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How do you select unique rows from a table?

SQLJunior~1 min read
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To select unique rows from a table, use the DISTINCT keyword in a SELECT command.

Syntax:

sql
SELECT DISTINCT Column1, Column2, ... FROM Table_Name;

Example:

sql
SELECT DISTINCT DepartmentID FROM Employees;

What this query does

  • Selects only the unique values of the DepartmentID field from the Employees table.
  • If several employees belong to the same department, DISTINCT returns that department only once.

Notes:

  • Several columns can be used at once:
sql
SELECT DISTINCT Name, DepartmentID FROM Employees;
  • In that case, uniqueness is based on the combination of values across every listed column.

Put simply, DISTINCT helps remove repeated rows and get back only unique records from a table.

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