Correct me...

Please correct me if I am wrong:

1. columns used in the ORDER BY clause should be part of SELECT clause

2. columns used in the ORDER BY clause should be first part of the GROUP BY clause.

select id_number, description, sum(price) from inventory
where price > 0
group by id_nubmer
order by manufacturer_id

Which line causes error. I am guessing it is last line. Any suggesetions..

nath

1. No
2. No

The line that is causing an error is not the last line, it is the third line.

It should be "GROUP BY id_number, description" or "GROUP BY description, id_number"

To generalize what jmodic said, realize the question you are asking the database:

For each id_number and description, what is the sum of the price? Thus, you must group by those columns. Whenever you use a group function such as sum, max, min, avg . . . you'll need to group by all other non-group-function columns. How else would Oracle be able to determine the "span" or "window" across which to aggregate those values?

regards
nath