QUERY Function

The most powerful function in Google Sheets. Uses a SQL-like query language to filter, sort, group, pivot, and aggregate data — all within a formula.

Google Sheets

Syntax

QUERY(data, query, [headers])

Parameter	Description
data	The range of cells to query.
query	The query string using Google Visualization API Query Language (similar to SQL).
headers(optional)	Number of header rows in the data. -1 for auto-detect.

Select specific columns where region is East

=QUERY(A1:D100, "SELECT A, C WHERE B = 'East'", 1)

Result: Returns columns A and C for rows where column B is 'East'

Group by category and sum sales

=QUERY(A1:C100, "SELECT A, SUM(C) GROUP BY A ORDER BY SUM(C) DESC", 1)

Result: Sales totals grouped by category, sorted highest first

Top 10 records by value

=QUERY(A1:D100, "SELECT * ORDER BY D DESC LIMIT 10", 1)

Result: Returns the top 10 rows sorted by column D

•QUERY is Google Sheets only — no Excel equivalent (use Power Query in Excel instead).
•Column references use letters (A, B, C...) not column names in the query string.
•Use the LABEL clause to rename output headers: "SELECT A, SUM(B) LABEL SUM(B) 'Total'".
•Combine with IMPORTRANGE to query data from other spreadsheets.
•For date comparisons: "WHERE A > date '2024-01-01'".

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