GROUP_ID

Syntax

group_id::=

Text description of group_id

Purpose

The GROUP_ID function distinguishes duplicate groups resulting from a GROUP BY specification. It is therefore useful in filtering out duplicate groupings from the query result. It returns an Oracle NUMBER to uniquely identify duplicate groups. This function is applicable only in a SELECT statement that contains a GROUP BY clause.

If n duplicates exist for a particular grouping, GROUP_ID returns numbers in the range 0 to n-1.

Example

The following example assigns the value "1" to the duplicate co.country_region grouping from a query on the sample tables sh.countries and sh.sales:

SELECT co.country_region, co.country_subregion,
   SUM(s.amount_sold) "Revenue",
   GROUP_ID() g
FROM sales s, customers c, countries co
WHERE s.cust_id = c.cust_id AND
   c.country_id = co.country_id AND
   s.time_id = '1-JAN-00' AND
   co.country_region IN ('Americas', 'Europe')
GROUP BY co.country_region,
   ROLLUP (co.country_region, co.country_subregion);

COUNTRY_REGION       COUNTRY_SUBREGION       Revenue          G
-------------------- -------------------- ---------- ----------
Americas             Northern America         220844          0
Americas             Southern America          10872          0
Europe               Eastern Europe            12751          0
Europe               Western Europe           558686          0
Americas                                      231716          0
Europe                                        571437          0
Americas                                      231716          1
Europe                                        571437          1

You could add the following HAVING clause to the end of the statement to ensure that only rows with GROUP_ID < 1 are returned:

HAVING GROUP_ID() < 1