Chapter 3: Selecting 75

Now the candidate result set is much smaller:

t1. t1. t2. t2. t3. t3.
key_1 non_key_1 key_1 key_2 key_1 non_key_1 a b
===== ========= ===== ===== ===== ========= === ====
A 1 1 NULL NULL 3 333 100 3000
B 1 1 NULL NULL 4 333 100 4000
E 2 2 2 21 3 333 200 3000
F 2 2 2 22 3 333 200 3000
G 2 2 2 23 3 333 200 3000
H 2 2 2 21 4 333 200 4000
I 2 2 2 22 4 333 200 4000
J 2 2 2 23 4 333 200 4000
Step 4: The GROUP BY clause is applied to partition the rows into groups. At
this point each group consists of one or more rows; the reduction to
one-row-per-group happens much later. Also note that only grouping takes
place at this point; the actual GROUP BY ROLLUP ( t1.key_1, t3.key_1 )
clause is interpreted as GROUP BY t1.key_1, t3.key_1 and the ROLLUP pro-
cess happens later.
The GROUP BY clause may refer to both virtual columns and select list
items, but not to aggregate function calls or NUMBER(*) calls. However, if
there is a GROUP BY clause, the select list may only consist of aggregate func-
tion calls, NUMBER(*) calls, and items that appear in the GROUP BY clause.

Note: If a column appears in the select list, it must also appear in the
GROUP BY clause. However, the opposite is not necessarily true; if a column
appears in the GROUP BY clause it does not necessarily have to appear in the
select list. A GROUP BY clause often guarantees that the final result set will con-
tain no duplicate rows, but this is not necessarily the case if a column named in
the GROUP BY clause is omitted from the select list.

If there is no GROUP BY clause, each row in the candidate result set is treated
as a separate group.
In the end, each group will be reduced to a single row, but that cant happen
until later. Heres what the groups look like at this point, after the GROUP BY
t1.key_1, t3.key_1 process has finished:
t1. t1. t2. t2. t3. t3.
key_1 non_key_1 key_1 key_2 key_1 non_key_1 a b
===== ========= ===== ===== ===== ========= === ====
A 1 1 NULL NULL 3 333 100 3000 -- Group 1
-----------------------------------------------------------
B 1 1 NULL NULL 4 333 100 4000 -- Group 2
-----------------------------------------------------------
E 2 2 2 21 3 333 200 3000 -- Group 3
F 2 2 2 22 3 333 200 3000
G 2 2 2 23 3 333 200 3000
-----------------------------------------------------------
H 2 2 2 21 4 333 200 4000 -- Group 4
I 2 2 2 22 4 333 200 4000
J 2 2 2 23 4 333 200 4000