Aggregate is a programming term that refers to combining or gathering. In other words, aggregate functions are those where the function takes one or more data sets and combines them into a single set of data.
Aggregate functions are commonly used in business applications or data analytics. For example, a programmer might take three sets of numbers (three rows) and create one set of number by adding them together; this would be an aggregate function. Aggregate function can be used when you want to combine two columns into one column, such as combining ‘a’s height and weight in order to calculate their BMI index. It could also involve taking more than two columns at once – like merging all the values from every row on a spreadsheet into one value.
In business applications this is often used when aggregating data from different tables (e.g., combining customer orders with purchase history) to get insights about products and customers. It’s also commonly employed when looking at data across time periods – like merging last year spending on marketing campaigns with current budget allocations so we can analyze trends over time.
Aggregate has other meanings too:
- An aggregate is a group of small things that make up one big thing.
- An aggregator is a program that collects data from many sources. An RSS aggregator gathers information from multiple website’s RSS feeds and automatically brings them to you on one page.
- Aggregation is when many objects that don’t need to be destroyed if their owning object gets destroyed.
