What are the potential pitfalls of not properly using the GROUP BY clause when summing up values in a database table?

When not properly using the GROUP BY clause when summing up values in a database table, you may end up with incorrect or misleading results. This is because the GROUP BY clause is used to group rows that have the same values into summary rows, which are then used with aggregate functions like SUM(). Without using GROUP BY correctly, the aggregate functions may not work as expected and could lead to inaccurate calculations. 

// Incorrect query without GROUP BY clause
$query = "SELECT category, SUM(price) FROM products";

// Correct query with GROUP BY clause
$query = "SELECT category, SUM(price) FROM products GROUP BY category";

Keywords

SQL GROUP BY clause database table summing values potential pitfalls

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