SELECT DISTINCT?

Question

When I just - SELECT DISTINCT atblProducts.ID AS ProductID,
it selects
distinct Product IDs but when I add the rest of them to the
select, it
doesn't select the ProductID as DISTINCT.
Lionstone?
SELECT DISTINCT
dbo.atblProducts.ID AS ProductID, dbo.Categories.ID AS
Categories,
dbo.atblProducts.Price AS Price,
dbo.atblDescription.Paragraph AS
Description, dbo.atblProducts.Name AS Name
FROM dbo.atblProducts INNER JOIN dbo.Groups ON
dbo.atblProducts.ID = dbo.Groups.pid INNER JOIN dbo.PCat ON
dbo.Groups.gid = dbo.PCat.gid INNER JOIN dbo.Categories ON
dbo.PCat.cid
= dbo.Categories.ID LEFT OUTER JOINdbo.atblDescription ON
dbo.Groups.pid
= dbo.atblDescription.PID
WHERE (dbo.atblProducts.Price IS NOT NULL)
AND(dbo.atblProducts.Price <> 0)
ORDER BY dbo.atblProducts.ID

Answer 1

If you don't want multiple categories, you can't join on the
categories
table. It doesn't make sense when you say you don't want to
select the
category but you want to display it. You have different
categories for the
same product, so if you want to display them you have to
select them.
Without seeing your data it is hard to figure out what you
are doing, but
you can probably either get rid of the group by completely or
change it to
this, assuming you used MIN on the category:
GROUP BY dbo.atblProducts.ID, dbo.atblProducts.Name
Alternatively, you can write a function in SQL to string your
categories
into a list.
Tom
"Lee" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Tom Muck wrote:
>> You are not selecting distinct product ids, you are
selecting distinct
>> rows. The 3rd field is different (category id). If
you want only distinct
>> product ids, you need to select distinct product ids
only. If you need
>> the name as well, select that. Selecting the 3rd
field makes the rows
>> different. You can get around it by using a MIN or
MAX on the 3rd field,
>> but that will only give you one of the fields (for
example in product
>> 197, you have 2 and 11 -- you would only get 2 in
the result.)
>>
>> SELECT DISTINCT dbo.atblProducts.ID AS ProductID,
dbo.atblProducts.Name
>> AS Name, MIN(dbo.Categories.ID) AS Categories
>> FROM dbo.atblProducts
>> INNER JOIN dbo.Groups ON dbo.atblProducts.ID =
dbo.Groups.pid
>> INNER JOIN dbo.PCat ON dbo.Groups.gid = dbo.PCat.gid
>> INNER JOIN dbo.Categories ON dbo.PCat.cid =
dbo.Categories.ID
>> GROUP BY dbo.atblProducts.ID, dbo.atblProducts.Name,
dbo.Categories.ID
>
> OK, thanks Tom it now makes a little more sense when you
said I am
> selecting DISTINCT rows.
>
> I really only want one result / ProductID. Because there
are categories
> creating multiple listings, the ProductID is being
pulled in more than
> once. OK, That makes sense. What I really want to do is
create a query
> that doesn't display or SELECT the other fields.
However, I need them to
> display. How do I JOIN these tables 4 tables without
pulling in multiples
> of the same thing?
>
> Is this a case in which I need a subquery?
>
> Also, I don't really understand the GROUP BY "thingy" ;)
Anyways,