,

ROUND(AVG(temperature) OVER (
PARTITION BY city
ORDER BY date DESC
ROWS BETWEEN CURRENT ROW AND 2 FOLLOWING), 1) mov_avg_3d_city
FROM weather
ORDER BY city, date;

This query outputs the exact same result.

Example 3
In this example, we’ll calculate the total precipitation for the last three days (i.e. a
three-day running total) separately for two cities.

Code

SELECT city, date, precipitation,

SUM(precipitation) OVER (
PARTITION BY city
ORDER BY date
ROWS 2 PRECEDING) running_total_3d_city
FROM weather
ORDER BY city, date;

In this query, we again partition the data by city. We use the SUM() function to
calculate the total level of precipitation for the last three days, including the current
day. Also, note that we use an abbreviation when defining the window frame by
specifying only the lower bound: 2 PRECEDING .

Here’s the output of the above query:

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city date precipitation running_total_3d_city

2021-
Florence 09- 5 5
01

2021-
Florence 09- 15 20
02

2021-
Florence 09- 10 30
03

2021-
Florence 09- 0 25
04

2021-
Florence 09- 0 10
05

2021-
Rome 09- 7 7
01

2021-
Rome 09- 20 27
02

2021-
Rome 09- 12 39
03

2021-
Rome 09- 0 32
04

2021-
Rome 09- 0 12
05

As of September 3rd, we get a three-day running total of precipitation in Florence:

30 mm. This is the sum of 5 mm precipitation from September 1st, 15 mm from the
2nd, and 10 mm from the 3rd.

Do you know how we got the 12 mm running total for Rome on Sep 5th? Try to
follow the results in our output table to make sure you understand how window
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functions work with specific window frames.

Now let’s move on to some new data and examples.

Example 4
For the next two examples, we’ll be using the data shown below. It includes daily
information on the number of new subscribers across three social networks:
Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

subscribers

record_id date social_network new_subscribers

2021-
11 09- Instagram 40
01

2021-
12 09- Facebook 12
01

2021-
13 09- LinkedIn 5
01

2021-
14 09- Instagram 67
02

2021-
15 09- Facebook 23
02

16 2021- LinkedIn 2
09-

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subscribers

02

2021-
17 09- Instagram 34
03

2021-
18 09- Facebook 25
03

2021-
19 09- LinkedIn 10
03

2021-
20 09- Instagram 85
04

2021-
21 09- Facebook 28
04

2021-
22 09- LinkedIn 20
04

Let’s start by calculating the running totals for the number of new subscribers
separately for each network. Basically, for each day, we want to see how many
people have subscribed since we started collecting data until the current row’s
date.

Here’s an SQL query that meets this request:

Code

SELECT social_network, date, new_subscribers,

SUM(new_subscribers) OVER (
PARTITION BY social_network
ORDER BY date
ROWS UNBOUNDED PRECEDING) running_total_network
FROM subscribers
ORDER BY social_network, date;

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We start by calculating the total number of new subscribers using the SUM()
aggregate function. Then, we use the PARTITION BY clause to compute separate
calculations for each network. We also sort the records by date in the ascending
order (by default). Finally, we define the window frame as UNBOUNDED
PRECEDING to include all records up to the current one inclusively.

The output looks like this:

date social_network new_subscribers running_total_n

2021-
09- Facebook 12 12
01

2021-
09- Facebook 23 35
02

2021-
09- Facebook 25 60
03

2021-
09- Facebook 28 88
04

2021-
09- Instagram 40 40
01

2021-
09- Instagram 67 107
02

2021-
09- Instagram 34 141
03

2021-
09- Instagram 85 226
04

2021-
09- LinkedIn 5 5
01

2021-
09- LinkedIn 2 7
02

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date social_network new_subscribers running_total_n

2021-
09- LinkedIn 10 17
03

2021-
09- LinkedIn 20 37
04

In the results table, you can see how the number of new subscribers is added to the
cumulative total for each new record. The running total is calculated separately for
each network, as specified in the window function.

Example 5
In our final example, I want to demonstrate how we can display the first and the
last value of a specific set of records using window functions and the ROWS
clause. This time, let’s add two columns to the output:

The number of new subscribers added on the first day, and

The number of new subscribers added on the last day.

With this information calculated separately for each social network, we can see
how every day’s performance compares to where we’ve started and where we are
now.

Here’s the SQL query to get the required output:

Code

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SELECT social_network, date, new_subscribers,

FIRST_VALUE(new_subscribers) OVER(
PARTITION BY social_network
ORDER BY date) AS first_day,
LAST_VALUE(new_subscribers) OVER(
PARTITION BY social_network
ORDER BY date
ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING) AS last_day
FROM subscribers
ORDER BY social_network, date;

As you see, we are using the FIRST_VALUE() and the LAST_VALUE() functions to
get the information on the first and the last days, respectively. Note also how we
specify the window frame for each of the functions:

We don’t include the ROWS clause with the FIRST_VALUE() function because
the default behavior (i.e. RANGE BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT
ROW ) is fine for our purposes.
However, we do specify the window frame with the LAST_VALUE() function
because the default option would use the current row value as the last value
for each record; this is not what we are looking for in this example. We specify
the window frame as ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED
FOLLOWING to make sure all records are considered.

And here’s the result set:

date social_network new_subscribers first_day

2021-
09- Facebook 12 12
01

2021-
09- Facebook 23 12
02

2021-
09- Facebook 25 12
03

2021-
09- Facebook 28 12
04

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date social_network new_subscribers first_day

2021-
09- Instagram 40 40
01

2021-
09- Instagram 67 40
02

2021-
09- Instagram 34 40
03

2021-
09- Instagram 85 40
04

2021-
09- LinkedIn 5 5
01

2021-
09- LinkedIn 2 5
02

2021-
09- LinkedIn 10 5
03

2021-
09- LinkedIn 20 5
04

As requested, we have the number of new subscribers on the first and the last day
calculated separately for each social network.

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Practice Using ROWS in SQL

Window Functions
After going through the above examples, hopefully you have the motivation to
learn SQL window functions and the ROWS options more thoroughly. This toolkit
allows you to specify a sliding window frame and enables the calculation of
complex aggregations like moving averages and running totals.

If you want to get really comfortable with window functions, I recommend

LearnSQL.com’s interactive Window Functions course. It shows you how to
compute running totals and running averages, build different types of rankings,
investigate trends across time, and more. Even better, you’ll do the exercises
yourself, which is the best way to learn.

If you want to really master using SQL for data analysis, our Advanced SQL
learning path also includes GROUP BY Extensions in SQL and common table
expressions (CTEs). It’s a great way to build on your window functions knowledge.

Want to start with some reading first? Here are the top 8 articles covering SQL
window functions.

Thanks for reading, and happy learning.

Tags: Sql Learn Sql Window Functions

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