SQL GROUP BY: totals per category

In Excel, you'd reach for

fxA pivot table: field in Rows, SUM or COUNT in Values

GROUP BY collapses rows that share a value into one row per value, then lets you total each group with SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN or MAX. It's an Excel pivot table in one line.

The rule that trips everyone up: every column in SELECT must either be in the GROUP BY or be inside a total. Otherwise the database doesn't know which row's value to show.

SQL GROUP BY explained as an Excel pivot table: orders grouped by region and summed — GROUP BY is a pivot table: rows land in buckets, then each bucket is totalled. Download · Save to Pinterest

Syntax

SELECT category_col, SUM(number_col)
FROM table
GROUP BY category_col;

Try itEdit the query, then Run

month	region	orders	units
2026-01	Asia Pacific	30	102
2026-01	Europe	23	65
2026-01	Latin America	24	72
2026-01	North America	24	74
2026-02	Asia Pacific	25	74
2026-02	Europe	14	49
2026-02	Latin America	27	76
2026-02	North America	27	90
2026-03	Asia Pacific	25	85
2026-03	Europe	24	73

Showing 10 of 12 rows. Press Run to see them all.

Grouping by two columns gives one row per combination, like dragging two fields into Rows. To filter on the totals afterwards (only regions above 100 units), see HAVING vs WHERE. Want the months as columns instead of rows? That's a pivot.

Your turn

How many tickets did each agent handle, per priority? Columns agent, priority, tickets.

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SQL GROUP BY: totals per category: the Excel way (A pivot table: field in Rows) and the SQL query, side by side — SQL GROUP BY: totals per category, on one card: the Excel way and the SQL. Download · Save to Pinterest

The practice data (7 tables)

customers: one row per customer
subscriptions: one row per paid plan
events: one row per thing someone did
orders: one row per order
products: a lookup table
campaigns: one row per channel per month
tickets: one row per support ticket

See every column and sample rows