The SQL SELECT DISTINCT statement
may contain duplicate values in the table. This is not a problem, however, sometimes you may want to just list distinct values.
The keyword DISTINCT is used to return uniquely distinct values.
Syntax:
SELECT DISTINCT column name FROM table name
using DISTINCT keyword
If we want to select all values from "Company" column, we need to use SELECT statement:
SELECT Company FROM Orders
"Orders" Table:
Company OrderNumber
IBM 3532
W3School 2356
Apple 4698
W3School 6953
Results:
Company
IBM
W3School
Apple
W3School
Notice that in the result set, W3School is listed twice.
To select only unique values from the Company" column, we need to use the SELECT DISTINCT statement:
SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM Orders
Result:
Company
IBM
W3School
Apple
Now, in the result set, "W3School" is listed only once.