Ignore duplicate entries in MySQL select using DISTINCT keyword

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Created: Jul 03, 2006

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Sometimes every occurance of a value which may be duplicated multiple times in a result set is not needed. For example, if making a pulldown menu list of options, each option should be seen only once. The DISTINCT keyword in a select statement eliminates duplication in the result set.

The column party from the presidents sample table has many repeats in it. To select a list of the parties from the table, use:

This returns a result set that looks like:

Using the DISTINCT keyword on queries with multiple columns will return unique combinations of values on all of the columns. For example, the query

returns 36 out of a possible 43 rows. Each row is a unique combination of first name and political party.