Bug #3405 No explanation of "formula" for Group By/Order By in Select
Submitted: 6 Apr 2004 22:04 Modified: 7 Apr 2004 7:15
Reporter: Sergei Kulakov (Candidate Quality Contributor) Email Updates:
Status: Closed Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server: Documentation Severity:S3 (Non-critical)
Version:5 OS:
Assigned to: CPU Architecture:Any

[6 Apr 2004 22:04] Sergei Kulakov 
Description:
"14.1.7 SELECT Syntax" does not explain what "formula" in Group By/Order By clauses of Select is and how it works

How to repeat:
See http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/SELECT.html 14.1.7 SELECT Syntax
(the section number may be different in other versions of the documentation)
...
[GROUP BY {col_name | formula | position}
...
[ORDER BY {col_name | formula | position}

The word "formula" isn't found anywhere else in the section
[7 Apr 2004 7:15] Paul DuBois 
Thank you for your bug report. This issue has been addressed in the
documentation. The updated documentation will appear on our website
shortly, and will be included in the next release of the relevant
product(s).

Additional info:

It just means "expression,", for example, ORDER BY col1-col2;