Running totals

This lesson uses DDI_SQL_Training dataset v1.0.0 on SQL Server 2019 or later. Accumulate payment amounts in a deterministic sequence.

Run the example

SELECT TOP (5) PaymentID, Amount,
       SUM(Amount) OVER (ORDER BY PaymentID
           ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS RunningAmount
FROM dbo.Payments
ORDER BY PaymentID;

Read it step by step

1. The window ORDER BY establishes PaymentID sequence.
2. The ROWS frame starts at the first payment and ends at the current row.
3. SUM returns a growing total while each payment row remains visible.

Check the result

PaymentID is unique, so the running order is repeatable.

Practice

Compute a running sum of ListPrice by ProductID and show the first five products.

SELECT TOP (5) ProductID, ListPrice,
       SUM(ListPrice) OVER (ORDER BY ProductID
           ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS RunningPrice
FROM dbo.Products
ORDER BY ProductID;