SQL Guru DISTINCT Help

Question

I am trying to return unquie rows based on the following SQL
but am still pulling up multiple "customer_ads.client_id" anyone
have any ideas?
SELECT DISTINCT (customer_ads.client_id),
customer_ads.added_date, customer_ads.start_date,
customer_ads.job_title, customer_ads.id, media.pub_name,
customers.company, customer_ads.ad_copy, customer_ads.complete,
customer_ads.killed, media.id AS mediaID
FROM customer_ads, customers, media
WHERE (customer_ads.client_id = customers.customers_id)
AND (customer_ads.media_id = media.id)
AND (customer_ads.id like '%%')
AND (customers.company like '%%')
AND (media.pub_name like '%%')
AND (customer_ads.job_title like '%%')
AND (customer_ads.start_date between '2007-06-02' AND
'2007-06-12')
ORDER BY customer_ads.id DESC

Answer 1

What you're really selecting is a series of groups; you just
need to define
how to combine the rows in the group.
SELECT customer_ads.client_id, <the rest>
...snipped out FROM and WHERE because they don't change
GROUP BY customer_ads.client_id
Now how do you fill in <the rest> above? You have to
decide based on your
data. For instance, on customer_ads.added_date, which date do
you choose
when there is more than one? If you decide that the earliest
date will
suffice, then MIN(customer_ads.added_date) AS DateAdded will
do nicely.
Based on the other columns, though, it sounds like you're not
really trying
to select distinct customers. There are a lot of add-related
columns. Are
you perhaps trying to get every customer's latest ad?
"VernMan" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:f56f3j$p2p$[email protected]..
>I am trying to return unquie rows based on the following
SQL but am still
> pulling up multiple "customer_ads.client_id" anyone have
any ideas?
>
> SELECT DISTINCT (customer_ads.client_id),
customer_ads.added_date,
> customer_ads.start_date, customer_ads.job_title,
customer_ads.id,
> media.pub_name, customers.company, customer_ads.ad_copy,
> customer_ads.complete,
> customer_ads.killed, media.id AS mediaID
>
> FROM customer_ads, customers, media
>
> WHERE (customer_ads.client_id = customers.customers_id)
> AND (customer_ads.media_id = media.id)
> AND (customer_ads.id like '%%')
> AND (customers.company like '%%')
> AND (media.pub_name like '%%')
> AND (customer_ads.job_title like '%%')
> AND (customer_ads.start_date between '2007-06-02' AND
'2007-06-12')
>
> ORDER BY customer_ads.id DESC
>