MediumSQL challenge #151SUBQUERY

Products Above Avg Price

Find products priced above average.

The challenge runs on the SQLabHub practice database (SQLite) and uses the products table. You can solve it in the browser, with nothing to install.

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The task

Find products priced above average.

A correct answer returns 59 rows with 10 columns: id, name, category, price, cost, stock, sku, status, rating, review_count.

Tables used in this challenge

products 120 rows

id INTEGER (PK) · name TEXT · category TEXT · price REAL · cost REAL · stock INTEGER · sku TEXT · status TEXT · rating REAL · review_count INTEGER

First 3 rows of the products table
idnamecategorypricecoststockskustatusratingreview_count
1Play Kitchen DeluxeToys1786.38589.51257SKU-000001active457
2Micro-Cut Paper Shredder 8-SheetOffice Supplies907.93281.46131SKU-000002active2.5447
34K Dual Dash CameraAutomotive568.89204.8176SKU-000003active4.129

The first rows of each table are shown. See how all the tables relate on the database schema page.

Expected output

Expected output of the challenge
idnamecategorypricecoststockskustatusratingreview_count
1Play Kitchen DeluxeToys1786.38589.51257SKU-000001active457
4Ergonomic Desk Mat XLOffice Supplies1618.64663.64164SKU-000004active4262
5Premium Beard Oil 60mlHealth & Beauty1428.31428.49183SKU-000005active5305
7Giant Stuffed Teddy BearToys1130.58361.79453SKU-000007active3.1419
8Artisan Hot Sauce TrioFood & Beverage1698.99509.7391SKU-000008discontinued3.9239

First 5 of 59 rows. This is the output of the model solution on the practice database. The task does not fix a sort order, so your rows may come back in a different order.

What you practise

  • Returning every column of a table with SELECT *
  • Filtering rows with a WHERE condition
  • Summarising many rows into one value with COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN or MAX
  • Using the result of one query inside another

Hint and approach

Try the challenge first. Open these only when you need them.

Show the hint

Subquery AVG(price)

Show the step-by-step approach

How the model solution is built, in the order the database evaluates it:

  1. Read from the products table.
  2. Filter in WHERE: keep the rows where price is greater than the value returned by a subquery.
  3. The subquery runs once and returns a single value. It works like this:
    1. Read from the products table.
    2. Aggregate over all the rows that are left: compute AVG(price). With no GROUP BY, the result is a single row.
  4. Return every column with SELECT *.

Model solution

Checking your session…

What to watch for

  • Subquery. A subquery compared with =, > or < must return exactly one row and one column. If it can return several rows, use IN or an aggregate.
  • 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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