Re: Assistance with the DISTINCT keyword

Use group by

> On Nov 12, 2023, at 6:35 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Hello. I'm wondering if I can get assistance with the DISTINCT keyword?
> 
> I've got a Table with 5-6 fields/information but 1000+ records. I want to select all fields but only use DISTINCT on one specific field.
> 
> There may be 1, 2, or 10+ records with a distinct code - I only want to choose the oldest record of each distinct code, but 5 unique/distinct records.
> 
> PROBLEM:  https://www.mysqltutorial.org/mysql-distinct.aspx
> 
> If I select multiple records, SELECT DISTINCT field1, Field2, etc..  it seems to combine "Field1, Field2" into one field and make a DISTINCT on THAT information, instead of just field1.
> 
> In all the tutorials I find I can only retrieve ONE field/information using DISTINCT, without retrieving all the information/fields.
> 
> Is it possible to select distinct on 1field, but retrieve ALL fields for that record?
> 
> 
> An example of what I want:  Select DISTINCT REF, * from Services ORDER BY `Services`.`TIMECHECK` ASC LIMIT 5;
> 
> *TIMECHECK* is a simple timestamp
> 
> 
> Or do I need to do this in a 2-step process?
> - get 5 records  Distinct on the REF, sort by oldest records 
> - select all fields/columns of information for each unique record, (HOWEVER, I only want the oldest record).
> -- 
> 
> Gordon.