Re: distinct function syntax question

Gert Brinkmann wrote: > > Andre da Silva Nazare wrote: > > > > Try using this : > > > > select 1 > > from table_x > > group by col1,col2 into temp temp_table;> > > > select count(*) from temp table;> > Couldn't it be this shorter way ? > > select count(*) > from table_x > group by col1,col2; No standard SQL, and Informix, require that the grouped by columns be selected in the query so this is a syntax error. Besides your query would return one count of the number of rows containing each pair of col1, col2 for each pair not a single count of the number of unique pairs, even in a database like Sybase which permits this syntax. Art S. Kagel