Which aggregate function yields the total across records?

Which aggregate function yields the total across records?

• A. Max
• B. Count
• C. Average
• D. Sum

Answer: (D)

Aggregating data this way means taking a column of values from many records and turning it into a single summary value. The total across records is produced by summing all the numeric values in that column, which is exactly what the Sum function does. It adds up every value to give you the grand total (like total sales across all records). In contrast, a maximum function would return only the single largest value, a count would tell you how many records (or non-null values) you have, and an average would compute the mean. So Sum is the function that yields the total across records. If some values are null, Sum typically ignores them and sums only the non-null numbers.

Aggregating data this way means taking a column of values from many records and turning it into a single summary value. The total across records is produced by summing all the numeric values in that column, which is exactly what the Sum function does. It adds up every value to give you the grand total (like total sales across all records). In contrast, a maximum function would return only the single largest value, a count would tell you how many records (or non-null values) you have, and an average would compute the mean. So Sum is the function that yields the total across records. If some values are null, Sum typically ignores them and sums only the non-null numbers.