Question

Select unique (distinct) TITLE from sql database list

Asked by: Qsorb

The  query GetStory displays a saved RSS NEWS Feed. The feed has already been grabbed and saved to the database so no reason to get it again. The idea is to display from the database if the WAIT_TIME has expired and not tie up the feed.

I could display just the last 20 entries and order by id desc, but don't want to take a chance and some feeds have less than 20 entries, etc. And anyway, I'd like to know how this can work.

The STORY_TITLE column in the database has exact duplicates. I want to pull only the top 20 so that there are never any duplicate stories with the same story_title.

ID is the database row number with a data type int (4) and with primary key set with identity = yes.

STORY_TITLE is data type varchar (128).

If the STORY_TITLE has a duplicate then its associated CONTENT, RSSLINK, and FEED_POSTED will also be identical. So they're not hepful.

However, POST_DATE, not included here, is always a different date for otherwise matching identical STORY_TITLE's. Perhaps I could make use of this fact?

Show me how to rewrite this query to get it to work the way I want with cf8 standard.

<cfquery name="GetStory" datasource="daily-news">
  select distinct top 20 id, content, rsslink, feed_posted, story_title AS thetitle
  from story
  where db_script_name = '#cgi.script_name#'
  and (DateDiff(m, feed_posted, getDate()) < #wait_time#)
  and len(content) > 3
  order by id desc
</cfquery>
                                  
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Asked On
2009-08-13 at 18:09:32ID24651738
Tags

CFML

,

DISTINCT

,

SQL Server 2000

Topics

Cold Fusion Markup Language

,

ColdFusion Application Server

,

RSS

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: PluckaPosted on 2009-08-13 at 19:21:16ID: 25094837

Really dont understand what you want here. If you can explain better, Im sure I could write the query.

 

by: QsorbPosted on 2009-08-13 at 19:25:51ID: 25094850

I want to display the top 20 records so there are no duplicate story_title's.

 

by: mwvisa1Posted on 2009-08-13 at 19:29:54ID: 25094862

Since you id column or some other in the select list is probably unique, the DISTINCT doesn't filter out duplicate story_title values would be my guess.

What version of SQL Server (presumably) are you using?

 

by: QsorbPosted on 2009-08-13 at 19:39:10ID: 25094892

Using sql2000. All I want it to display the story_title from the database list with no duplicates. I've given all the info I can think you'd need. Story_title is just a varchar list and I want no duplicates to be shown in my query display.

 

by: QsorbPosted on 2009-08-13 at 19:55:41ID: 25094950

I can do this but then I don't have the columns available in the resultant cfoutput query.

<cfquery name="GetStory" datasource="daily-news">
  SELECT DISTINCT story_title
  FROM STORY
  order by story_title
</cfquery>
                                              
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by: QsorbPosted on 2009-08-13 at 20:03:32ID: 25094973

I can do this to get it to work, (I think) but it's not pretty. I was hoping for something less messy.

<cfquery name="GetStory" datasource="daily-news">
  SELECT DISTINCT story_title
  FROM STORY
  order by story_title
</cfquery>
 
 
<cfoutput query="GetStory">
 
 
<cfquery name="StoryInfo" datasource="daily-news">
 select top 20 *
 from story
 where DB_SCRIPT_NAME = '#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#'
 and (DateDiff(day, PUBDATE, getDate()) < 90)
 and story_title = '#story_title#'
 order by story_title
</cfquery>
 
#story_title#
</cfoutput>

                                              
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by: QsorbPosted on 2009-08-13 at 20:07:07ID: 25094989

Of course, that would be:

#StoryInfo.story_title#

as the result and not:

#story_title#

 

by: PluckaPosted on 2009-08-13 at 20:37:04ID: 25095093

Do it as two queries
One to get the top 20 unique titles

then one to loop of that to pull out the other info.

 

by: mwvisa1Posted on 2009-08-13 at 20:48:24ID: 25095127

Do you have a sample of the data for the duplicate stories?  If the id is the only duplicated field and you don't need the id in your CF page, then you can just eliminate that.  If there are other fields that are different between the rows, then please post a sample.  

