Categories:

Window Functions

# WIDTH_BUCKET¶

Constructs equi-width histograms, in which the histogram range is divided into intervals of identical size, and returns the bucket number into which the value of an expression falls, after it has been evaluated. The function returns an integer value or null (if any input is null).

Note

The WIDTH_BUCKET function is not a true window function. However, it is loosely categorized as a window function because:

• It performs window-like operations on a group of rows.

• It behaves like a window in the following ways:

• The number of return values is the same as the number of input values. (Thus it is not an aggregate function.)

• Each return value depends not only on the current row, but also the other rows in the group. (Thus it is not a scalar function.)

## Syntax¶

WIDTH_BUCKET( <expr> , <min_value> , <max_value> , <num_buckets> )


## Arguments¶

expr

The expression for which the histogram is created. This expression must evaluate to a numeric value or to a value that can be implicitly converted to a numeric value.

min_value and max_value

The low and high end points of the acceptable range for the expression. The end points must also evaluate to numeric values and not be equal.

num_buckets

The desired number of buckets; must be a positive integer value. A value from the expression is assigned to each bucket, and the function then returns the corresponding bucket number.

When an expression falls outside the range, the function returns:

• 0 if the expression is less than min_value.

• num_buckets + 1 if the expression is greater than or equal to max_value.

## Example¶

Create a four-bucket histogram on the price column for homes sold in the price range of \$200 - 600k, ordered by sales date. The function returns the bucket number (SALES GROUP) for each value in the set.

Create and fill a table:

CREATE TABLE home_sales (
sale_date DATE,
price NUMBER(11, 2)
);
INSERT INTO home_sales (sale_date, price) VALUES
('2013-08-01'::DATE, 290000.00),
('2014-02-01'::DATE, 320000.00),
('2015-04-01'::DATE, 399999.99),
('2016-04-01'::DATE, 400000.00),
('2017-04-01'::DATE, 470000.00),
('2018-04-01'::DATE, 510000.00);


Query the table, calling WIDTH_BUCKET():

SELECT
sale_date,
price,
WIDTH_BUCKET(price, 200000, 600000, 4) AS "SALES GROUP"
FROM home_sales
ORDER BY sale_date;
+------------+-----------+-------------+
| SALE_DATE  |     PRICE | SALES GROUP |
|------------+-----------+-------------|
| 2013-08-01 | 290000.00 |           1 |
| 2014-02-01 | 320000.00 |           2 |
| 2015-04-01 | 399999.99 |           2 |
| 2016-04-01 | 400000.00 |           3 |
| 2017-04-01 | 470000.00 |           3 |
| 2018-04-01 | 510000.00 |           4 |
+------------+-----------+-------------+