Why using "Group By"

Hello All,

This is a theoretical question. Why do I need to add the "Group By" in the following SQL:

SELECT
  CUSTOMER_CITY, COUNT(*)
FROM
  CUSTOMER_TABLE Isn't it clear that I want to get the number of rows per city, so why is it necessary to add:

GROUP BY
  CUSTOMER_CITY I mean to say that those added lines didn't give more information, and any resonable person (or a good sql parser...) could have understand what I really want at the first sql.

Regards
Ofer Buhnik Received on Thu Mar 13 2003 - 04:07:14 CST