12.20.1 Aggregate Function Descriptions
This section describes aggregate functions that operate on sets of values. They are often used with a GROUP BY clause to group values into subsets.
Table 12.25 Aggregate Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
AVG() |
Return the average value of the argument |
BIT_AND() |
Return bitwise AND |
BIT_OR() |
Return bitwise OR |
BIT_XOR() |
Return bitwise XOR |
COUNT() |
Return a count of the number of rows returned |
COUNT(DISTINCT) |
Return the count of a number of different values |
GROUP_CONCAT() |
Return a concatenated string |
JSON_ARRAYAGG() |
Return result set as a single JSON array |
JSON_OBJECTAGG() |
Return result set as a single JSON object |
MAX() |
Return the maximum value |
MIN() |
Return the minimum value |
STD() |
Return the population standard deviation |
STDDEV() |
Return the population standard deviation |
STDDEV_POP() |
Return the population standard deviation |
STDDEV_SAMP() |
Return the sample standard deviation |
SUM() |
Return the sum |
VAR_POP() |
Return the population standard variance |
VAR_SAMP() |
Return the sample variance |
VARIANCE() |
Return the population standard variance |
Unless otherwise stated, aggregate functions ignore NULL values.
If you use an aggregate function in a statement containing no GROUP BY clause, it is equivalent to grouping on all rows. For more information, see Section 12.20.3, “MySQL Handling of GROUP BY”.
Most aggregate functions can be used as window functions. Those that can be used this way are signified in their syntax description by [, representing an optional over_clause]OVER clause. over_clause is described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”, which also includes other information about window function usage.
For numeric arguments, the variance and standard deviation functions return a DOUBLE value. The SUM() and AVG() functions return a DECIMAL value for exact-value arguments (integer or DECIMAL), and a DOUBLE value for approximate-value arguments (FLOAT or DOUBLE).
The SUM() and AVG() aggregate functions do not work with temporal values. (They convert the values to numbers, losing everything after the first nonnumeric character.) To work around this problem, convert to numeric units, perform the aggregate operation, and convert back to a temporal value. Examples:
SELECT SEC_TO_TIME(SUM(TIME_TO_SEC(time_col))) FROM tbl_name;
SELECT FROM_DAYS(SUM(TO_DAYS(date_col))) FROM tbl_name;
Functions such as SUM() or AVG() that expect a numeric argument cast the argument to a number if necessary. For SET or ENUM values, the cast operation causes the underlying numeric value to be used.
The BIT_AND(), BIT_OR(), and BIT_XOR() aggregate functions perform bit operations. Prior to MySQL 8.0, bit functions and operators required BIGINT (64-bit integer) arguments and returned BIGINT values, so they had a maximum range of 64 bits. Non-BIGINT arguments were converted to BIGINT prior to performing the operation and truncation could occur.
In MySQL 8.0, bit functions and operators permit binary string type arguments (BINARY, VARBINARY, and the BLOB types) and return a value of like type, which enables them to take arguments and produce return values larger than 64 bits. For discussion about argument evaluation and result types for bit operations, see the introductory discussion in Section 12.13, “Bit Functions and Operators”.
-
AVG([DISTINCT]expr) [over_clause]Returns the average value of
. TheexprDISTINCToption can be used to return the average of the distinct values ofexpr.If there are no matching rows,
AVG()returnsNULL.This function executes as a window function if
over_clauseis present.over_clauseis as described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”; it cannot be used withDISTINCT.mysql> SELECT student_name, AVG(test_score) FROM student GROUP BY student_name; -
Returns the bitwise
ANDof all bits inexpr.The result type depends on whether the function argument values are evaluated as binary strings or numbers:
-
Binary-string evaluation occurs when the argument values have a binary string type, and the argument is not a hexadecimal literal, bit literal, or
NULLliteral. Numeric evaluation occurs otherwise, with argument value conversion to unsigned 64-bit integers as necessary. -
Binary-string evaluation produces a binary string of the same length as the argument values. If argument values have unequal lengths, an
ER_INVALID_BITWISE_OPERANDS_SIZEerror occurs. If the argument size exceeds 511 bytes, anER_INVALID_BITWISE_AGGREGATE_OPERANDS_SIZEerror occurs. Numeric evaluation produces an unsigned 64-bit integer.
If there are no matching rows,
BIT_AND()returns a neutral value (all bits set to 1) having the same length as the argument values.NULLvalues do not affect the result unless all values areNULL. In that case, the result is a neutral value having the same length as the argument values.For more information discussion about argument evaluation and result types, see the introductory discussion in Section 12.13, “Bit Functions and Operators”.
