11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

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SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical
Functions Part 1 Popular Posts
Analytic functions compute aggregate values based on a group of rows. They differ from Informatica Scenario Based Interview Questions with
aggregate functions in that they return multiple rows for each group. Most of the SQL developers Answers - Part 1
won't use analytical functions because of its cryptic syntax or uncertainty about its logic of
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operation. Analytical functions saves lot of time in writing queries and gives better performance
when compared to native SQL. String Functions in Hive

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Before starting with the interview questions, we will see the difference between the aggregate
functions and analytic functions with an example. I have used SALES TABLE as an example to Sed Command in Unix and Linux Examples
solve the interview questions. Please create the below sales table in your oracle database.
Design/Implement/Create SCD Type 2 Effective Date
Mapping in Informatica

Date Functions in Hive

CREATE TABLE SALES
( SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Part 1

SALE_ID INTEGER,
Top Unix Interview Questions - Part 1
PRODUCT_ID INTEGER,
YEAR INTEGER, Update Strategy Transformation in Informatica
Quantity INTEGER,
PRICE INTEGER
); Have Questions? Follow Me

INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 1, 100, 2008, 10, 5000);

INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 2, 100, 2009, 12, 5000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 3, 100, 2010, 25, 5000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 4, 100, 2011, 16, 5000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 5, 100, 2012, 8, 5000);

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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

vijay bhaskar
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 6, 200, 2010, 10, 9000); Add to circles
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 7, 200, 2011, 15, 9000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 8, 200, 2012, 20, 9000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 9, 200, 2008, 13, 9000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 10,200, 2009, 14, 9000);

INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 11, 300, 2010, 20, 7000);

INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 12, 300, 2011, 18, 7000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 13, 300, 2012, 20, 7000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 14, 300, 2008, 17, 7000);
INSERT INTO SALES VALUES ( 15, 300, 2009, 19, 7000);
COMMIT;

SELECT * FROM SALES;

994 have me in circles View all

SALE_ID PRODUCT_ID YEAR QUANTITY PRICE
--------------------------------------
1 100 2008 10 5000
2 100 2009 12 5000
3 100 2010 25 5000
4 100 2011 16 5000
5 100 2012 8 5000
6 200 2010 10 9000
7 200 2011 15 9000
8 200 2012 20 9000
9 200 2008 13 9000
10 200 2009 14 9000
11 300 2010 20 7000
12 300 2011 18 7000
13 300 2012 20 7000
14 300 2008 17 7000
15 300 2009 19 7000

Difference Between Aggregate and Analytic Functions:

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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

Q. Write a query to find the number of products sold in each year?

The SQL query Using Aggregate functions is

SELECT Year,
COUNT(1) CNT
FROM SALES
GROUP BY YEAR;

YEAR CNT
---------
2009 3
2010 3
2011 3
2008 3
2012 3

The SQL query Using Aanalytic functions is

SELECT SALE_ID,
PRODUCT_ID,
Year,
QUANTITY,
PRICE,
COUNT(1) OVER (PARTITION BY YEAR) CNT
FROM SALES;

SALE_ID PRODUCT_ID YEAR QUANTITY PRICE CNT

------------------------------------------
9 200 2008 13 9000 3
1 100 2008 10 5000 3
14 300 2008 17 7000 3

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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

15 300 2009 19 7000 3

2 100 2009 12 5000 3
10 200 2009 14 9000 3
11 300 2010 20 7000 3
6 200 2010 10 9000 3
3 100 2010 25 5000 3
12 300 2011 18 7000 3
4 100 2011 16 5000 3
7 200 2011 15 9000 3
13 300 2012 20 7000 3
5 100 2012 8 5000 3
8 200 2012 20 9000 3

From the ouputs, you can observe that the aggregate functions return only one row per group
whereas analytic functions keeps all the rows in the gorup. Using the aggregate functions, the
select clause contains only the columns specified in group by clause and aggregate functions
whereas in analytic functions you can specify all the columns in the table.

The PARTITION BY clause is similar to GROUP By clause, it specifies the window of rows that
the analytic funciton should operate on.

I hope you got some basic idea about aggregate and analytic functions. Now lets start with
solving the Interview Questions on Oracle Analytic Functions.

