Thread: Re: [GENERAL] Any ideas why this doesn't work or how to rewrite it?

Re: [GENERAL] Any ideas why this doesn't work or how to rewrite it?

From
"K.T."
Date:
I believe its:
    select DISTINCT count(*) from customerdata;

of course you are welcome to replace the "*" with a field name, but why
bother typing all those extra keystrokes :)

-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron Holtz <aholtz@bright.net>
To: pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org <pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org>
Date: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 10:44 AM
Subject: [GENERAL] Any ideas why this doesn't work or how to rewrite it?


>This seems like a simple SQL command, but I'm getting errors.
>Running 6.5.0 under RedHat 5.2:
>
>db=> select count(distinct customer_username) from customerdata;
>ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "distinct"
>
>How do you get a count of distinct data output via postgres?  I can always
>just count the number of tuples returned but this seemed to be a valid
>query.
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Aaron Holtz
>ComNet Inc.
>UNIX Systems Specialist
>Email:  aholtz@bright.net
>"It's not broken, it just lacks duct tape."
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>





Re: [GENERAL] Any ideas why this doesn't work or how to rewrite it?

From
Aaron Holtz
Date:
I thought that as well, but that is counting the distinct number of rows
returned from count(*) -> hence you'll always get the number of rows in
your database or the number of entries in whatever field you just
counted..... Thanks for the thoughts, though!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron Holtz
ComNet Inc.
UNIX Systems Specialist
Email:  aholtz@bright.net
"It's not broken, it just lacks duct tape."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


On Apr 28, K.T. molded the electrons to say....

>I believe its:
>    select DISTINCT count(*) from customerdata;
>
>of course you are welcome to replace the "*" with a field name, but why
>bother typing all those extra keystrokes :)
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Aaron Holtz <aholtz@bright.net>
>To: pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org <pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org>
>Date: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 10:44 AM
>Subject: [GENERAL] Any ideas why this doesn't work or how to rewrite it?
>
>
>>This seems like a simple SQL command, but I'm getting errors.
>>Running 6.5.0 under RedHat 5.2:
>>
>>db=> select count(distinct customer_username) from customerdata;
>>ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "distinct"
>>
>>How do you get a count of distinct data output via postgres?  I can always
>>just count the number of tuples returned but this seemed to be a valid
>>query.
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Aaron Holtz
>>ComNet Inc.
>>UNIX Systems Specialist
>>Email:  aholtz@bright.net
>>"It's not broken, it just lacks duct tape."
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>