Converting SELECT DISTINCT ON queries from Postgresql to MySQL

Question

I've been using PostgreSQL and now migrating to MySQL.

In my queries, I'm using PostgreSQL's SELECT DISTINCT ON (col1, col2, col3), I was wondering if there is any counterpart of this statement in MySQL.

Answer 1

There's not an exact equivalent to convert a Postgresql query that makes use of SELECT DISTINCT ON to MySQL.

Postgresql SELECT DISTINCT ON

In Postgresql, the following query will eliminate all rows where the expressions (col1, col2, col3) match, and it will only keep the "first col4, col5 row" for each set of matched rows:

SELECT DISTINCT ON (col1, col2, col3) col4, col5 FROM tablename 

So if your table is like this:

col1 | col2 | col3 | col4 | col5 -------------------------------- 1    | 2    | 3    | 777  | 888 1    | 2    | 3    | 888  | 999 3    | 3    | 3    | 555  | 555 

our query will keep just one row for (1,2,3) and one row for (3,3,3). The resulting rows will then be:

col4 | col5 ----------- 777  | 888 555  | 555 

please notice that the "first row" of each set is unpredictable, our fist row might be (888, 999) as well unless we specify an ORDER BY:

SELECT DISTINCT ON (col1, col2, col3) col4, col5 FROM tablename ORDER BY col1, col2, col3, col4 

(the DISTINCT on expressions must match the leftmost ORDER BY expressions, but the ORDER BY can contain additional expressions).

MySQL extension to GROUP BY

MySQL extends the use of GROUP BY so that we can select nonaggregated columns not named in the GROUP BY clause. Whenever we select nonaggregated columns the server is free to choose any value from each group from that column, so the resulting values will be indetermined.

So this Postgresql query:

SELECT DISTINCT ON (col1, col2, col3) col4, col5 FROM tablename 

can be considered equivalent to this MySQL query:

SELECT col4, col5 FROM tablename GROUP BY col1, col2, col3 

both Postgresql and MySQL will return the "First row" for each (col1, col2, col3), and in both cases the row returned is unpredictable because we didn't specify and order by clause.

A lot of people would be very tempted to convert this Postgresql query with an ORDER BY:

SELECT DISTINCT ON (col1, col2, col3) col4, col5 FROM tablename ORDER BY col1, col2, col3, col4 

with this one:

SELECT col4, col5 FROM (   SELECT col1, col2, col3, col4, col5   FROM tablename   ORDER BY col1, col2, col3, col4 ) s GROUP BY col1, col2, col3 

the idea here is to apply an ORDER BY to a subquery so that when MySQL groups by col1, col2, col3 it will keep the first encountered value for col4 and col5. The idea is good, but it's wrong! MySQL is free to choose any value for col4 and col5, and we don't know which are the first values encountered, it depends on the optimizer. So I would correct it to this:

SELECT t1.col4, t1.col5 FROM tablename t1 INNER JOIN (SELECT col1, col2, col3, MIN(col4) as m_col4                               FROM tablename                               GROUP BY col1, col2, col3) s      ON t1.col1=s.col1         AND t1.col2=s.col2         AND t1.col3=s.col3         AND t1.col4=s.m_col4 GROUP BY   t1.col1, t1.col2, t1.col3, t1.col4 

but this is starting to get more complicated.

Conclusion

As a general rule, there's not an exact way to convert a Postgresql query to a MySQL query, but there are a lot of workarounds, the resulting query might be as simple as the original one or it might become very complicated, but it depends on the query itself.

Answer 2

Use a subquery to determine the order, and an outer query to group them.

Like @a_horse_with_no_name points out, this works because MySQL allows partial group by, unlike other DBMSs.

For example:

CREATE TABLE customer_order     (`customer` varchar(5), `item` varchar(6), `date` datetime) ;  INSERT INTO customer_order     (`customer`, `item`, `date`) VALUES     ('alice', 'widget', '2000-01-05 00:00:00'),     ('bob', 'widget', '2000-01-02 00:00:00'),     ('alice', 'widget', '2000-01-01 00:00:00'),     ('alice', 'wodget', '2000-01-06 00:00:00') ; 

Query for each customer's first order:

select * from   (select customer, item, date   from customer_order   order by date) c group by customer 

Result:

| CUSTOMER |   ITEM |                           DATE | |----------|--------|--------------------------------| |    alice | widget | January, 01 2000 00:00:00+0000 | |      bob | widget | January, 02 2000 00:00:00+0000 | 

http://sqlfiddle.com/#!2/6cbbe/1