Antipattern: Reference Non-grouped Columns
Let’s explore how misconception about the GROUP BY clause causes an antipattern by testing out different queries.
The root cause of this antipattern is simple, and it reveals a common misconception that many programmers have about how grouping queries work in SQL.
The single-value rule
The rows in each group consist only of items that have the same value in the column or columns we name after GROUP BY
. For example, in the following query, there is a one-row group for each distinct value in product_id
.
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