How to use Group By in certain Select in SQL Server? - sql

Question

I haven't used Group By that much before and always get an error when trying to group the following by the UserID
Error:
Column 'Log.Version' is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause.
How can I avoid this ? What I am trying to get is a count for each user with every user only appearing once for each tool instead of listing every usage separately.
My query (working except for the above + simplified for demo):
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].Reporting_FetchUsage
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT
A.UserID, A.Tool, A.[Version], A.Note, A.[TimeStamp],
B.ADesc, B.SDesc, B.DDesc, B.ALN
FROM
Log A
LEFT JOIN
EmployeeTable B ON B.NTID = A.UserID
WHERE
A.[TimeStamp] > DATEADD(YEAR, -1, GETDATE())
AND (A.Tool LIKE 'abc%'
OR
A.Tool LIKE 'def%'
OR
A.Tool LIKE 'ghi%')
AND (B.DDesc = 'CB'
OR
B.DDesc = 'PS')
GROUP BY
A.Tool, A.UserID
ORDER BY
A.Tool, A.UserID
FOR XML PATH('reporting'), ELEMENTS, TYPE, ROOT('ranks')
END

Answer 1

What I am trying to get is a count for each user with every user only
appearing once for each tool instead of listing every usage
separately.
If this is the case, I would expect to see a count() somewhere. Perhaps this is closer to what you want:
SELECT l.UserID, l.Tool, e.ADesc, e.SDesc, e.DDesc, e.ALN,
COUNT(*) as NumTools
FROM Log l LEFT JOIN
EmployeeTable e
ON e.NTID = l.UserID
WHERE l.[TimeStamp] > DATEADD(YEAR, -1, GETDATE()) AND
(l.Tool LIKE 'abc%' OR l.Tool LIKE 'def%' or l.Tool LIKE 'ghi%') AND
B.DDesc IN ( 'CB', 'PS')
GROUP BY l.UserID, l.Tool, e.ADesc, e.SDesc, e.DDesc, e.ALN,
ORDER BY l.Tool, l.UserID;
This assumes that the employee table does not have duplicates, with respect to the join conditions on the Log.

Answer 2

Include all the fields in your GROUP BY clause that are in your SELECT statement that are not being used in an aggregate.
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].Reporting_FetchUsage
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT A.UserID,
A.Tool,
A.[Version],
A.Note,
A.[TimeStamp],
B.ADesc,
B.SDesc,
B.DDesc,
B.ALN
FROM Log A
LEFT JOIN EmployeeTable B
ON B.NTID = A.UserID
WHERE A.[TimeStamp] > DATEADD(YEAR, -1, GETDATE())
AND (
A.Tool LIKE 'abc%'
OR
A.Tool LIKE 'def%'
OR
A.Tool LIKE 'ghi%'
)
AND (
B.DDesc = 'CB'
OR
B.DDesc = 'PS'
)
GROUP BY A.Tool,
A.UserID,
A.[Version],
A.Note,
A.[TimeStamp],
B.ADesc,
B.SDesc,
B.DDesc,
B.ALN
ORDER BY A.Tool, A.UserID
FOR XML PATH('reporting'), ELEMENTS, TYPE, ROOT('ranks')
END