As of MySQL 8.0.12, this function executes as a window function if
over_clauseis present.over_clauseis as described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”. -
-
Returns the bitwise
ORof all bits inexpr.The result type depends on whether the function argument values are evaluated as binary strings or numbers:
-
Binary-string evaluation occurs when the argument values have a binary string type, and the argument is not a hexadecimal literal, bit literal, or
NULLliteral. Numeric evaluation occurs otherwise, with argument value conversion to unsigned 64-bit integers as necessary. -
Binary-string evaluation produces a binary string of the same length as the argument values. If argument values have unequal lengths, an
ER_INVALID_BITWISE_OPERANDS_SIZEerror occurs. If the argument size exceeds 511 bytes, anER_INVALID_BITWISE_AGGREGATE_OPERANDS_SIZEerror occurs. Numeric evaluation produces an unsigned 64-bit integer.
If there are no matching rows,
BIT_OR()returns a neutral value (all bits set to 0) having the same length as the argument values.NULLvalues do not affect the result unless all values areNULL. In that case, the result is a neutral value having the same length as the argument values.For more information discussion about argument evaluation and result types, see the introductory discussion in Section 12.13, “Bit Functions and Operators”.
As of MySQL 8.0.12, this function executes as a window function if
over_clauseis present.over_clauseis as described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”. -
-
Returns the bitwise
XORof all bits inexpr.The result type depends on whether the function argument values are evaluated as binary strings or numbers:
-
Binary-string evaluation occurs when the argument values have a binary string type, and the argument is not a hexadecimal literal, bit literal, or
NULLliteral. Numeric evaluation occurs otherwise, with argument value conversion to unsigned 64-bit integers as necessary. -
Binary-string evaluation produces a binary string of the same length as the argument values. If argument values have unequal lengths, an
ER_INVALID_BITWISE_OPERANDS_SIZEerror occurs. If the argument size exceeds 511 bytes, anER_INVALID_BITWISE_AGGREGATE_OPERANDS_SIZEerror occurs. Numeric evaluation produces an unsigned 64-bit integer.
If there are no matching rows,
BIT_XOR()returns a neutral value (all bits set to 0) having the same length as the argument values.NULLvalues do not affect the result unless all values areNULL. In that case, the result is a neutral value having the same length as the argument values.For more information discussion about argument evaluation and result types, see the introductory discussion in Section 12.13, “Bit Functions and Operators”.
As of MySQL 8.0.12, this function executes as a window function if
over_clauseis present.over_clauseis as described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”. -
-
Returns a count of the number of non-
NULLvalues ofexprin the rows retrieved by aSELECTstatement. The result is aBIGINTvalue.If there are no matching rows,
COUNT()returns0.This function executes as a window function if
over_clauseis present.over_clauseis as described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”.mysql> SELECT student.student_name,COUNT(*) FROM student,course WHERE student.student_id=course.student_id GROUP BY student_name;COUNT(*)is somewhat different in that it returns a count of the number of rows retrieved, whether or not they containNULLvalues.For transactional storage engines such as
InnoDB, storing an exact row count is problematic. Multiple transactions may be occurring at the same time, each of which may affect the count.InnoDBdoes not keep an internal count of rows in a table because concurrent transactions might “see” different numbers of rows at the same time. Consequently,SELECT COUNT(*)statements only count rows visible to the current transaction.As of MySQL 8.0.13,
SELECT COUNT(*) FROMquery performance fortbl_nameInnoDBtables is optimized for single-threaded workloads if there are no extra clauses such asWHEREorGROUP BY.InnoDBprocessesSELECT COUNT(*)statements by traversing the smallest available secondary index unless an index or optimizer hint directs the optimizer to use a different index. If a secondary index is not present,InnoDBprocessesSELECT COUNT(*)statements by scanning the clustered index.Processing
SELECT COUNT(*)statements takes some time if index records are not entirely in the buffer pool. For a faster count, create a counter table and let your application update it according to the inserts and deletes it does. However, this method may not scale well in situations where thousands of concurrent transactions are initiating updates to the same counter table. If an approximate row count is sufficient, useSHOW TABLE STATUS.InnoDBhandlesSELECT COUNT(*)andSELECT COUNT(1)operations in the same way. There is no performance difference.For
