At 23/08/2002 11:28 AM, you wrote:

>At 11:08 AM 23-08-02 -0300, you wrote:
>
> >My question:
> >Why would the DISTINCT restriction affect the usage of a subselect?
>I hoped you wouldn't ask that! I would have explained it if I could
>remember it. I've seen an explanation somewhere by Ann or Diane (probably
>around 1997-8 vintage) that made sense to me at the time...it has to do
>with the way the engine holds duplicate groups of interim results for
>comparing in order to establish distinctness.
>
>You could try querying the mers archive for postings by Ann (Harrison) or
>Diane (Brown) with the keyword DISTINCT...I know it's there somewhere.

Helen,

I wasn't able to find it. And, I'm not going to ask you to find, unless
you'd be determined to find it.

I did notice a message that dated 3 years ago(September 1999) that's from
Claudio Valderra regarding the same issue and it was logged with the
Interbase Team.

I don't recall seeing it in Firebird's bug tracker. In my opinion, a
subquery should be able to work in conjunction with the DISTINCT restriction.

Thanks for your time.


Daniel Rail
Senior System Engineer
ACCRA Group Inc. (www.accra.ca)
ACCRA Med Software Inc. (www.accramed.ca)