ORACLE find first non-null value from history table

Question

I have a history table where I want to return ONLY the first STATUS value which is not null (if any). I haven't got much ORACLE experience and I have searched for this but couldn't find anything I need.

EDIT Example of my table below.

ITEM   NAME   STATUS
Item1  Test1  Null
Item1  Test2  Null
Item1  Test3  Approved
Item2  Test1  Null
Item2  Test2  Approved

In the example above, I would ONLY like to return the following rows.

Item1 Test3 Approved
Item2 Test2 Approved

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I think that you mean: For each value of item, order the rows with non-NULL status by name and take the first one. If that's correct:

SELECT * FROM (
  SELECT
    item, name, status,
    row_number() OVER (PARTITION BY item ORDER BY name) AS rn
  FROM t
  WHERE status is NOT NULL
)
WHERE rn = 1