MyISAMtables,COUNT(*)is optimized to return very quickly if theSELECTretrieves from one table, no other columns are retrieved, and there is noWHEREclause. For example:mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM student;This optimization only applies to
MyISAMtables, because an exact row count is stored for this storage engine and can be accessed very quickly.COUNT(1)is only subject to the same optimization if the first column is defined asNOT NULL. -
COUNT(DISTINCTexpr,[expr...])Returns a count of the number of rows with different non-
NULLexprvalues.If there are no matching rows,
COUNT(DISTINCT)returns0.mysql> SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT results) FROM student;In MySQL, you can obtain the number of distinct expression combinations that do not contain
NULLby giving a list of expressions. In standard SQL, you would have to do a concatenation of all expressions insideCOUNT(DISTINCT ...). -
This function returns a string result with the concatenated non-
NULLvalues from a group. It returnsNULLif there are no non-NULLvalues. The full syntax is as follows:GROUP_CONCAT([DISTINCT] expr [,expr ...] [ORDER BY {unsigned_integer | col_name | expr} [ASC | DESC] [,col_name ...]] [SEPARATOR str_val])mysql> SELECT student_name, GROUP_CONCAT(test_score) FROM student GROUP BY student_name;Or:
mysql> SELECT student_name, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT test_score ORDER BY test_score DESC SEPARATOR ' ') FROM student GROUP BY student_name;In MySQL, you can get the concatenated values of expression combinations. To eliminate duplicate values, use the
DISTINCTclause. To sort values in the result, use theORDER BYclause. To sort in reverse order, add theDESC(descending) keyword to the name of the column you are sorting by in theORDER BYclause. The default is ascending order; this may be specified explicitly using theASCkeyword. The default separator between values in a group is comma (,). To specify a separator explicitly, useSEPARATORfollowed by the string literal value that should be inserted between group values. To eliminate the separator altogether, specifySEPARATOR ''.The result is truncated to the maximum length that is given by the
group_concat_max_lensystem variable, which has a default value of 1024. The value can be set higher, although the effective maximum length of the return value is constrained by the value ofmax_allowed_packet. The syntax to change the value ofgroup_concat_max_lenat runtime is as follows, wherevalis an unsigned integer:SET [GLOBAL | SESSION] group_concat_max_len = val;The return value is a nonbinary or binary string, depending on whether the arguments are nonbinary or binary strings. The result type is
TEXTorBLOBunlessgroup_concat_max_lenis less than or equal to 512, in which case the result type isVARCHARorVARBINARY.See also
CONCAT()andCONCAT_WS(): Section 12.8, “String Functions and Operators”. -
JSON_ARRAYAGG(col_or_expr) [over_clause]Aggregates a result set as a single
JSONarray whose elements consist of the rows. The order of elements in this array is undefined. The function acts on a column or an expression that evaluates to a single value. ReturnsNULLif the result contains no rows, or in the event of an error.As of MySQL 8.0.14, this function executes as a window function if
over_clauseis present.over_clauseis as described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”.mysql> SELECT o_id, attribute, value FROM t3; +------+-----------+-------+ | o_id | attribute | value | +------+-----------+-------+ | 2 | color | red | | 2 | fabric | silk | | 3 | color | green | | 3 | shape | square| +------+-----------+-------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> SELECT o_id, JSON_ARRAYAGG(attribute) AS attributes > FROM t3 GROUP BY o_id; +------+---------------------+ | o_id | attributes | +------+---------------------+ | 2 | ["color", "fabric"] | | 3 | ["color", "shape"] | +------+---------------------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec) -
JSON_OBJECTAGG(key,value) [over_clause]Takes two column names or expressions as arguments, the first of these being used as a key and the second as a value, and returns a JSON object containing key-value pairs. Returns
NULLif the result contains no rows, or in the event of an error. An error occurs if any key name isNULLor the number of arguments is not equal to 2.As of MySQL 8.0.14, this function executes as a window function if
over_clauseis present.over_clauseis as described in Section 12.21.2, “Window Function Concepts and Syntax”.mysql> SELECT o_id, attribute, value FROM t3; +------+-----------+-------+ | o_id | attribute | value | +------+-----------+-------+ | 2 | color | red | | 2 | fabric | silk | | 3 | color | green | | 3 | shape | square| +------+-----------+-------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> SELECT o_id, JSON_OBJECTAGG(attribute, value) > FROM t3 GROUP BY o_id; +------+---------------------------------------+ | o_id | JSON_OBJECTAGG(attribute, value) | +------+---------------------------------------+ | 2 | {"color": "red", "fabric": "silk"}