Using DISTINCT in one column but not in others

[sbayter]

Hi,
I have this page that is displaying 2 columns, one is the date in which the document was downloaded and the other the email of the user.
I need to show only unique emails but if I use DISTINCT it also looks for unique dates.
This is what I have:
SELECT DISTINCT EMAIL, DATE FROM logs

If I take the DATE column out, it works perfect but I need it.
Is there anyway to select unique emails and that it only show the first date in the query?
Thanks in advance,

sbayter

 

[sleipnir214]

Uh, what database are we talking about here?

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[sbayter]

I'm running mySQL

sbayter

 

[sleipnir214]

Define what is the "first date".

If it's the earliest date, something like:

SELECT DISTINCT email, min(the_date) FROM logs group by email order by email


(My column names do not match yours. "Date" is a MySQL reserved word and should not be used as a column name)

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[sbayter]

Thanks!!!
I tried that and it worked but I tried to add a "WHERE"
and gave me this error:

[red]You have an error in your SQL syntax near 'WHERE Doc_Name = 'DOC1' LIMIT 0, 100' at line 1 [/red]

I've never use GROUP BY. I think I once read using GROUP BY and WHERE created some conflict and that one had to use HAVING.
This is what I have:
"SELECT DISTINCT EMAIL, Doc_Name, min(myDATE) FROM logs GROUP BY EMAIL ORDER BY $sortby WHERE Doc_Name = '$doc' "

Thanks again!

sbayter

 

[hos2]

"SELECT DISTINCT EMAIL, Doc_Name, min(myDATE) FROM logs WHERE Doc_Name = '$doc' GROUP BY EMAIL ORDER BY $sortby "

try this

 

[sbayter]

Great thanks! It worked!!!!
But why isn't it showing the date?
It just gives an empty field.

sbayter

 

[hos2]

perhaps define a variable name for it

"SELECT DISTINCT EMAIL, Doc_Name, min(myDATE) as mydatetemp FROM logs WHERE Doc_Name = '$doc' GROUP BY EMAIL ORDER BY $sortby "

I'm not sure but I believe through the min(mydate) mydate itself is no longer recognized