SELECT DISTINCT question

How do I retrieve 2 or more columns
from a table with the distinct syntax

I mean something like this:
SELECT pet, name, owner DISTINCT owner FROM pet

martijn

Chances are you're going to have trouble unless you have a GROUP BY clause which is essential when you mix an aggregate function, i.e. min(), max(), count(), distinct() with a non-aggregate column.

Maybe this will help...

select distinct(owner), pet
from pet
group by pet; // this returns each type of pet once (bird, fish, frog) and the name of AN owner, in no particular order, kind of counter-intuitive based on the syntax, isn't it?

select distinct(pet), owner
from pet
group by owner; // this returns each owner name once (Bill, Fred, Sarah) and the type of pet that they own (bird, fish, frog), in no particular order

select owner, count(pet)
from pet
group by owner; // this returns each owner name and the number of pets each of them owns

The general rule is: However many non-aggregate columns you have in your SELECT clause, you must have those same columns listed in your GROUP BY clause

[This message has been edited by Kyuzo (edited February 17, 2000).]

Thanx, that's what i'm looking for.

Where can I find a manual/tutorial that
goes futher than the standard manual?

Martijn

I'm working with almost the same problem. How do you print the results to the screen using apache and php3.

Thanks in advance,
Bob