The SQL OVER() clause - when and why is it useful?

Question

    USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
SELECT SalesOrderID, ProductID, OrderQty
    ,SUM(OrderQty) OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS \'Total\'
    ,AVG(OrderQty) OVER(PAR         


        

Answer 1

The OVER clause is powerful in that you can have aggregates over different ranges ("windowing"), whether you use a GROUP BY or not

Example: get count per SalesOrderID and count of all

SELECT
    SalesOrderID, ProductID, OrderQty
    ,COUNT(OrderQty) AS 'Count'
    ,COUNT(*) OVER () AS 'CountAll'
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail 
WHERE
     SalesOrderID IN(43659,43664)
GROUP BY
     SalesOrderID, ProductID, OrderQty

Get different COUNTs, no GROUP BY

SELECT
    SalesOrderID, ProductID, OrderQty
    ,COUNT(OrderQty) OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS 'CountQtyPerOrder'
    ,COUNT(OrderQty) OVER(PARTITION BY ProductID) AS 'CountQtyPerProduct',
    ,COUNT(*) OVER () AS 'CountAllAgain'
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail 
WHERE
     SalesOrderID IN(43659,43664)