Must I use DISTINCT?

From: Michael B Allen <ioplex(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: pgsql-sql(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Must I use DISTINCT?
Date: 2009-02-05 21:57:36
Message-ID: 78c6bd860902051357j6edbb375jc1c52393ea8410d6@mail.gmail.com
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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.

Mike

--
Michael B Allen
Java Active Directory Integration
http://www.ioplex.com/

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