How to Find the Most Frequent Value in an SQL Column?

Determining the Most Frequent Value in an SQL Column

In SQL, identifying the value that occurs most frequently in a particular column of a table is a common task. Here's how to tackle it:

Solution:

To find the most frequent value, follow these steps:

1. Use the SELECT statement: This statement allows you to retrieve records from the table.
2. Specify the column to be analyzed: Use the placeholder and replace it with the actual column name.
3. Count column occurrences: Employ the COUNT() function to determine the number of times each unique value appears in the column. Assign this count to a column named value_occurrence.
4. Group by column: Utilize the GROUP BY clause to group records based on the . This ensures that each distinct value is counted separately.
5. Order results in descending order: Use the ORDER BY clause to sort the results in descending order based on value_occurrence.
6. Limit to the top result: Append LIMIT 1 to obtain only the value with the highest occurrence count.

Example:

Considering the provided sample table, the following SQL query would yield the result "two":

SELECT
  one,
  COUNT(one) AS `value_occurrence`

FROM
  my_table

GROUP BY
  one

ORDER BY
  `value_occurrence` DESC

LIMIT 1;

Customization:

• Replace and with the actual column name and table name in your scenario.
• Adjust the LIMIT value to retrieve the specified number of most common values.

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