SUM() — Calculate the Total

The SUM() function returns the total (sum) of all values in a numeric column.
It works with numbers and is commonly used for totals in reports and dashboards.

Syntax

SELECT SUM(column) FROM table_name WHERE condition;

Example 1: Total Age of All Employees

SELECT SUM(age) FROM employees;

This returns the sum of the age values of all employees.

+----------+
| SUM(age) |
+----------+
|      570 |
+----------+

Example 2: Total Age per Department

SELECT department, SUM(age)
FROM employees
GROUP BY department;

This returns the total age of employees for each department.

+------------+----------+
| department | SUM(age) |
+------------+----------+
| HR         |       52 |
| IT         |      168 |
| Sales      |      168 |
| Marketing  |       59 |
| Finance    |      123 |
+------------+----------+

Tip

  • SUM() ignores NULL values.
  • Only works with numeric columns.

The SUM() function helps you calculate totals, which is very useful in data analysis and reporting!