Article
10/04/2012

GROUPING_ID (Transact-SQL)

Is a function that computes the level of grouping. GROUPING_ID can be used only in the SELECT <select> list, HAVING, or ORDER BY clauses when GROUP BY is specified.

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

GROUPING_ID ( <column_expression>[ ,...n ] )

Arguments

<column_expression>
Is a column_expression in a GROUP BY clause.

Return Type

int

Remarks

The GROUPING_ID <column_expression> must exactly match the expression in the GROUP BY list. For example, if you are grouping by DATEPART (yyyy, <column name>), use GROUPING_ID (DATEPART (yyyy, <column name>)); or if you are grouping by <column name>, use GROUPING_ID (<column name>).

Comparing GROUPING_ID () to GROUPING ()

GROUPING_ID (<column_expression> [ ,...n ]) inputs the equivalent of the GROUPING (<column_expression>) return for each column in its column list in each output row as a string of ones and zeros. GROUPING_ID interprets that string as a base-2 number and returns the equivalent integer. For example consider the following statement: SELECT a, b, c, SUM(d),GROUPING_ID(a,b,c)FROM T GROUP BY <group by list>. The following table shows the GROUPING_ID () input and output values.

Columns aggregated	GROUPING_ID (a, b, c) input = GROUPING(a) + GROUPING(b) + GROUPING(c)	GROUPING_ID () output
a	100	4
b	010	2
c	001	1
ab	110	6
ac	101	5
bc	011	3
abc	111	7

Technical Definition of GROUPING_ID ()

Each GROUPING_ID argument must be an element of the GROUP BY list. GROUPING_ID () returns an integer bitmap whose lowest N bits may be lit. A lit bit indicates the corresponding argument is not a grouping column for the given output row. The lowest-order bit corresponds to argument N, and the N-1th lowest-order bit corresponds to argument 1.

GROUPING_ID () Equivalents

For a single grouping query, GROUPING (<column_expression>) is equivalent to GROUPING_ID (<column_expression>), and both return 0.

For example, the following statements are equivalent:

SELECT GROUPING_ID(A,B)
FROM T 
GROUP BY CUBE(A,B)

SELECT 3 FROM T GROUP BY ()
UNION ALL
SELECT 1 FROM T GROUP BY A
UNION ALL
SELECT 2 FROM T GROUP BY B
UNION ALL
SELECT 0 FROM T GROUP BY A,B

Examples

A. Using GROUPING_ID to identify grouping levels

The following example returns the count of employees by Name and Title, Name, and company total. GROUPING_ID() is used to create a value for each row in the Title column that identifies its level of aggregation.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT D.Name
    ,CASE 
    WHEN GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle) = 0 THEN E.JobTitle
    WHEN GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle) = 1 THEN N'Total: ' + D.Name 
    WHEN GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle) = 3 THEN N'Company Total:'
        ELSE N'Unknown'
    END AS N'Job Title'
    ,COUNT(E.BusinessEntityID) AS N'Employee Count'
FROM HumanResources.Employee E
    INNER JOIN HumanResources.EmployeeDepartmentHistory DH
        ON E.BusinessEntityID = DH.BusinessEntityID
    INNER JOIN HumanResources.Department D
        ON D.DepartmentID = DH.DepartmentID     
WHERE DH.EndDate IS NULL
    AND D.DepartmentID IN (12,14)
GROUP BY ROLLUP(D.Name, E.JobTitle);

B. Using GROUPING_ID to filter a result set

Simple Example

In the following code, to return only the rows that have a count of employees by title, remove the comment characters from HAVING GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle); = 0. To return only rows with a count of employees by department, remove the comment characters from HAVING GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle) = 1;.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT D.Name
    ,E.JobTitle
    ,GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle) AS 'Grouping Level'
    ,COUNT(E.BusinessEntityID) AS N'Employee Count'
FROM HumanResources.Employee AS E
    INNER JOIN HumanResources.EmployeeDepartmentHistory AS DH
        ON E.BusinessEntityID = DH.BusinessEntityID
    INNER JOIN HumanResources.Department AS D
        ON D.DepartmentID = DH.DepartmentID     
WHERE DH.EndDate IS NULL
    AND D.DepartmentID IN (12,14)
GROUP BY ROLLUP(D.Name, E.JobTitle)
--HAVING GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle) = 0; --All titles
--HAVING GROUPING_ID(D.Name, E.JobTitle) = 1; --Group by Name;

Here is the unfiltered result set.

