How Do I Pull Out One Instance Of A Name If Multiple Instances Appear In The Database?

[phpjayx]

If I have the columns

 

NAME

NUMBER

VALID

 

 

There will be multiple instances of the that same entry

 

How do I pull out one instance of each NAME and NUMBER?

 

(EX. I may have

ALEX, 1234

TOM, 44

JEFF, 55

ALEX, 1234

ALEX, 1234

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

 

I want to get an array that gives me

NAME: ALEX, TOM, JEFF

NUMBER: 1234, 44, 55

 

Not the other instances of ALEX and 1234

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

 

Along the same lines, how do I do a COUNT, but only return 3 in the example above, not 5?

 

Thanks in advance

[requinix]

Respectively, DISTINCT and COUNT(DISTINCT ...).

 

Any reason why there are so many duplicates?