>>I am trying to understand what the Group by clause in an SQL select statement does. Can someone explain this in simple terms?
>>
>>Thanks
>
>It GROUP all similar records into one.
>Imagine you have that data:
>

>Fld1         Fld2              Fld3
>-------------------------------------
>1              2                3
>1              2                3
>1              2                3
>1              2                4
>1              2                5
>

>And you issue the following SQL SELECT
>

>SELECT Fld1, Fld2, Fld3;
>       FROM MyTable
>       GROUP BY Fld1, Fld2, Fld3
>

>You will get the following result:
>
>

>Fld1         Fld2              Fld3
>-------------------------------------
>1              2                3
>1              2                4
>1              2                5
>

>
>But if you want this:
>

>SELECT Fld1, Fld2, SUM(Fld3) AS Fld3;
>       FROM MyTable
>       GROUP BY Fld1, Fld2
>

>
>You will get:
>

>Fld1         Fld2              Fld3
>-------------------------------------
>1              2                18
>

Based on your and Freds response, it appears Group by is primarially usefull when there is a summation of som sort involved. Would you agree? It appears that if there are fields in the select that cannot be summed there is an error. Such as SELECT * FROM ORDERS GROUP BY DATE. I think I am having difficulty because I think of it as a group in the report designer.