SQL SELECT DISTINCT statement

This chapter describes the select distinct statements.

SQL SELECT DISTINCT statement

Duplicate values may exist in the table. This is not a problem. However, sometimes you may want to list only different values.

The keyword DISTINCT is used to return a unique value.

Syntax:

Select distinct column name FROM Table Name

Use DISTINCT keywords

To SELECT all values from the "Company" column, use the SELECT statement:

SELECT Company FROM Orders

"Orders" table:

Company	OrderNumber
IBM	3532
W3School	2356
Apple	4698
Sqlkey	6953

Result:

Company
IBM
W3School
Apple
Sqlkey

Note that the sqlkey is listed twice in the result set.

To SELECT only different values from the Company column, use the select distinct statement:

SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM Orders

Result:

Company
IBM
Sqlkey
Apple

"Sqlkey" is listed only once in the result set.