Question on DISTINCT

[Mr Chris]

Hello

 

I have my query to select a distinct column item named product_grouping (which is an INT in the db) as well as the other columns id and price which are not distinct.

 

SELECT DISTINCT product_grouping, id, price
FROM tbl
WHERE product_grouping !=3
ORDER BY rand( ) 
LIMIT 4 

 

But it produces these results:

 

product_grouping  |  id    |  price

---------------------------------

8                        |5      | 9.99

1                        |4      |9.99

2                        |6      |9.99

1                        |2      |9.99

 

But I ask for a distinct product grouping yet I get two 1 results returned?

 

[PFMaBiSmAd]

The ALL, DISTINCT, and DISTINCTROW options specify whether duplicate rows should be returned. If none of these options are given, the default is ALL (all matching rows are returned). DISTINCT and DISTINCTROW are synonyms and specify removal of duplicate rows from the result set.

 

DISTINCT operates on the rows in the results set, testing everything that is selected.

 

You can use -

 

GROUP BY product_grouping

[fenway]

But then you'll get a random ID & price.