WHERE vs HAVING

WHERE vs HAVING

Example data

Assume an Employees table contains:

WHERE example

WHERE filters individual employees before grouping.

SELECT *
FROM Employees
WHERE Salary > 45000;

Result:

Ravi
Priya

HAVING example

HAVING filters departments after calculating their average salary.

SELECT Department, AVG(Salary) AS AverageSalary
FROM Employees
GROUP BY Department
HAVING AVG(Salary) > 50000;

Result:

IT   55000

Using WHERE and HAVING together

SELECT Department, COUNT(*) AS EmployeeCount
FROM Employees
WHERE Salary >= 40000
GROUP BY Department
HAVING COUNT(*) >= 2;

Execution order:

WHERE → GROUP BY → HAVING → SELECT → ORDER BY

• WHERE Salary >= 40000 filters employees.

• GROUP BY Department creates department groups.

• HAVING COUNT(*) >= 2 filters those groups.

Easy memory tip

• WHERE → Filters rows

• HAVING → Filters groups or aggregate results