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RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Lynn Pettis — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:13:32 GMT

Yes, there are issues with the query itself, but what did the question ask? How do you ensure you get the top 25 in sales. The only answer that works there is that you also need to add an ORDER BY SUM(salesdollars) DESC.

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

john.arnott — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:49:03 GMT

[quote][b]ghollis (3/19/2009)[/b][hr]Wouldn't using Top 25 WITH TIES accomplish the same thing, rather than using the CTE (assuming they are using the group by and order by clauses without the SalesCategory being included in the query)?[/quote]Yes, it does. Thank you for pointing out this option. This works well. Here's a test script ( I didn't bother including salesCategory in the table definition).....[code]create table #SalesTbl( Salesperson char(30) ,SalesDollars money ,SalesDate datetime )insert #SalesTbl Select 'Judy', 14554.22, '20090103' union All Select 'Judy', 15854.22, '20090103' union All Select 'Judy', 16554.22, '20090103' union All Select 'Joyce', 26554.22, '20090103' union All Select 'Ed', 25554.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Andy', 24554.22, '20090103' union All Select 'Len', 22222.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Tom', 22222.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Maria', 4554.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Chris', 6654.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Tony', 4554.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Sally', 4654.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Bob', 4554.22, '20090103' union AllSelect 'Bob', 4554.22, '20090103' Declare @StartDt DatetimeDeclare @EndDt DatetimeSet @StartDt = '20090101'Set @EndDt = '20090131'Select top 5 with ties Salesperson ,sum(salesDollars) TotSales from #SalesTbl Where SalesDate between @StartDt and @EndDt group by SalesPerson order by sum(salesDollars) Desc[/code]and results:[code]Salesperson TotSales------------------------------ ---------------------Judy 46962.66Joyce 26554.22Ed 25554.22Andy 24554.22Len 22222.22Tom 22222.22(6 row(s) affected)[/code]

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

ghollis — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:31:11 GMT

Wouldn't using Top 25 WITH TIES accomplish the same thing, rather than using the CTE (assuming they are using the group by and order by clauses without the SalesCategory being included in the query)?

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

linna — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:42:01 GMT

I don't understand. Can you give me Full Script ? (use the AventureWorks Database)I think must add the group by

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

john.arnott — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:41:52 GMT

One more "real-world" caveat: there could be a tie for the number 25 spot, so simply using "Top 25" in the select may leave a worthy salesperson off the list. One way to include all who belong would be to use the RANK() function. I like to wrap such in a CTE, but a correlated sub-query or other structure may be just as sound (or better) for your use. [code]Declare @StartDt DatetimeDeclare @EndDt DatetimeSet @StartDt = '20090101'Set @EndDt = '20090131';with Sales (SalesRank, SalesPerson, TotSalesDollars)as (Select SalesRank = Rank() over (order by sum(SalesDollars) Desc) ,SalesPerson ,sum(SalesDollars) from #SalesTbl Where SalesDate between @StartDt and @EndDt group by SalesPerson) --end of CTEselect SalesRank ,SalesPerson ,TotSalesDollars from Sales where SalesRank <= 25[/code]

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Greg Edwards-268690 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:01:18 GMT

[quote][b]ghollis (3/18/2009)[/b][hr]I agree with the previous comment that even with a group by, top 25, and order by, you are not going to get what the question asked for as the group by would have to group on the salescategory and salesperson; whereas, the question asked for the top 25 sales people, so salescategory would need to be removed.[/quote]I agree. Someone participating in multiple 'salescategories' could actually be the top 'salesperson'Greg E

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Balachandra — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:16:32 GMT

HiThe Query need the GROUP BY clause also, as we are using SUM an aggregate function.

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

ghollis — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:13:33 GMT

I agree with the previous comment that even with a group by, top 25, and order by, you are not going to get what the question asked for as the group by would have to group on the salescategory and salesperson; whereas, the question asked for the top 25 sales people, so salescategory would need to be removed.

