ONE field is causing problem. Please help

Question

Hello experts,
I’m trying to get some data from 4 different tables and having a little difficulty. I need you experts help in this regards. I’ve got 4 tables. ActiveMembers, Member_lookup, Name, Corp. I need 3 fields from ActiveMem, 1 Fields from Member_Info, 2 fields from Name and 1 from Corporate_Info.
ActiveMem, Member_Info and Name has a common field MEM_TYPE. So I used LEFT OUTER JOIN to join them. I also joined ActiveMem with Corporate_Info with ID which is common.
I’ve achieve what I want but there is 1 field which is messing up things. This field causing so many repetitions and it is coming from Name table. I’m selecting 2 fields from this table MEM_STATUS AND MEM_STATUS_DATE. When I join all 4 table using Left Outer Join WITHOUT MEM_STATUS_DATE then I don’t get any repetition and everything looks great.
Here is the sample of out
     CHAR     229657     Serco     Operations Training and Project Development Manager     Champion     D     
     CHAR     232458     UPS Canada     Director of Business Development     Champion     D     
     CHAR     231850     Cybernomics     Infrastructure & Support Analyst     Champion     D     
     CHAR     22811     George Weston Limited          Champion     D     
     CHAR     229654     Serco     Director of Operations     Champion     D     
However as soon as I add this field in my query it causes so many repetitions.
Here is the sample of out put
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     4/6/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     4/8/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     4/9/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     4/29/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     4/30/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     5/1/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     5/14/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     5/19/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     5/28/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     6/8/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     13452     Bombardier Commercial Aircraft     Vice President, Services Bombrardier Transportation North America     Champion     D     6/29/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     4/6/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     4/8/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     4/9/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     4/29/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     4/30/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     5/1/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     5/14/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     5/19/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     5/28/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     6/8/2009 12:00:00 AM     
     CHAR     14775     Toromont Cat     Vice President, Power Systems and Energy     Champion     D     6/29/2009 12:00:00 AM     
Can anybody point out what mistake I’m making here? For reference here is my query.
Thanks,
SELECT DISTINCT
dbo.ActiveMembers.MEMBER_TYPE, dbo.ActiveMembers.ID, dbo.ActiveMembers.COMPANY, dbo.ActiveMembers.TITLE,
dbo.Member_Lookup.NEW_MEMBER_CLASS, dbo.Name.MEMBER_STATUS, dbo.Name.MEMBER_STATUS_DATE, dbo.CORP.CONTACTNAME
FROM dbo.CORP LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.ActiveMembers ON dbo.CORP.ID = dbo.ActiveMembers.ID LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.Member_Lookup ON dbo.ActiveMembers.MEMBER_TYPE = dbo.Member_Lookup.MEMBER_TYPE LEFT OUTER JOIN
dbo.Name ON dbo.ActiveMembers.MEMBER_TYPE = dbo.Name.MEMBER_TYPE
WHERE (dbo.Name.MEMBER_TYPE IN ('GROR', 'CHAR', 'PRER')) AND (dbo.Name.MEMBER_STATUS = 'D') AND
(dbo.Name.MEMBER_STATUS_DATE BETWEEN '4/1/2009' AND '6/30/2009')
ORDER BY dbo.ActiveMembers.MEMBER_TYPE
Thanks a lot in Advance.

Answer 1

Hi,
user10791378 wrote:
Can anybody point out what mistake I’m making here? That depends on what you're trying to do.
The output you posted looks like the perfect answer to some particular question, just not the question you have right now.
When there are several different mem_status_dates, what do you want for output. The first one? The last one? The one closest to today? The average? Some other kind of aggregate of all of them? Something else entirely?
Whenever you have a question, it helps to post:
(1) The version of Oracle (and any other relevant software) you're using
(2) A little sample data (just enough to show what the problem is) from all the relevant tables
(3) The results you want from that data
(4) Your best attempt so far (formatted) (You posted this, but since it's unformated, it's very hard to read.)
Executable SQL statements (like "CREATE TABLE AS ..." or "INSERT ..." statements) are best for (2).
If you can present your problem using commonly available tables (for example, tables in scott schema, or views in the data dictionary), then you can omit (2).
Formatted tabular output is okay for (3). Type these 6 characters:
{code}
(small letters only, inside curly brackets) before and after sections of formatted text, to preserve spacing.