Distinct & order by

Question

Hi,
I have a data in this format.
Name Type ctg Id subctg Id
AA Long 1 1
AA Long 1 1
pfAA Long 1 3
P1+ Short 1 1
Now I want distinct name from a materilazed view in the following order
Order by clause should be Type,Ctg Id,SubctgId
Output:
AA
PfAA
P1+
I have already ready previous threads on this but sorry i didn't get it.
Pls help.
Thanks
Regards
Anant

Answer 1

ok,
you might start with this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION ftest(
   pid     IN  NUMBER,
   psubid  IN  NUMBER
   RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
   RESULT  VARCHAR2(4000) := NULL;
BEGIN
   FOR i IN (SELECT   MAX(NAME) NAME
             FROM     <yourtable>
             WHERE    ID = pid
             AND      sub_id = psubid
             GROUP BY NAME,
                      ctg_id,
                      subctg_id
             ORDER BY ctg_id,
                      subctg_id) LOOP
      IF RESULT IS NULL THEN
         RESULT   := i.NAME;
      ELSE
         RESULT   :=    RESULT
                     || '/'
                     || i.NAME;
      END IF;
   END LOOP;
   RETURN RESULT;
END;
/will gives:
select ftest(100,12) from dual
AA Long/FAAA Mid/P1+ Short/PFAA Long/AA(so) LongReplace the <yourtable> with your table name.
you can change the way the rows are retrieved (the order, uniqueness and so on)
But as said before, your can obtain this result without creating a function (only with SQL) but it will be probably not be the easiest for your to understand...
Edited by: user11268895 on Aug 17, 2010 11:36 AM