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QUERY Function in Google Sheets : Selecting, Filtering and Sorting


How to Use the QUERY Function in Google Sheets


buayaberdiri.blogspot.com - In this post, I will show you how to use the QUERY function in Google Sheets to filter, sort, and analyze your data. The QUERY function is a powerful tool that allows you to write SQL-like queries in Google Sheets and get results from your data in any format you like.

What is the QUERY Function?


The QUERY function is a built-in function in Google Sheets that uses the Google Visualization API Query Language to query data from a range of cells or from multiple sheets. The syntax of the QUERY function is:

=QUERY(data, query, [headers])

The arguments of the QUERY function are:

  • data: The range of cells or the name of the sheet that contains the data you want to query.
  • query: The query string that specifies what you want to do with the data. It must be enclosed in double quotes and written in the query language.
  • headers: (Optional) The number of header rows in your data. If omitted, Google Sheets will guess based on the content of your data.

The query language that you use in the QUERY function is similar to SQL (Structured Query Language), which is a widely used language for querying databases. You can use various clauses and operators in your query string to filter, sort, group, aggregate, and perform calculations on your data.

Some of the common clauses and operators that you can use in the QUERY function are:

  • SELECT: Specifies which columns you want to return and in what order. For example, SELECT A, B returns columns A and B from your data. SELECT * returns all columns from your data.
  • WHERE: Filters the rows that match a condition. For example, WHERE A > 10 returns only the rows where the value in column A is greater than 10.
  • ORDER BY: Sorts the rows by one or more columns. For example, ORDER BY B DESC sorts the rows by column B in descending order.
  • GROUP BY: Groups the rows by one or more columns and applies an aggregation function to each group. For example, GROUP BY C SUM(D) groups the rows by column C and returns the sum of column D for each group.
  • LABEL: Renames the columns in the output. For example, LABEL A 'Name', B 'Age' renames column A as Name and column B as Age in the output.

You can find more details about the query language and its syntax here: https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/querylanguage

How to Use the QUERY Function in Google Sheets


The QUERY function is one of the most powerful and versatile functions in Google Sheets. It allows you to filter, sort, sum, and verify values in data using a database-like language. In this blog post, I will show you how to use the QUERY function in Google Sheets with some examples.

Let's see some examples of how to use the QUERY function in Google Sheets.

Example 1: Selecting specific columns


Suppose you have a sheet with some sales data like this:

| Product | Category | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---------|----------|-------|----------|-------|
| Apple   | Fruit    | 2     | 10       | 20    |
| Banana  | Fruit    | 1     | 15       | 15    |
| Carrot  | Vegetable| 3     | 5        | 15    |
| Donut   | Snack    | 4     | 8        | 32    |
| Egg     | Protein  | 5     | 6        | 30    |

If you want to query only the product name and the total sales for each product, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT A, E")

This will return:

| Product | Total |
|---------|-------|
| Apple   | 20    |
| Banana  | 15    |
| Carrot  | 15    |
| Donut   | 32    |
| Egg     | 30    |

Notice that the function automatically adds the header row from the original data. If you don't want that, you can use this formula instead:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT A, E", 0)

This will return:

| Apple   | 20    |
| Banana  | 15    |
| Carrot  | 15    |
| Donut   | 32    |
| Egg     | 30    |

The zero at the end tells the function that there are no header rows in the data.

You can also use column numbers instead of letters in the query. For example, this formula will give the same result as above:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT Col1, Col5")

Example 2: Filtering by conditions


You can use the WHERE clause in the query to filter the data by certain conditions. For example, if you want to query only the products that have a price of more than $3, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT * WHERE C > 3")

This will return:

| Product | Category | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---------|----------|-------|----------|-------|
| Donut   | Snack    | 4     | 8        | 32    |
| Egg     | Protein  | 5     | 6        | 30    |

The asterisk (*) means to select all columns from the data. The WHERE clause uses a logical operator (>) to compare the values in column C (price) with a number (3).

You can also use string operators to filter by text values. For example, if you want to query only the products that belong to the category of fruit, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT * WHERE B = 'Fruit'")

This will return:

| Product | Category | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---------|----------|-------|----------|-------|
| Apple   | Fruit    | 2     | 10       | 20    |
| Banana  | Fruit    | 1     | 15       | 15    |

The equal sign (=) means to match exactly with a text string ('Fruit'). You have to enclose the text string in single quotes.

You can also use other string operators like contains, starts with, ends with, or matches to filter by partial or regular expressions. For example, if you want to query only the products that contain the letter 'a' in their name, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT * WHERE A CONTAINS 'a'")

This will return:

| Product | Category | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---------|----------|-------|----------|-------|
| Banana  | Fruit    | 1     | 15       | 15    |
| Carrot  | Vegetable| 3     | 5        | 15    |

The CONTAINS operator means to match any text string that has the specified substring ('a').

You can also combine multiple conditions using the AND or OR operators. For example, if you want to query only the products that have a price of more than $3 and belong to the category of snack or protein, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT * WHERE C > 3 AND (B = 'Snack' OR B = 'Protein')")

This will return:

| Product | Category | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---------|----------|-------|----------|-------|
| Donut   | Snack    | 4     | 8        | 32    |
| Egg     | Protein  | 5     | 6        | 30    |

The AND operator means that both conditions have to be true, while the OR operator means that either one of them has to be true. You can use parentheses to group the conditions and specify the order of evaluation.

Example 3: Sorting by order


You can use the ORDER BY clause in the query to sort the data by a certain column in ascending or descending order. For example, if you want to query all the products and sort them by price from lowest to highest, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT * ORDER BY C")

This will return:

| Product | Category | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---------|----------|-------|----------|-------|
| Banana  | Fruit    | 1     | 15       | 15    |
| Apple   | Fruit    | 2     | 10       | 20    |
| Carrot  | Vegetable| 3     | 5        | 15    |
| Donut   | Snack    | 4     | 8        | 32    |
| Egg     | Protein  | 5     | 6        | 30    |

The ORDER BY clause uses the column letter (C) to specify which column to sort by. The default order is ascending (from low to high).

You can also use the DESC modifier to sort in descending order (from high to low). For example, if you want to query all the products and sort them by total sales from highest to lowest, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT * ORDER BY E DESC")

This will return:

| Product | Category | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---------|----------|-------|----------|-------|
| Donut   | Snack    | 4     | 8        | 32    |
| Egg     | Protein  | 5     | 6        | 30    |
| Apple   | Fruit    | 2     | 10       | 20    |
| Banana  | Fruit    | 1     | 15       | 15    |
| Carrot  | Vegetable| 3     | 5        | 15    |

The DESC modifier means to sort in descending order. You can also use the ASC modifier to explicitly sort in ascending order.

You can also sort by multiple columns using a comma to separate them. For example, if you want to query all the products and sort them by category first and then by price within each category, you can use this formula:

=QUERY(A2:E6, "SELECT * ORDER BY B, C")




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Jamal Friday, June 16, 2023 Tags: Google Sheet, Learn, Microsoft