Count Rows That Match a Condition
Return how many users are premium, as a single number.
The challenge runs on the SQLabHub practice database (SQLite) and uses the users table. You can solve it in the browser, with nothing to install.
The task
Count number of premium users.
A correct answer returns 1 row with one column: COUNT(*).
Tables used in this challenge
users 150 rows
id INTEGER (PK) · first_name TEXT · last_name TEXT · email TEXT · phone TEXT · city TEXT · country TEXT · created_at TEXT · status TEXT · is_premium INTEGER
| id | first_name | last_name | phone | city | country | created_at | status | is_premium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The first rows of each table are shown. See how all the tables relate on the database schema page.
Expected output
| COUNT(*) |
|---|
The complete result: 1 row. This is the output of the model solution on the practice database.
What you practise
- Filtering rows with a WHERE condition
- Summarising many rows into one value with COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN or MAX
Hint and approach
Try the challenge first. Open these only when you need them.
Show the hint
COUNT with condition
Show the step-by-step approach
How the model solution is built, in the order the database evaluates it:
- Read from the
userstable. - Filter in
WHERE: keep the rows whereis_premiumequals 1. - Aggregate over all the rows that are left: compute
COUNT(*). With no GROUP BY, the result is a single row.
Model solution
Checking your session…
What to watch for
The WHERE clause removes rows before COUNT(*) sees them. Because the flag is 0 or 1, SUM(is_premium) gives the same number, and that form lets you count several conditions in one query.
- Aggregate functions. Aggregates skip NULLs. AVG divides by the number of non-NULL values and COUNT(column) can be smaller than COUNT(*).
- WHERE. WHERE is evaluated before the SELECT list, so it cannot use a column alias defined there or the result of an aggregate.
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Keep learning
- Lesson: Aggregate Functions
- Lesson: WHERE Clause
- All SQL practice challenges, by difficulty and topic
- SQL interview questions with answers
- SQL Playground: run any query on the same database