Name	Title	Grouping Level	Employee Count	Name
Document Control	Control Specialist	0	2	Document Control
Document Control	Document Control Assistant	0	2	Document Control
Document Control	Document Control Manager	0	1	Document Control
Document Control	NULL	1	5	Document Control
Facilities and Maintenance	Facilities Administrative Assistant	0	1	Facilities and Maintenance
Facilities and Maintenance	Facilities Manager	0	1	Facilities and Maintenance
Facilities and Maintenance	Janitor	0	4	Facilities and Maintenance
Facilities and Maintenance	Maintenance Supervisor	0	1	Facilities and Maintenance
Facilities and Maintenance	NULL	1	7	Facilities and Maintenance
NULL	NULL	3	12	NULL

Complex Example

In the following example, GROUPING_ID() is used to filter a result set that contains multiple grouping levels by grouping level. Similar code can be used to create a view that has several grouping levels and a stored procedure that calls the view by passing a parameter that filters the view by grouping level.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
DECLARE @Grouping nvarchar(50);
DECLARE @GroupingLevel smallint;
SET @Grouping = N'CountryRegionCode Total';

SELECT @GroupingLevel = (
    CASE @Grouping
        WHEN N'Grand Total'             THEN 15
        WHEN N'SalesPerson Total'       THEN 14
        WHEN N'Store Total'             THEN 13
        WHEN N'Store SalesPerson Total' THEN 12
        WHEN N'CountryRegionCode Total' THEN 11
        WHEN N'Group Total'             THEN 7
        ELSE N'Unknown'
    END);

SELECT 
    T.[Group]
    ,T.CountryRegionCode
    ,S.Name AS N'Store'
    ,(SELECT P.FirstName + ' ' + P.LastName 
        FROM Person.Person AS P 
        WHERE P.BusinessEntityID = H.SalesPersonID)
        AS N'Sales Person'
    ,SUM(TotalDue)AS N'TotalSold'
    ,CAST(GROUPING(T.[Group])AS char(1)) + 
        CAST(GROUPING(T.CountryRegionCode)AS char(1)) + 
        CAST(GROUPING(S.Name)AS char(1)) + 
        CAST(GROUPING(H.SalesPersonID)AS char(1)) 
        AS N'GROUPING base-2'
    ,GROUPING_ID((T.[Group])
        ,(T.CountryRegionCode),(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
        ) AS N'GROUPING_ID'
    ,CASE 
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(
            (T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode)
            ,(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
            ) = 15 THEN N'Grand Total'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(
            (T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode)
            ,(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
            ) = 14 THEN N'SalesPerson Total'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(
            (T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode)
            ,(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
            ) = 13 THEN N'Store Total'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(
            (T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode)
            ,(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
            ) = 12 THEN N'Store SalesPerson Total'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(
            (T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode)
            ,(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
            ) = 11 THEN N'CountryRegionCode Total'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(
            (T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode)
            ,(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
            ) =  7 THEN N'Group Total'
        ELSE N'Error'
        END AS N'Level'
FROM Sales.Customer AS C
    INNER JOIN Sales.Store AS S
        ON C.StoreID  = S.BusinessEntityID 
    INNER JOIN Sales.SalesTerritory AS T
        ON C.TerritoryID  = T.TerritoryID 
    INNER JOIN Sales.SalesOrderHeader AS H
        ON C.CustomerID = H.CustomerID
GROUP BY GROUPING SETS ((S.Name,H.SalesPersonID)
    ,(H.SalesPersonID),(S.Name)
    ,(T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode),()
    )
HAVING GROUPING_ID(
    (T.[Group]),(T.CountryRegionCode),(S.Name),(H.SalesPersonID)
    ) = @GroupingLevel
ORDER BY 
    GROUPING_ID(S.Name,H.SalesPersonID),GROUPING_ID((T.[Group])
    ,(T.CountryRegionCode)
    ,(S.Name)
    ,(H.SalesPersonID))ASC;

C. Using GROUPING_ID () with ROLLUP and CUBE to identify grouping levels

The code in the following examples show using GROUPING() to compute the Bit Vector(base-2) column. GROUPING_ID() is used to compute the corresponding Integer Equivalent column. The column order in the GROUPING_ID() function is the opposite of the column order of the columns that are concatenated by the GROUPING() function.

