SQL select distinct substring where like muddleup howto

Question

I\'ve got a table with a field that is similar to this:

ANIMAL
========
FISH 54
FISH 30
DOG 12
CAT 65
CAT 09
BIRD 10
FISH 31
DOG 10

The fie

Answer 1

You can also use the following to get your list of animal names:

SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING_INDEX(animal, ' ', 1) FROM table_name;

Answer 2

This will work for SQL Server. If you use something else you need to figure out the corresponding functions to left and charindex. Left could of course be replaced with a substring.

select distinct left(T.Animal, charindex(' ', T.Animal, 1)-1)
from YourTable as T

Result:

-------------------------
BIRD
CAT
DOG
FISH

In MySQL you would use left and locate. (Code not tested)

select distinct left(T.Animal, locate(' ', T.Animal, 1)-1)
from YourTable as T

Answer 3

SELECT Name, Max(No)
FROM Table
Group By Name

Answer 4

Why not just

SELECT id, animal, value FROM table GROUP BY animal, id HAVING id = MIN(id)

That should get you a list of the animals in the table, each animal with the first entered value.

If you don't need so select the value, then just do:

SELECT animal FROM table GROUP BY animal