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:

Company	OrderNumber
Sega	3412
W3Schools	2312
Trio	4678
W3Schools	6798

This SQL statement:

SELECT Company FROM Orders

Will return this result:

Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio
W3Schools

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:

Company
Sega
W3Schools
Trio

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