Question

Distinct count in Informix

Asked by: hiranya


    I am working on a Informix database and I want to take record count from a Informix table like this, but it raise an error , Pl. help

        select count(distinct column1,column2,column3) from table_name

  I want to count rows in a table on distinct columns (notice I didn't say column).

 Thanks.
Hiranya  

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Asked On
2005-05-06 at 00:14:07ID21414828
Tags

informix

,

distinct

,

count

Topic

Databases Miscellaneous

Participating Experts
4
Points
250
Comments
12

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Answers

 

by: Arthur_WoodPosted on 2005-05-06 at 04:18:28ID: 13943961

you can't use Distinct with three columns like that.  What are you trying to count?  You want to count the distinct COMBINATION of the three Columns, is that what you are after?

Although this applies to SQL Server, I think it is SQL Standard - across all databases:

"If you use DISTINCT, the expression must consist of a column name only. It cannot include an arithmetic expression"

AW

 

by: VMontalvaoPosted on 2005-05-06 at 06:04:09ID: 13944506

What do you are trying to do?
Like Arthur said, you can't do what you did.

Maybe you need something like:

select column1, count(distinct column1) from table_name
union
select column2, count(distinct column2) from table_name
union
select column3, count(distinct column3) from table_name

But this should work only if that 3 columns have the same type

 

by: jrb1Posted on 2005-05-06 at 09:48:44ID: 13946066

why not:

select column1,column2,column3,count(*) from table_name
group by column1,column2,column3;

This will work in some DBs...don't know about Informix (haven't used it since 2000);

select count(*) from table_name
group by column1,column2,column3;

 

by: hiranyaPosted on 2005-05-08 at 21:30:14ID: 13957020



Thank u for ur replies. I just want to  count  the distinct combination of the three Columns. I can use pipelines to cancatenate 3 columns together and take the count. but its not working in informix .
   Like this
               SELECT count(distinct column1||column2||column3) from table_name  

 Thanks
  Hiranya

 

by: jrb1Posted on 2005-05-09 at 07:29:28ID: 13959838

OK.  How about this?

select count(*)
from (select distinct column1, column2, column3 from table_name);

 

by: hiranyaPosted on 2005-05-09 at 19:39:06ID: 13965108


I tried this. but this method is also not working in Informix. I don't know why.........
We can use this with Oracle.

Thanks
Hiranya

 

by: jrb1Posted on 2005-05-09 at 22:07:21ID: 13965565

OK, here's a few more ideas:

select count(distinct data)
from (select column1||column2||column3 as data from table_name);

select count(*)
from
(select column1, column2, column3 from table_name group by column1, column2, column3);

 

by: hiranyaPosted on 2005-05-09 at 23:07:59ID: 13965770

Dear jrb1

Thank u very much for ur reply.
thing is we can put a select statement with a FROM clause in Informix. (like we r doing with Oracle).

Regards
Hiranya

 

by: jrb1Posted on 2005-05-10 at 06:20:20ID: 13967965

was that CAN or CAN'T?  Are you OK then?

 

by: hiranyaPosted on 2005-05-10 at 19:53:00ID: 13974680


Sorry its a mistake.
we can not  put a select statement with a FROM clause in Informix


Thanks
Hiranya

 

by: jrb1Posted on 2005-05-10 at 20:54:00ID: 13974854

OK.  That explains another post I found from someone else..their solution was to create a temp table, load the distinct values, and then count on the temp table.  Not a great solution in my opinion.  Can you just create a view with "select distinct column1, coumn2, column3...." and then count from the view?

 

by: rwamuhirePosted on 2008-03-28 at 08:13:20ID: 21231132

Well, given I have a fairly good understanding on what you are trying to achieve, here is what you could try to do:

select distinct dismo_id, dismo_val
from dbmitd

assuming that if you did not use distinct, you would return more of the same dismo_id value. I hope this helps.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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