GROUP BY with aggregation in Google Sheets - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

Sales data with names, categories, and sales amounts.

Cell	Value
A1	Name
B1	Category
C1	Sales
A2	Alice
B2	Fruit
C2	10
A3	Bob
B3	Vegetable
C3	15
A4	Charlie
B4	Fruit
C4	20
A5	David
B5	Vegetable
C5	5
A6	Eve
B6	Fruit
C6	25

Formula Trace

=QUERY(A1:C6, "select B, sum(C) group by B", 1)

Step 1: QUERY(A1:C6, "select B, sum(C) group by B", 1)

Step 2: Group rows by Category: Fruit and Vegetable

Step 3: Sum Sales for Fruit: 10 + 20 + 25

Step 4: Sum Sales for Vegetable: 15 + 5

Step 5: Final output table:

Cell Reference Map

    A       B          C
1 | Name  | Category | Sales  |
2 | Alice | Fruit    | 10     |
3 | Bob   | Vegetable| 15     |
4 | Charlie| Fruit   | 20     |
5 | David | Vegetable| 5      |
6 | Eve   | Fruit    | 25     |

The formula references the range A1:C6 which contains names, categories, and sales data.

Result

    E          F
1 | Category | sum  |
2 | Fruit    | 55   |
3 | Vegetable| 20   |

The result shows each category with the total sales summed from the original data.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the QUERY formula group by?

A Category (column B)

B Name (column A)

C Sales (column C)

D No grouping

Key Result

QUERY(range, "select column, sum(column) group by column", header)