Join 2 tables, One to many, but single row only

Question

I have a table (actually it is a view) with detail information.
I want to join to that table, but for my join criteria, bring back no more than 1 row. This is because there is some data on the table which is consisitent on each row so any row of my join will do.
ie.
select list.invoice_number, inv.payment_terms
from
list, inv
where list.invoice_number=inv.invoice_number(+)
LIST
Invoice Number
1
2
3
4
INV
Invoice Number, Seq, Payment_terms
1               1    30
1               2    30
1               3    30
2               1    40
2               2    40
3               1    50would produce
Invoice Number, Payment_terms
1               30
2               40
3               50
4Thanks

Answer 1

Would there be more than one value for payment_terms in inv? If so, then the distinct is probably the way to go, although I would probably do the DISTINCT in an in-line view like:
SELECT list.invoice_number, inv.payment_terms
FROM list,
     (SELECT DISTINCT invoice_number, payment_terms
      FROM inv) inv
WHERE list.invoice_number=inv.invoice_number(+)If each invoice would only ever have one value for payment_terms, then I might try an in-line view like:
SELECT list.invoice_number, inv.payment_terms
FROM list,
     (SELECT invoice_number, MAX(payment_terms) payment_terms
      FROM inv
      GROUP BY invoice_number) inv
WHERE list.invoice_number=inv.invoice_number(+)On the other hand, if inv is a view based on a multitable join, I would also check to see if incoice_number and payment_terms come from the same table. If so, I would be tempted to write your query using the base tables instead of the view since it is likely to bve more efficient.
John