Menu
×
   ❮     
HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT SQL PYTHON JAVA PHP HOW TO W3.CSS C C++ C# BOOTSTRAP REACT MYSQL JQUERY EXCEL XML DJANGO NUMPY PANDAS NODEJS R TYPESCRIPT ANGULAR GIT POSTGRESQL MONGODB ASP AI GO KOTLIN SASS VUE DSA GEN AI SCIPY AWS CYBERSECURITY DATA SCIENCE
     ❯   

SQL Tutorial

SQL HOME SQL Intro SQL Syntax SQL Select SQL Select Distinct SQL Where SQL Order By SQL And SQL Or SQL Not SQL Insert Into SQL Null Values SQL Update SQL Delete SQL Select Top SQL Aggregate Functions SQL Min and Max SQL Count SQL Sum SQL Avg SQL Like SQL Wildcards SQL In SQL Between SQL Aliases SQL Joins SQL Inner Join SQL Left Join SQL Right Join SQL Full Join SQL Self Join SQL Union SQL Group By SQL Having SQL Exists SQL Any, All SQL Select Into SQL Insert Into Select SQL Case SQL Null Functions SQL Stored Procedures SQL Comments SQL Operators

SQL Database

SQL Create DB SQL Drop DB SQL Backup DB SQL Create Table SQL Drop Table SQL Alter Table SQL Constraints SQL Not Null SQL Unique SQL Primary Key SQL Foreign Key SQL Check SQL Default SQL Index SQL Auto Increment SQL Dates SQL Views SQL Injection SQL Hosting SQL Data Types

SQL References

SQL Keywords MySQL Functions SQL Server Functions MS Access Functions SQL Quick Ref

SQL Examples

SQL Examples SQL Editor SQL Quiz SQL Exercises SQL Server SQL Bootcamp SQL Certificate

SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement


The SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

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

Example

Select all the different countries from the "Customers" table:

SELECT DISTINCT Country FROM Customers;
Try it Yourself »

Inside a table, a column often contains many duplicate values; and sometimes you only want to list the different (distinct) values.


Syntax

SELECT DISTINCT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name;


Demo Database

Below is a selection from the Customers table used in the examples:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country
1

Alfreds Futterkiste Maria Anders Obere Str. 57 Berlin 12209 Germany
2 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados Ana Trujillo Avda. de la Constitución 2222 México D.F. 05021 Mexico
3 Antonio Moreno Taquería Antonio Moreno Mataderos 2312 México D.F. 05023 Mexico
4

Around the Horn Thomas Hardy 120 Hanover Sq. London WA1 1DP UK
5 Berglunds snabbköp Christina Berglund Berguvsvägen 8 Luleå S-958 22 Sweden

SELECT Example Without DISTINCT

If you omit the DISTINCT keyword, the SQL statement returns the "Country" value from all the records of the "Customers" table:

Example

SELECT Country FROM Customers;
Try it Yourself »


Count Distinct

By using the DISTINCT keyword in a function called COUNT, we can return the number of different countries.

Example

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Country) FROM Customers;

Note: The COUNT(DISTINCT column_name) is not supported in Microsoft Access databases.

Here is a workaround for MS Access:

Example

SELECT Count(*) AS DistinctCountries
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT Country FROM Customers);

You will learn about the COUNT function later in this tutorial.


Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Select all the different values from the Country column in the Customers table.

  Country 
FROM Customers;

Start the Exercise


Video: SQL SELECT DISTINCT Statement

SQL Tutorial on YouTube
SQL Tutorial on YouTube



×

Contact Sales

If you want to use W3Schools services as an educational institution, team or enterprise, send us an e-mail:
sales@w3schools.com

Report Error

If you want to report an error, or if you want to make a suggestion, send us an e-mail:
help@w3schools.com

W3Schools is optimized for learning and training. Examples might be simplified to improve reading and learning. Tutorials, references, and examples are constantly reviewed to avoid errors, but we cannot warrant full correctness of all content. While using W3Schools, you agree to have read and accepted our terms of use, cookie and privacy policy.

Copyright 1999-2024 by Refsnes Data. All Rights Reserved. W3Schools is Powered by W3.CSS.