**Distinct** is a keyword used with **SELECT** to return only unique values. Usually, you want to get all unique values, but there are duplicate values stored in the tables.

Check the difference: in our table, there are 18 records at all, and each record has a singer. You'll retrieve the 18 singers with the next query:

But some singers, for example, **AC/DC**, occur multiple times. To retrieve the unique singers, use the **DISTINCT** keyword before the `singer` column:

Now there are no repeated values, so you can see that the total number of unique `singers` is 10.

This course was created for very beginners in programming, for those who want to start learning such a popular language for work with databases. Nowadays, all the applications and services collect some data and work with it, and basic SQL syntax is a foundation for further work with other Database Management Systems.

Familiarize yourself with database you will work with, and basic syntax to start executing your first queries!

SQL Distinct

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