Re: Must I use DISTINCT?

On Thu, 5 Feb 2009, Michael B Allen wrote:

> Please consider the following SQL
>
> SELECT e.eid, e.name
> FROM entry e, access a
> WHERE e.eid = 120
> AND (e.ownid = 66 OR e.aid = a.aid)
>
> The intent is to match one entry with the eid of 120. However I would
> like to impose an additional constraint that either e.ownid must be 66
> or e.aid must match the aid of an entry in the access table (there's
> actually a lot more to the query but I think this should be sufficient
> to illustrate my problem).
>
> The problem is that the e.ownid is 66 and therefore the same entry is
> returned for each access entry.
>
> Of course I can simply SELECT DISTINCT but that seems like an improper
> usage of DISTINCT here.
>
> Is there an alternative way to write this query? I only want to select
> from the access table for the purpose of constraining by aid.

Would something like:
SELECT e.eid, e.name FROM entry e WHERE e.eid = 120 AND
(e.ownid = 66 OR e.aid in (select a.aid from access a))
do what you wnat?