How to fix the Error ‘Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause’

• Blog
• September 22, 2022

If you are getting the error ‘Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause’, it means that you are trying to select a column that is not included in the GROUP BY clause. To fix this, you need to add the column to the GROUP BY clause.

How to fix the Error ‘Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause’

What is the Error ‘Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause’?

The Error ‘Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause’ is caused by a column in the SELECT statement that is not included in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause.

To fix this error, you need to either include the column in an aggregate function or include it in the GROUP BY clause.

How to fix the Error ‘Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause’

If you receive the error message “Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause”, it means that you are trying to select a column that is not included in the GROUP BY clause, and that is not being aggregated using an aggregate function.

In order to fix this, you need to either include the column in the GROUP BY clause, or aggregate the column using an aggregate function.

Conclusion

The error ‘Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause’ is caused when a column is selected that is not included in the GROUP BY clause. To fix this error, the column must be added to the GROUP BY clause.

Resources

If you encounter the error message “Column is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause”, there are a few potential causes and solutions.

One common cause is that you are attempting to select a column that is not included in the GROUP BY clause. For example, say you have a table of data with three columns: A, B, and C. If you try to select column B without including it in the GROUP BY clause, you will receive the aforementioned error message. The solution here is to simply add column B to the GROUP BY clause.

Another potential cause is that you are using an aggregate function (e.g. SUM, COUNT, AVG, etc.) without including all of the columns referenced in the function. For example, if you have a table with three columns: A, B, and C, and you use the SUM function to calculate the sum of column A, you must also include column B and column C in the GROUP BY clause. Otherwise, you will receive the aforementioned error message.

If you are still having trouble, there are a number of resources that can help, including:

-The SQL Server documentation on GROUP BY
-A Stack Overflow thread discussing the various causes of this error message
-A Microsoft support thread on the same topic