If you’re getting an error that reads “Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘DISTINCT’” when using the DISTINCT clause in SQL Server, it could be that you’ve put the DISTINCT clause in the wrong position.
When using the DISTINCT clause, it must be the first item in the SELECT list.
Therefore, to fix this error, check the position of the DISTINCT keyword. If it’s not the first item in the SELECT list, move it to the front so that it is the first item in the SELECT list.
In SQL Server the STDEVP() function returns the statistical standard deviation for the population for all values in the specified expression.
Suppose you have a query that returns multiple date columns, and suppose you want to return the latest date, regardless of which column it came from.
As from SQL Server 2022 we can use the GREATEST() function to easily achieve this outcome.
In SQL Server the STDEV() function returns the statistical standard deviation of all values in a specified expression.
So we can use this function to get the standard deviation of all values in a column.
Continue readingWhen using window functions such as RANK() in SQL Server, we must provide an OVER clause clause with an ORDER BY clause.
If you’re getting an error that reads “The function ‘RANK’ must have an OVER clause with ORDER BY”, it’s probably because you’re including an OVER clause with the RANK() function (as is required), but you’re omitting the ORDER BY clause.
To fix this error, add an ORDER BY clause to the OVER clause.
SQL Server has a GROUPING_ID() function that returns the level of grouping based on its arguments.
We pass one or more column expressions to the function, and it computes the level of grouping. The column expressions must match the ones provided by the GROUP BY clause.
When using the GROUP BY clause in SQL Server, we can use the GROUPING SETS() option to combine multiple GROUP BY clauses into one GROUP BY clause. When we do this, the results are the equivalent of doing a UNION ALL of the specified groups.
SQL Server provides GROUP BY CUBE() functionality that we can use in our SQL queries, which creates groups for all possible combinations of columns.
It’s similar to the GROUP BY ROLLUP() functionality, except that it can provide us with more information, due to the fact that it groups all possible combinations.
If you’re getting SQL Server error 10753 that reads “The function ‘LEAD’ must have an OVER clause”, it’s probably because you’re calling the LEAD() function without an OVER clause.
The LEAD() function requires an OVER clause (and that clause must have an ORDER BY clause).
To fix this issue, be sure to include an OVER clause when calling the LEAD() function.
When we use the GROUP BY clause in SQL Server, we have several options for specifying how the GROUP BY operation is applied. One such option is the ROLLUP modifier. We can use this modifier to create subtotals and grand totals.