SQL Select Distinct

The DISTINCT keyword is used to return only distinct (different) values.

The DISTINCT Keyword

The SQL SELECT statement returns information from table columns. But what if we only want to select distinct elements? 

With SQL, all we need to do is to add a DISTINCT keyword to the SELECT statement with the following syntax:

SELECT DISTINCT column-name(s) FROM table-name

Example: Select Companies from Order Table

Example: Simple Table of Purchase Orders:

This SQL statement:

SELECT Company FROM Orders

Will return this result:

Note that the company W3Schools is listed twice in the result. Sometimes we don't want that.

Example: Select Distinct Companies from Orders

This SQL statement:

SELECT DISTINCT Company FROM Orders

Will return this result:

Now the company W3Schools is listed only once in the result. Sometimes that is what we want.

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