在Excel ODBC SQL中选择第一列不同的行

Question

Given the table below, how can I select only rows that have a unique animal?

animal   age    location
-------------------------
zebra    4      africa        -->  return this row
owl      50     america       -->  return this row
owl      50     u.s.a
panda    9      china         -->  return this row

My understanding is that the following won't work due to location having unique rows:

SELECT DISTINCT animal, age, location FROM table

Answer 1

Short answer - it is impossible, because condition is not strict, how you can determine which row for "owl" should be returned?

Long answer, as soon as you add some conditions, you can select something close to your question, like this:

SELECT animal, MIN(age), MIN(location) FROM table
GROUP BY animal

in this query we're selecting unique animals and minimal values for age and location, note - it doesn't mean that there will be row with such values, like here:

animal1, 2, location1
animal1, 1, location2

this query will select:

animal1, 1, location1

Answer 2

Short answer - it is possible with a subquery to a partition table. I find it best to create a View in your MS SQL that defines the partition query and then call that view in your SELECT statement.

The MS SQL View (eg vw_First_Animals) would be:

SELECT * FROM (
  SELECT *, rn=row_number() OVER (PARTITION BY [animal] ORDER by [location]) FROM [dbo].[tblAnimals] 
) x where rn = 1;

This makes your XL query,

SELECT * FROM vw_First_Animals

If you reshape the ORDER BY clause to the View , you can change the order that the unique returns are delivered.

I would be remiss without nodding toward this thread that has helped me with PARTITION table subqueries through its simplistic demonstration.