1. Write a SQL query using the analytic function to find the total sales(QUANTITY) of each
product?

Solution:

SUM analytic function can be used to find the total sales. The SQL query is

SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
QUANTITY,
SUM(QUANTITY) OVER( PARTITION BY PRODUCT_ID ) TOT_SALES
FROM SALES;
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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

PRODUCT_ID QUANTITY TOT_SALES

-----------------------------
100 12 71
100 10 71
100 25 71
100 16 71
100 8 71
200 15 72
200 10 72
200 20 72
200 14 72
200 13 72
300 20 94
300 18 94
300 17 94
300 20 94
300 19 94

2. Write a SQL query to find the cumulative sum of sales(QUANTITY) of each product? Here first
sort the QUANTITY in ascendaing order for each product and then accumulate the QUANTITY.
Cumulative sum of QUANTITY for a product = QUANTITY of current row + sum of QUANTITIES
all previous rows in that product.

Solution:

We have to use the option "ROWS UNBOUNDED PRECEDING" in the SUM analytic function to
get the cumulative sum. The SQL query to get the ouput is

SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
QUANTITY,
SUM(QUANTITY) OVER( PARTITION BY PRODUCT_ID
ORDER BY QUANTITY ASC
ROWS UNBOUNDED PRECEDING) CUM_SALES
FROM SALES;

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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

PRODUCT_ID QUANTITY CUM_SALES

-----------------------------
100 8 8
100 10 18
100 12 30
100 16 46
100 25 71
200 10 10
200 13 23
200 14 37
200 15 52
200 20 72
300 17 17
300 18 35
300 19 54
300 20 74
300 20 94

The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the data. Here the ROWS UNBOUNDED PRECEDING
option specifies that the SUM analytic function should operate on the current row and the
pervious rows processed.

3. Write a SQL query to find the sum of sales of current row and previous 2 rows in a product
group? Sort the data on sales and then find the sum.

Solution:

The sql query for the required ouput is

SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
QUANTITY,
SUM(QUANTITY) OVER(
PARTITION BY PRODUCT_ID
ORDER BY QUANTITY DESC
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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

ROWS BETWEEN 2 PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) CALC_SALES

FROM SALES;

PRODUCT_ID QUANTITY CALC_SALES

------------------------------
100 25 25
100 16 41
100 12 53
100 10 38
100 8 30
200 20 20
200 15 35
200 14 49
200 13 42
200 10 37
300 20 20
300 20 40
300 19 59
300 18 57
300 17 54

The ROWS BETWEEN clause specifies the range of rows to consider for calculating the SUM.

4. Write a SQL query to find the Median of sales of a product?

Solution:

The SQL query for calculating the median is

SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
QUANTITY,
PERCENTILE_CONT(0.5) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY QUANTITY ASC)
OVER (PARTITION BY PRODUCT_ID) MEDIAN
FROM SALES;

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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

PRODUCT_ID QUANTITY MEDIAN

--------------------------
100 8 12
100 10 12
100 12 12
100 16 12
100 25 12
200 10 14
200 13 14
200 14 14
200 15 14
200 20 14
300 17 19
300 18 19
300 19 19
300 20 19
300 20 19

5. Write a SQL query to find the minimum sales of a product without using the group by clause.

Solution:

The SQL query is

SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
YEAR,
QUANTITY
FROM
(
SELECT PRODUCT_ID,
YEAR,
QUANTITY,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY PRODUCT_ID
ORDER BY QUANTITY ASC) MIN_SALE_RANK
FROM SALES
) WHERE MIN_SALE_RANK = 1;
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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

PRODUCT_ID YEAR QUANTITY

------------------------
100 2012 8
200 2010 10
300 2008 17

Recommended Reading:

Oracle SQL Queries Interview Questions

SQL Interview Questions and Answers
Oracle Complex Queries
Oracle Query to split the delimited data in a column to multiple rows
Min and Max values of contiguous rows - Oracle SQL Query

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4 comments:

Larisa D'Britto 19 June, 2012 04:26

Quite a helpful blog.. good info..
Reply

Vineela Pola 19 February, 2014 08:33

Couldn't the last query (#5) be written as below:
select distinct product_id
, min(quantity) over (partition by product_id) as min_sales
from sales
order by product_id;
Reply

SQL Concepts 01 August, 2014 03:12

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11/29/2018 SQL Queries Interview Questions - Oracle Analytical Functions Part 1

Yes we can write that way also Vineela

Reply

KANDIKUNTA SHALINI 29 March, 2018 23:58

very useful info please update some more interview questions like this
Reply

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