Grand total of accounts SQL

Question

I am a student this is homework... I have one table with four columns: Accounts(numbers), balances(money), and two for descriptions. I have to get a grand total of the balances... This VIEW shows the sums of the balance column but I need to total the sums, also. Any help pointing me in the right direction will be appreciated.

CREATE VIEW [account_balance_sums]

AS
    SELECT SUM(balance) AS total,
           SUBSTRING(Account,0,2) AS account_group,


      FROM COA

  GROUP BY account_group

GO

SELECT * FROM [account_balance_sums]

Answer 1

You just want the total of all balances?

SELECT Sum(Balances)
FROM COA

Additionally your VIEW will not work as you cannot have an alias in a GROUP BY clause..

Edit after comment...

I'm not sure whether the question implies that the grand total should be a part of the view, also is your account number column numeric? As SUBSTRING will not work.

CREATE VIEW viewAccount_Balance_Sums
AS 
SELECT SUM(Balance) as Total, LEFT(Account,2) AS Account_group
FROM  COA
GROUP BY LEFT(Account,2)
UNION ALL
SELECT SUM(Balance), 'Grand Total'
FROM COA

Answer 2

Try totaling them the same way the view creates a total for each account, by using SUM?

SELECT SUM(balance) FROM COA

(Just don't GROUP BY, so that you get a full total instead of just a per-accountgroup total.)

Alternatively, you could sum the account totals returned from the view:

SELECT SUM(total) FROM [account_balance_sums]

Answer 3

Try using SUM in conjunction with the view in a query.