Group By Clause (Visual Basic)
Groups the elements of a query result. Can also be used to apply aggregate functions to each group. The grouping operation is based on one or more keys.
Group [ listField1 [, listField2 [...] ] By keyExp1 [, keyExp2 [...] ]
Into aggregateList
Parts
Term |
Definition |
listField1, listField2 |
Optional. One or more fields of the query variable or variables that explicitly identify the fields to be included in the grouped result. If no fields are specified, all fields of the query variable or variables are included in the grouped result. |
keyExp1 |
Required. An expression that identifies the key to use to determine the groups of elements. You can specify more than one key to specify a composite key. |
keyExp2 |
Optional. One or more additional keys that are combined with keyExp1 to create a composite key. |
aggregateList |
Required. One or more expressions that identify how the groups are aggregated. To identify a member name for the grouped results, use the Group keyword, which can be in either of the following forms:
-or-
You can also include aggregate functions to apply to the group. |
Remarks
You can use the Group By clause to break the results of a query into groups. The grouping is based on a key or a composite key consisting of multiple keys. Elements that are associated with matching key values are included in the same group.
You use the aggregateList parameter of the Into clause and the Group keyword to identify the member name that is used to reference the group. You can also include aggregate functions in the Into clause to compute values for the grouped elements. For a list of standard aggregate functions, see Aggregate Clause (Visual Basic).
Example
The following code example groups a list of customers based on their location (country) and provides a count of the customers in each group. The results are ordered by country name. The grouped results are ordered by city name.
Public Sub GroupBySample()
Dim customers = GetCustomerList()
Dim customersByCountry = From cust In customers
Order By cust.City
Group By CountryName = cust.Country
Into RegionalCustomers = Group, Count()
Order By CountryName
For Each country In customersByCountry
Console.WriteLine(country.CountryName &
" (" & country.Count & ")" & vbCrLf)
For Each customer In country.RegionalCustomers
Console.WriteLine(vbTab & customer.CompanyName &
" (" & customer.City & ")")
Next
Next
End Sub
See Also
Reference
Order By Clause (Visual Basic)
Aggregate Clause (Visual Basic)
Group Join Clause (Visual Basic)
Concepts
Introduction to LINQ in Visual Basic