How to get count of the columns beginning with the alphabet in a table in SQL

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Hi Everyone

I am working on a project where I have to get the count of the columns beginning with the alphabet in a table.

For example
Below the table

Name
apple
banana
coconut
apricot
bear
ant

The result should be

Name count
apple 3
banana 2
coconut 1
apricot 3
bear 2
ant 3

I tried the following query but I am getting the total count of the records for all rows

SQL

select name,(select count(*) from tablename where name like LEFT(name,1)+ '%') from tablename

Please help

Thank You

Posted 11-May-15 8:29am

JPais

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virusstorm 11-May-15 14:59pm

I'm having a hard time following what you are counting. For the example "apple", what does the value "3" represent?

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Richard Deeming · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-11T09:05:00

The problem is in your sub-query - it doesn't know which name column you're referring to.

You've essentially asked "how many names start with their own first letter?", to which the answer is "all of them".

You need to add an alias to the tables, so that you can refer to the column from the correct table:

SQL

select name, (select count(*) from tablename As t2 where t2.name like LEFT(t1.name, 1) + '%') from tablename As t1