What is the difference between sum and count SQL?

What is the difference between count and sum?

What is the difference between SUM and COUNT? Very simply, SUM calculates a total for a number of cells or values, so it's answering the question: HOW MUCH? Or, WHAT IS THE TOTAL? COUNT tells you HOW MANY cells meet a certain condition.

Is sum or count faster SQL?

The cumulative time for all the original five queries was over 3 hours which we were able to bring down to just a total of 6 minutes. During the conversation, the senior developer pointed out that they are using SUM at one place and wanted to change it to COUNT as they believe that SUM is slower and COUNT is faster.

Why is it important to make the value a count instead of a sum?

Instead, it determines which cells have numerical values, as opposed to text values that do not translate into numbers. The "Count" formula result tells you how many cells within your chosen range have values, but not the sum of those values.

Which is faster sum or count?

Performance is almost identical. COUNT() is typically very slightly faster than SUM() .