What is the SQL DISTINCT keyword, and when it used in a search query?
What is the SQL DISTINCT keyword, and when it used in a search query?
Ask by Steilla Mitchel
Updated 10 Oct 2023
The SQL DISTINCT keyword is used to eliminate duplicate rows from the result set of a query. It's particularly useful when you want to retrieve unique values from a column in a table. Here's a simple explanation of when and how it's used in a search query:
Let's say you have a table with a column named category, and you want to retrieve a list of unique categories from that table.
You can use the DISTINCT keyword like this:
What this does is it selects all unique values from the category column in the your_table. If there are duplicate values in that column, the DISTINCT keyword ensures that only one instance of each unique value is returned in the result set.
So, it's used in a search query when you want to find and display only unique values from a specific column in your database table, making your query results more concise and relevant to your needs.