In this section of the course, we're going to start getting into SQL functions. There are all kinds of different processes that you can run on SQL data to do things such as be able to perform a query that sums up an entire column worth of your queries.

One very important thing that you'll usually be asked to do if you're running a lot of SQL queries is to create summary reports. Whether you're creating them for a boss and you're giving them a full SQL querying. If They want numbers tallied up or if you want to do it for a web application.

SQL allows you to perform all of those tasks right inside of the query by leveraging function. So we're going to talk a lot about how you can run those. There's a very specific word. Now it sounds like a big word and it can sound intimidating if you've never used it before but many of these functions are what are called aggregate functions.

That's what we're going to cover a lot of aggregate functions. All it essentially means is that it takes a big collection of data or it takes whatever collection of data your query is and then it returns a single result. So, in other words, an aggregate function would take all of the revenue numbers and it would just tell you what the total was or for the count function.

Which we'll get into that, we'll take all of the records that got returned and I’ll just give you a single number back. That's all an aggregate function means and that's what we're going to be walking through.

One of the main focal points of this section is going to be how we can leverage SQL in SQL functions. In order to be able to generate reports, run computations, and to be able to really leverage not just our data but also to be able to leverage SQL. In order to tally items up and to perform all kinds of calculations.

Then we're also going to finish off with how we can export that data because usually when you're giving a report you're not going to be able to have the SQL workbench right there with you. You are going to be able to need to export it to Excel and so we're going to walk through the steps needed in order to do that.