Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide

COMPUTE

The COMPUTE command defines summary calculations needed in a report. You can use COMPUTE in conjunction with BREAK to calculate and print column totals, averages, minimum and maximum values, and so on. These calculations are performed by SQL*Plus as the report runs. COMPUTE is a complex command, and must be used in conjunction with the BREAK command in order to get results. See the section Section 3.5 in Chapter 3 for help on this command.

Syntax of the COMPUTE command

The syntax for the COMPUTE command looks like this:

COMP[UTE] [{AVG|COU[NT]|MAX[IMUM]|MIN[IMUM]|
          NUM[BER]|STD|SUM|VAR[IANCE]}... [LABEL label_text]
          OF column_name... 
          ON {group_column_name|ROW|REPORT}...]

where:

COMP[UTE]

May be abbreviated to COMP. Entering COMPUTE with no parameters causes SQL*Plus to list all currently defined computations.

AVG

Computes the average of all non-null values for a column. AVG only applies to columns of type NUMBER.

COU[NT]

Computes the total number of non-null values for a column. COUNT may be used with columns of any datatype, and may be abbreviated to COU.

MAX[IMUM]

Computes the maximum value returned for a column. MAXIMUM may be abbreviated as MAX, and applies to columns of type NUMBER, CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, and NVARCHAR2.

MIN[IMUM]

Computes the minimum value returned for a column. MINIMUM may be abbreviated as MIN, and applies to columns of type NUMBER, CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, and NVARCHAR2.

NUM[BER]

Similar to COUNT, but computes the number of all values, including nulls. This applies ...