How to select unique records by SQL

With the distinct keyword with single and multiple column names, you get distinct records:

SELECT DISTINCT column 1, column 2, ...
FROM table_name;

There are 4 methods you can use:

1. DISTINCT
2. GROUP BY
3. Subquery
4. Common Table Expression (CTE) with ROW_NUMBER()

Consider the following sample TABLE with test data:

/** Create test table */
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE dupes(word text, num int, id int);

/** Add test data with duplicates */
INSERT INTO dupes(word, num, id)
VALUES ('aaa', 100, 1)
      ,('bbb', 200, 2)
      ,('ccc', 300, 3)
      ,('bbb', 400, 4)
      ,('bbb', 200, 5)     -- duplicate
      ,('ccc', 300, 6)     -- duplicate
      ,('ddd', 400, 7)
      ,('bbb', 400, 8)     -- duplicate
      ,('aaa', 100, 9)     -- duplicate
      ,('ccc', 300, 10);   -- duplicate

Option 1: SELECT DISTINCT

This is the most simple and straight forward, but also the most limited way:

SELECT DISTINCT word, num 
FROM    dupes
ORDER BY word, num;

/*
word|num|
----|---|
aaa |100|
bbb |200|
bbb |400|
ccc |300|
ddd |400|
*/

Option 2: GROUP BY

Grouping allows you to add aggregated data, like the min(id), max(id), count(*), etc:

SELECT  word, num, min(id), max(id), count(*)
FROM    dupes
GROUP BY word, num
ORDER BY word, num;

/*
word|num|min|max|count|
----|---|---|---|-----|
aaa |100|  1|  9|    2|
bbb |200|  2|  5|    2|
bbb |400|  4|  8|    2|
ccc |300|  3| 10|    3|
ddd |400|  7|  7|    1|
*/

Option 3: Subquery

Using a subquery, you can first identify the duplicate rows to ignore, and then filter them out in the outer query with the WHERE NOT IN (subquery) construct:

/** Find the higher id values of duplicates, distinct only added for clarity */
    SELECT  distinct d2.id
    FROM    dupes d1
        INNER JOIN dupes d2 ON d2.word=d1.word AND d2.num=d1.num
    WHERE d2.id > d1.id

/*
id|
--|
 5|
 6|
 8|
 9|
10|
*/

/** Use the previous query in a subquery to exclude the dupliates with higher id values */
SELECT  *
FROM    dupes
WHERE   id NOT IN (
    SELECT  d2.id
    FROM    dupes d1
        INNER JOIN dupes d2 ON d2.word=d1.word AND d2.num=d1.num
    WHERE d2.id > d1.id
)
ORDER BY word, num;

/*
word|num|id|
----|---|--|
aaa |100| 1|
bbb |200| 2|
bbb |400| 4|
ccc |300| 3|
ddd |400| 7|
*/

Option 4: Common Table Expression with ROW_NUMBER()

In the Common Table Expression (CTE), select the ROW_NUMBER(), partitioned by the group column and ordered in the desired order. Then SELECT only the records that have ROW_NUMBER() = 1:

WITH CTE AS (
    SELECT  *
           ,row_number() OVER(PARTITION BY word, num ORDER BY id) AS row_num
    FROM    dupes
)
SELECT  word, num, id 
FROM    cte
WHERE   row_num = 1
ORDER BY word, num;

/*
word|num|id|
----|---|--|
aaa |100| 1|
bbb |200| 2|
bbb |400| 4|
ccc |300| 3|
ddd |400| 7|
*/

If you only need to remove duplicates then use DISTINCT. GROUP BY should be used to apply aggregate operators to each group

GROUP BY v DISTINCT