Adobe Campaign Business Practitioner (CBP) Certification Practice Exam

Which of the following operations can NOT typically appear with aggregate functions?

1. Summarizing

2. Grouping

3. Filtering

4. Averaging

The correct answer is: Filtering

The operation that cannot typically appear with aggregate functions is filtering. Aggregate functions are designed to process a set of values and return a single output, such as a sum, average, count, or maximum. These functions operate on groups of data defined by the grouping operation, which allows for summarizing data into these aggregate values. While summarizing, grouping, and averaging are all integral to the use of aggregate functions—you must first specify a group of records before aggregating the values—filtering refers to the selection of specific records before applying any aggregate functions. In other words, filtering often happens prior to the grouping and aggregation process. Grouping is essential because it determines how the data is divided into subsets for aggregation; summarizing involves the actual computation of the aggregate functions, and averaging is an example of an aggregate function itself. Consequently, filtering indicates records you want to include or exclude from the analysis, but does not participate in the aggregation process. Hence, filtering does not align with the nature of operations typically associated with aggregate functions.