Lets say I have table with 1 column like this:
Col A
1
2
3
4
If I SUM
it, then I will get this:
Col A
10
My question is: how do I multiply Col A so I get the following?
Col A
24
Lets say I have table with 1 column like this:
Col A
1
2
3
4
If I SUM
it, then I will get this:
Col A
10
My question is: how do I multiply Col A so I get the following?
Col A
24
Using a combination of ROUND
, EXP
, SUM
and LOG
SELECT ROUND(EXP(SUM(LOG([Col A]))),1)
FROM yourtable
SQL Fiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!3/d43c8/2/0
Explanation
LOG
returns the logarithm of col a ex. LOG([Col A])
which returns
0
0.6931471805599453
1.0986122886681098
1.3862943611198906
Then you use SUM
to Add them all together SUM(LOG([Col A]))
which returns
3.1780538303479453
Then the exponential of that result is calculated using EXP(SUM(LOG(['3.1780538303479453'])))
which returns
23.999999999999993
Then this is finally rounded using ROUND
ROUND(EXP(SUM(LOG('23.999999999999993'))),1)
to get 24
Simple resolution to:
An invalid floating point operation occurred.
When you have a 0
in your data
SELECT ROUND(EXP(SUM(LOG([Col A]))),1)
FROM yourtable
WHERE [Col A] != 0
If you only have 0
Then the above would give a result of NULL
.
When you have negative numbers in your data set.
SELECT (ROUND(exp(SUM(log(CASE WHEN[Col A]<0 THEN [Col A]*-1 ELSE [Col A] END))),1)) *
(CASE (SUM(CASE WHEN [Col A] < 0 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) %2) WHEN 1 THEN -1 WHEN 0 THEN 1 END) AS [Col A Multi]
FROM yourtable
Example Input:
1
2
3
-4
Output:
Col A Multi
-24
SQL Fiddle: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!3/01ddc/3/0
This is a complicated matter. If you want to take signs and handle zero, the expression is a bit complicated:
select (case when sum(case when a = 0 then 1 else 0 end) > 0
then 0
else exp(sum(log(abs(a)))) *
(case when sum(case when a < 0 then 1 else 0 end) % 2 = 1 then -1 else 1 end)
end) as ProductA
from table t;
Note: you do not specify a database. In some databases you would use LN()
rather than LOG()
. Also the function for the modulo operator (to handle negative values) also differs by database.
In MySQL you could use
select max(sum)
from
(
select @sum := @sum * colA as sum
from your_table
cross join (select @sum := 1) s
) tmp
You can do It simply by declaring an variable in following, COALESCE is used to avoid NULLS
.
DECLARE @var INT
SELECT @var = Col1 * COALESCE(@var, 1) FROM Tbl
SELECT @var
SQL FIDDLE
A quick example, supposing that the column contains only two values: a and b, both different than zero.
We are interested in x = a*b
.
Then, applying some math, we have:
x = a * b -> log(x) = log(a * b) -> log(x) = log(a) + log(b) ->
exp[log(x)] = exp[log(a) + log(b)] -> x = exp[log(a) + log(b)].
Therefore:
a * b = exp[log(a) + log(b)]
This explains Matt's answer:
SELECT ROUND(EXP(SUM(LOG([Col A]))),1)
FROM your table
ROUND is required because of the limited precision of the SQL variables.