Select Distinct for 2 columns in SQL query

Question

If I have a table such as

1 bob
1 ray
1 bob
1 ray
2 joe
2 joe

And I want to select distinct based on the two columns so that I would get

1 bob
1 ray
2 joe

How can I word my query? Is the only way to concatenate the columns and wrap them around a distinct function operator?

Denis Valeev · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-09 19:34:17Z

35

select distinct id, name from [table]

or

select id, name from [table] group by id, name

answered Sep 9, 2010 at 19:34

Denis Valeev

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3 Comments

Denis Valeev Over a year ago

@OMG Ponies, how come 47k is not enough?

OMG Ponies Over a year ago

The number is arbitrary - I could ask you why 100 is not enough. Me, I've learnt a fair bit while sharpening skills. The SO format works better than traditional forums.

Joe Stefanelli Over a year ago

and @OMG Ponies: "You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy." ~Eric Hoffer :-)

Pablo Santa Cruz · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-09 19:34:53Z

6

You can just do:

select distinct col1, col2 from your_table;

That's exactly what the distinct operator is for: removing duplicate result rows.

Keep in mind that distinct is usually a pretty expensive operation, since, after processing the query, the DB server might perform a sort operation in order to remove the duplicates.

answered Sep 9, 2010 at 19:34

Pablo Santa Cruz

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