In these examples, GROUPING_ID() is used to create a value for each row in the Grouping Level column to identify the level of grouping. Grouping levels are not always a consecutive list of integers that start with 1 (0, 1, 2,...n).

Note

GROUPING and GROUPING_ID can be used n a HAVING clause to filter a result set.

ROLLUP Example

In this example, all grouping levels do not appear as they do in the following CUBE example. If the order of the columns in the ROLLUP list is changed, the level values in the Grouping Level column will also have to be changed.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) AS N'Year'
    ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate) AS N'Month'
    ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate) AS N'Day'
    ,SUM(TotalDue) AS N'Total Due'
    ,CAST(GROUPING(DATEPART(dd,OrderDate))AS char(1)) + 
        CAST(GROUPING(DATEPART(mm,OrderDate))AS char(1)) + 
        CAST(GROUPING(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate))AS char(1)) 
     AS N'Bit Vector(base-2)'
    ,GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
        ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
        ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)) 
        AS N'Integer Equivalent'
    ,CASE
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 0 THEN N'Year Month Day'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 1 THEN N'Year Month'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 2 THEN N'not used'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 3 THEN N'Year'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 4 THEN N'not used'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 5 THEN N'not used'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 6 THEN N'not used'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 7 THEN N'Grand Total'
    ELSE N'Error'
    END AS N'Grouping Level'
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader
WHERE DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) IN(N'2007',N'2008')
    AND DATEPART(mm,OrderDate) IN(1,2)
    AND DATEPART(dd,OrderDate) IN(1,2)
GROUP BY ROLLUP(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
        ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
        ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate))
ORDER BY GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
    )
    ,DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate);

Here is a partial result set.

Year	Month	Day	Total Due	Bit Vector (base-2)	Integer Equivalent	Grouping Level
2007	1	1	1497452.6066	000	0	Year Month Day
2007	1	2	21772.3494	000	0	Year Month Day
2007	2	1	2705653.5913	000	0	Year Month Day
2007	2	2	21684.4068	000	0	Year Month Day
2008	1	1	1908122.0967	000	0	Year Month Day
2008	1	2	46458.0691	000	0	Year Month Day
2008	2	1	3108771.9729	000	0	Year Month Day
2008	2	2	54598.5488	000	0	Year Month Day
2007	1	NULL	1519224.956	100	1	Year Month
2007	2	NULL	2727337.9981	100	1	Year Month
2008	1	NULL	1954580.1658	100	1	Year Month
2008	2	NULL	3163370.5217	100	1	Year Month
2007	NULL	NULL	4246562.9541	110	3	Year
2008	NULL	NULL	5117950.6875	110	3	Year
NULL	NULL	NULL	9364513.6416	111	7	Grand Total

CUBE Example

In this example, the GROUPING_ID() function is used to create a value for each row in the Grouping Level column to identify the level of grouping.

Unlike ROLLUP in the previous example, CUBE outputs all grouping levels. If the order of the columns in the CUBE list is changed, the level values in the Grouping Level column will also have to be changed.

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) AS N'Year'
    ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate) AS N'Month'
    ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate) AS N'Day'
    ,SUM(TotalDue) AS N'Total Due'
    ,CAST(GROUPING(DATEPART(dd,OrderDate))AS char(1)) + 
        CAST(GROUPING(DATEPART(mm,OrderDate))AS char(1)) + 
        CAST(GROUPING(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate))AS char(1)) 
        AS N'Bit Vector(base-2)'
    ,GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
        ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
        ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)) 
        AS N'Integer Equivalent'
    ,CASE
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 0 THEN N'Year Month Day'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) 
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 1 THEN N'Year Month'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) 
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 2 THEN N'Year Day'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) 
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 3 THEN N'Year'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) 
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 4 THEN N'Month Day'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) 
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 5 THEN N'Month'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) 
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 6 THEN N'Day'
        WHEN GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) 
            ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate),DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
            ) = 7 THEN N'Grand Total'
    ELSE N'Error'
    END AS N'Grouping Level'
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader
WHERE DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate) IN(N'2007',N'2008')
    AND DATEPART(mm,OrderDate) IN(1,2)
    AND DATEPART(dd,OrderDate) IN(1,2)
GROUP BY CUBE(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate))
ORDER BY GROUPING_ID(DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate)
    )
    ,DATEPART(yyyy,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(mm,OrderDate)
    ,DATEPART(dd,OrderDate);