ProblemOutput from a query contains duplicate rows. You want to eliminate them. SolutionUse DISTINCT. DiscussionSome queries produce results containing duplicate rows. For example, to see who sent mail, you could query the mail table like this: mysql> SELECT srcuser FROM mail; +---------+ | srcuser | +---------+ | barb | | tricia | | phil | | barb | | gene | | phil | | barb | | tricia | | gene | | phil | | gene | | gene | | gene | | phil | | phil | | gene | +---------+ That result is heavily redundant. Adding DISTINCT to the query removes the duplicate rows, producing a set of unique values: mysql> SELECT DISTINCT srcuser FROM mail; +---------+ | srcuser | +---------+ | barb | | tricia | | phil | | gene | +---------+ DISTINCT works with multiple-column output, too. The following query shows which dates are represented in the mail table: mysql> SELECT DISTINCT YEAR(t), MONTH(t), DAYOFMONTH(t) FROM mail; +---------+----------+---------------+ | YEAR(t) | MONTH(t) | DAYOFMONTH(t) | +---------+----------+---------------+ | 2006 | 5 | 11 | | 2006 | 5 | 12 | | 2006 | 5 | 13 | | 2006 | 5 | 14 | | 2006 | 5 | 15 | | 2006 | 5 | 16 | | 2006 | 5 | 17 | | 2006 | 5 | 19 | +---------+----------+---------------+ To count the number of unique values in a column, use COUNT(DISTINCT): mysql> SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT srcuser) FROM mail; +-------------------------+ | COUNT(DISTINCT srcuser) | +-------------------------+ | 4 | +-------------------------+ See AlsoChapter 8 revisits DISTINCT and COUNT(DISTINCT). Chapter 14 discusses duplicate removal in more detail. |