From jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com  Tue Dec  4 08:09:24 2012
From: jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com (jwcolby)
Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:09:24 -0500
Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Count multiple columns
Message-ID: <50BE0414.5020208@colbyconsulting.com>

I am doing counts for a set of columns.  The values in the column are either 1 or 0 signifying true 
or false.  If I just do a count() as xyz all the columns give a count equal to the total number of 
records.  I need to do a count of a value of 1.

I discovered that if I change one of the 0 values to a NULL then the record with Null does not get 
counted.  Thus I could go through the table updating each field which uses this method = null where 
'0'.

Obviously this is a lot of work I would like to avoid.  However it might be faster(?) to do the count?

My preference however is to somehow tell the count() of each column to only count values of '1'.

Is this possible in TSQL?

-- 
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it


From lawhonac at hiwaay.net  Wed Dec  5 00:34:25 2012
From: lawhonac at hiwaay.net (Alan Lawhon)
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2012 00:34:25 -0600
Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Count multiple columns
In-Reply-To: <50BE0414.5020208@colbyconsulting.com>
References: <50BE0414.5020208@colbyconsulting.com>
Message-ID: <000501cdd2b2$92069910$b613cb30$@net>

John:

Don't know if this would be less (or more) work, but here's an idea that
might work.

Create a temporary column, (i.e. TEMP_1), next to the column where you want
the COUNT() of total records containing a "1" value.  Then UPDATE each
record (in the TEMP_1 column) with a value of "1" where the corresponding
record in the column you're interested in contains a "1" and a value of
"NULL" if the value in the corresponding record contains a zero.  Then you
can do a COUNT(TEMP_1) on the TEMP_1 column.  After you've got the
COUNT(TEMP_1) value, DROP the [temporary] TEMP_1 field.  
If there are multiple columns where you want to do this, create TEMP_2,
TEMP_3, TEMP_n fields and repeat the steps.

If this is a one time operation, do it manually.  If this is going to be a
recurring task, write a script that automates the process.

Alan C. Lawhon

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2012 8:09 AM
To: Sqlserver-Dba; Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [dba-SQLServer] Count multiple columns

I am doing counts for a set of columns.  The values in the column are either
1 or 0 signifying true or false.  If I just do a count() as xyz all the
columns give a count equal to the total number of records.  I need to do a
count of a value of 1.

I discovered that if I change one of the 0 values to a NULL then the record
with Null does not get counted.  Thus I could go through the table updating
each field which uses this method = null where '0'.

Obviously this is a lot of work I would like to avoid.  However it might be
faster(?) to do the count?

My preference however is to somehow tell the count() of each column to only
count values of '1'.

Is this possible in TSQL?

--
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it

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