# `group`


```syntax
group x     group[x]
```

Returns a dictionary in which the keys are the distinct items of `x`, and the values the indexes where the distinct items occur.

The order of the keys is the order in which they appear in `x`.
```q
q)group "mississippi"
m| ,0
i| 1 4 7 10
s| 2 3 5 6
p| 8 9
```

To count the number of occurrences of each distinct item:
```q
q)count each group "mississippi"
m| 1
i| 4
s| 4
p| 2
```

To get the index of the first occurrence of each distinct item:
```q
q)first each group "mississippi"
m| 0
i| 1
s| 2
p| 8
```


----


[`ungroup`](ungroup.md),
[`xgroup`](xgroup.md)


[Sorting](../basics/by-topic.md#sort)