Question

I have a table with 2 columns (db: sql server 2008):

id         name
-----      ------
1          Bob
2          Mike
3          Mary
4          Mike
5          Barry
6          Benson
7          Burrows

I want to get a count of names that start with B and start with M (in one row)?

Like:

Count of B        Count of M
-----------      ------------
4                  3

The only thing that comes up for me is a union. Any ideas to do it cleaner in a single query (no union)?

Answer 1

Try it by using CASE,

SELECT  SUM(CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(name,1,1) = 'B' Then 1 ELSE 0 END),
        SUM(CASE WHEN SUBSTRING(name,1,1) = 'M' Then 1 ELSE 0 END)
FROM TAbleName

SQLFiddle Demo