Easiest way to eliminate NULLs in SELECT DISTINCT?

Question

I am working on a query that is fairly similar the following:

CREATE TABLE #test (a char(1), b char(1))

INSERT INTO #test(a,b) VALUES 
(\'A\',NULL),
(\'A\',         


        

Answer 1

Well, I don't particularly like this solution, but it seems the most appropriate to me. Note that your description of what you want sounds exactly like what you get with a LEFT JOIN, so:

SELECT DISTINCT a.a, b.b
FROM #test a
    LEFT JOIN #test b ON a.a = b.a
        AND b.b IS NOT NULL