mysql select distinct column based on group by column

Question

Hi I have the following columns

| id | name | category|
|  1 | sam  | doctor  |
|  2 | tom  | doctor  |
|  3 | pam  | nurse   |
|  4 | gum  | nurse   |
|  5 | tom  | doctor  |
|  6 | lim  | doctor  |

I want to run a query to choose distinct names based on category where name column is unique to get below

| id | name | category|
|  1 | sam  | doctor  |
|  2 | tom  | doctor  |
|  3 | pam  | nurse   |
|  4 | gum  | nurse   |
|  6 | lim  | nurse   |

It baffles me

Answer 1

You could use min :

select min(id), name, category
from yourtable
group by name, category

• SQL Fiddle Demo

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If you truly just want distinct names, then since you're using mysql, this would work as well (but return random ids and categories). If you need specific ids/categories, you'll need to define them in an aggregate (as in the previous solution):

select id, name, category
from yourtable
group by name