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Michael Poppers — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:07:01 GMT

Glad 2 C there was discussion 'bout this Q's failings, but I trust most of us picked the A which was closest to what we thought the questioner was after :).

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Ronald H — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:23:58 GMT

I think the correct query would be to add the GROUP BY of course, and also ORDER BY 3 DESC. Or name the derived item, and order by that name. I wonder how much the author have tested his own query...

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

J-440512 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:16:44 GMT

I agree that the first thing I would have done to correct the query would be to make it work by adding the obviously missing GROUP BY clause. AFTER that, if I could not correctly determine that last scenario was the proper answer it would be a simple matter to populate a few tables and run the query.Owing to the fact that query would not even run, I think that the set of possible answers did not match the situation. Imagine if a fourth alternative "Add GROUP BY" had been presented. By itself it would not have produced the stipulated results but at the very least it would have turned it into a runnable query. How many would have selected the fourth answer ?I have seen a few more questions of this ilk. For instance where the official solution was to change a table definition, which in real-life would mean that it was likely to break existing code.When such errors are pointed out, the points awarded for the question of the day should be clawed back.

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Chris Harshman — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:59:41 GMT

[quote][b]dmw (3/18/2009)[/b][hr]...And what about the role of sales_category? The results of the query will also reflect the 'performance' of the sales_category, whatever that is.[/quote]This is the part that really bothers me. OK, so they forgot the GROUP BY, but if we are grouping by sales_category but the question asks for total sales, we haven't really satisfied the requirements have we?

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

tosscrosby — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:08:17 GMT

I too selected the most accurate, albeit incomplete, answer. [quote][b]dmw (3/18/2009)[/b][hr]Poor (non-existent?) QA on this question. Unexpected from this site.[/quote]I couldn't agree more but I'm sure with the volume of questions that are sorted through to ultimately be posted, a clunker is going to get through every now and then. Maybe we've become so spoiled by the overall high quality of the site and the information provided here that even some of us "gurus-in-training" are actually learning something which allows us to catch things like this easier/faster???? :w00t:

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Martin Wills — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:45:51 GMT

Poor (non-existent?) QA on this question. Unexpected from this site.And what about the role of sales_category? The results of the query will also reflect the 'performance' of the sales_category, whatever that is.

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

SuperDBA-207096 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:06:33 GMT

I don't think that query will work without a group by?

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Hugo Kornelis — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:48:00 GMT

Others have already pointed out the missing GROUP BY clause, so I'll skip that and limit myself to commenting the non-portable date format used. On many non-US systems, the date '1/31/09' will cause an error message to pop up. The correct format would be: [code]BETWEEN '20090101' AND '20090131'[/code]And if the version is SQL2005 or less, or if it's SQL2008 but the data type is not "date" but one of the formats that include a time component as well, then it should even be[code]WHERE salesdate >= '20090101'AND salesdate < '20090201'[/code]because otherwise all sales made after Jan 31st, 0:00 will be excluded.

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Adi Cohn-120898 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:34:47 GMT

I was looking for an option that will say that the query will cause an error (because of the missing group by) but I didn’t find one. I ignored the error and chose what is considered the correct answer, but I think that all the suggested answers were wrong.Adi

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

mithun.gite — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:58:11 GMT

i think this the group by was left by mistake ...if we over look that group by then the option 3 is the right answer and thats pretty much fineee...Mithun

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Danny Ocean — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:49:50 GMT

Hi, It should be GROUP BY, otherwise it'll return error.

RE: T-SQL - SELECT TOP

jadsmith — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:33:57 GMT

For that query to work it should be grouped by salescategory, salesperson, otherwise you will get this error when running the queryColumns salescategory, salesperson are invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause.

T-SQL - SELECT TOP

Bob Griffin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:28:47 GMT

Comments posted to this topic are about the item [B]T-SQL - SELECT TOP[/B]