Select only one occurence

[Ninjakreborn]

This is driving me crazy. I have a table that has a lot of data in it. I have a field called Order ID that has multiple occurrences of each order ID.  I need to be able to get 1 record with Each order ID. I basically tried

using distinct..and it's still returning multiple occurrences of each order ID.

 

$result = mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT order_id FROM jp_transaction_history WHERE last_name LIKE '%" . $last_name . "%' AND transaction_type = 'ss'");

 

ALL I want to do is get 1 record for every Order ID that is found..not duplicate order ID's.  Any advice, is appreciated.

[Ninjakreborn]

$result = mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT order_id, first_name, last_name, city, phone, state, product_sku FROM jp_transaction_history WHERE last_name LIKE '%" . $last_name . "%'");

This is what I currently have...it's not working.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

[PFMaBiSmAd]

DISTINCT removes duplicate rows from the result set. Since the product_sku is probably different in each row, the the rows are all different and there's nothing for distinct to remove. If all you are trying to get is a list of distinct order_id's, why are you selecting other columns?

 

Use GROUP BY order_id to consolidate all rows having the same order_id into one row in the result set.

[Ninjakreborn]

I understand now the entire difference between Group BY and distinct.  Thanks..I have used group by before, but I didn't realize it worked in the way you described.  Thanks for sharing that with me, it's working perfectly now.