If you were using SQL Server 2005, I was going to suggest an OVER statement with ROW_NUMBER() function.  With SQL Server 2000, those don't exist, but can simulate it, but need to see sample of data to make sure understand completely before typing that code.

Additionally, you may be able to group and do aggregates depending on what is different and which you want when different.

<cfquery name="GetStory" datasource="daily-news">
  select distinct top 20 content, rsslink, feed_posted, story_title AS thetitle
  from story
  where db_script_name = '#cgi.script_name#'
  and (DateDiff(m, feed_posted, getDate()) < #wait_time#)
  and len(content) > 3
  order by id desc
</cfquery>

                                              
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by: mwvisa1Posted on 2009-08-13 at 20:50:17ID: 25095132

Type-o:

<cfquery name="GetStory" datasource="daily-news">
  select distinct top 20 content, rsslink, feed_posted, story_title AS thetitle
  from story
  where db_script_name = '#cgi.script_name#'
  and (DateDiff(m, feed_posted, getDate()) < #wait_time#)
  and len(content) > 3
</cfquery>

                                              
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by: azadisaryevPosted on 2009-08-13 at 20:50:40ID: 25095134

<cfquery name="getStories" datasource="daily-news">
SELECT DISTINCT TOP 20 story_title
FROM story
WHERE DB_SCRIPT_NAME = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" value="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#">
AND DateDiff(day, PUBDATE, getDate()) < 90
ORDER BY story_title
</cfquery>

<cfquery name="StoryInfo" datasource="daily-news">
SELECT *
FROM story
WHERE story_title IN (<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="varchar" value="#valuelist(getStories.story_title, '|')#" list="yes" separator="|">)
ORDER BY story_title
</cfquery>

Azadi

 

by: mwvisa1Posted on 2009-08-13 at 20:55:51ID: 25095152

Well the syntax was easy enough and after reviewing the original query, I think I understand enough to post what I had in mind.  Since you are getting the 20 most recent id values and you also have a date field, I would suspect that these rows are pretty unique aside from duplication in title and so you would probably want the one with most recent id (latest post); therefore, I have done the ranking by the id desc.

You can use ONE query!

<cfquery name="GetStory" datasource="daily-news">
  select top 20 id, content, rsslink, feed_posted, story_title AS thetitle
  from (
	select *, 
    rank=(select count(*) from story s2 where s2.story_title = s1.story_title and s2.id >= s1.id)
	from story s1
	where db_script_name = '#cgi.script_name#'
	and (DateDiff(m, feed_posted, getDate()) < #wait_time#)
	and len(content) > 3
  ) t
  where rank = 1
  order by id desc
</cfquery>

                                              
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by: mwvisa1Posted on 2009-08-13 at 21:01:29ID: 25095167

And in case the where criteria alters the results, you can do this:
(just makes it a little less pretty, but still ONE query)

<cfquery name="GetStory" datasource="daily-news">
  select top 20 id, content, rsslink, feed_posted, story_title AS thetitle
  from (
        select *, 
		rank=(select count(*) 
			from story s2 
			where s2.story_title = s1.story_title 
			and s2.db_script_name = s1.db_script_name
			and (DateDiff(m, s2.feed_posted, getDate()) < #wait_time#
			and len(content) > 3
			and s2.id >= s1.id)
        from story s1
        where db_script_name = '#cgi.script_name#'
        and (DateDiff(m, feed_posted, getDate()) < #wait_time#)
        and len(content) > 3
  ) t
  where rank = 1
  order by id desc
</cfquery>

                                              
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by: QsorbPosted on 2009-08-13 at 21:24:19ID: 31615619

azadisaryev:
I had already posted the same basic solution you posted, 45 minutes before you posted it so can't use it this time. But thanks anyway.

So, the points have to go to mwvisa1. I used your next to last answer and it's more elegant than the others. That is, from what I can see.

And thanks for the extra detail. That always helps me decide.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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