Introduction

In the previous chapter, we discussed aggregate functions, functions that can take a large group of rows and output a single value for them. Often, being able to summarize a group of rows to a single value is important and useful. However, there are times when you want to keep the individual rows as well as gaining a summarizing value. To do this, in this chapter, we will introduce a new set of functions named window functions, which can calculate aggregate statistics while keeping individual rows. These functions are very useful for being able to calculate new types of statistics, such as ranks and rolling averages, with relative ease within SQL. In this chapter, we will learn about what window functions are, and how we can use them to calculate statistics.