Google Sheets QUERY Function — Complete Guide with Examples 2027

QUERY Basics

The QUERY function uses Google Visualization API Query Language — similar to SQL. Syntax: =QUERY(data, query, [headers]).

Example: =QUERY(A1:E100, "SELECT A, C, E WHERE B = 'Electronics' ORDER BY E DESC", 1) — selects columns A, C, E where category is Electronics, sorted by column E descending.

SELECT and WHERE

SELECT columns: =QUERY(data, "SELECT A, B, D") — choose specific columns to display.

WHERE filters: =QUERY(data, "SELECT * WHERE C > 1000 AND D = 'Paid'") — filter rows by conditions.

Date filtering: =QUERY(data, "SELECT * WHERE A >= date '2027-01-01' AND A <= date '2027-03-31'") — filter by date range.

GROUP BY and Aggregation

SUM by category: =QUERY(data, "SELECT B, SUM(E) GROUP BY B") — total sales per category.

COUNT: =QUERY(data, "SELECT B, COUNT(A) GROUP BY B") — count orders per category.

AVERAGE, MIN, MAX: =QUERY(data, "SELECT B, AVG(E), MIN(E), MAX(E) GROUP BY B LABEL AVG(E) 'Average', MIN(E) 'Min', MAX(E) 'Max'")

PIVOT Tables with QUERY

Create pivot tables: =QUERY(data, "SELECT A, SUM(E) PIVOT B") — rows are dates, columns are categories, values are sums.

QUERY is more flexible than Google Sheets built-in pivot tables. You can combine it with IMPORTRANGE to query data from other spreadsheets.

Advanced Techniques

Dynamic queries: use cell references in your query string with ampersand concatenation. Example: =QUERY(data, "SELECT * WHERE B = '" & F1 & "'") — filter changes when F1 changes.

Nested QUERY: use QUERY on the result of another QUERY for multi-step analysis.

QUERY + IMPORTRANGE: analyze data across multiple spreadsheets without manual copy-paste.