Indeed, if you aggregate on the alias of the TRANSFORMed expression, the
result is "as if" you would have aggregated HORIZONTALLY in the crosstab.
Here, a given row, a given well, may not have a value for each PIVOT
YEAR(visit), and for those "cells", a null is supplied and then, the
horizontal aggregate COUNT on these columns does not count the year where
there is no data, returning the number of year with some data, for the given
well. So you get a DISTINCT COUNT.
It is a short cut which allows, in ONE query, to aggregate over aggregate (a
vertical aggregate and next, an horizontal one over the vertical aggregated
just done, assuming you are in a visual representation).
You can even remove the generated fields from the result by adding an
IN(NULL) to the PIVOT expression., and you will be left with the
'horizontal' final aggregate.
(From initial observations reported by Steve Dassin, in my best knowledge).
Vanderghast, Access MVP
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