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sqldistinct

Possible to select only 1 row for usernames, even though multiple rows which include usernames are unique

I am trying to select all usernames that have a at least one windows operating system. Some users have many windows operating systems, but I really only need to know if they have at least one.

I know DISTINCT can filter out duplicates, but the issue is these rows are unique, if they have more than one OS. For example:

JohnDoe windows 10;
JohnDoe windows 97;
JohnDoe windows 7;
JennyDoe windows 10;

In this case, JohnDoe will be selected 3 times because he has 3 unique operating systems.

Is there a way to essentially say, if an instance of this username appears, only select one row?

Solution

  • The easiest way is to use DISTINCT:

    select distinct username
  from your_table
  where operating_system like '%windows%'

    Based on the data shown in the question, this will return

    JohnDoe
JennyDoe

    db<>fiddle here