MySQL: delete duplicates rows where possible - mysql

I entered a query that introduced some duplicates into my database. The table is straight forward.
It has an id (int) column and a phrase column which is varchar(255). In order to find duplicates, my query looks like the following:
SELECT phrase from foo GROUP BY phrase HAVING (count(phrase) > 1)
My question is, how do I delete the duplicate entries without manually having to do it? I want to use the query above to generate the list of entries that need to be deleted at least once. This way only one version of 'phrase' exists in table foo.

This would keep one row (the one with the lowest ID) per phrase.
DELETE FROM foo
WHERE id NOT IN (
SELECT id FROM (
SELECT MIN(id) id
FROM foo
GROUP BY phrase
) _
);
As dan pointed out in comments, with MySQL you need that weird inner query.

You should use:
SELECT max(id) from foo GROUP BY phrase HAVING (count(phrase) > 1)
To establish what the ids that need to be deleted.
To delete the entries you can do something like:
delete from foo where id in (select id from (SELECT max(id) from foo GROUP BY phrase HAVING (count(phrase) > 1)) foo);
You will be able to execute the delete statement multiple times, to delete duplicates that are more then one.

You need to create a temporary table, add unique values, add just one of the duplicated values, and then rename your temporary table to your original one.
create table tmp like foo;
alter table tmp add unique (phrase);
insert into tmp select * from foo
on duplicate key update phrase=ifnull(phrase, values(phrase));
rename table foo to deleteme, tmp to foo;
drop table deleteme;

You can do a JOIN and decide if you want to delete the first (min) or last (max) duplicate.
DELETE phrase FROM phrase JOIN
(SELECT max(id),COUNT(id) cnt from foo GROUP BY phrase
HAVING cnt>1) AS dups
ON phrase.id=dups.id
You need to run it multiple times if you have more that more than 1 duplicate of each record.

Related

How do I delete all the duplicate records in a MySQL table without temp tables

I've seen a number of variations on this but nothing quite matches what I'm trying to accomplish.
I have a table, TableA, which contain the answers given by users to configurable questionnaires. The columns are member_id, quiz_num, question_num, answer_num.
Somehow a few members got their answers submitted twice. So I need to remove the duplicated records, but make sure that one row is left behind.
There is no primary column so there could be two or three rows all with the exact same data.
Is there a query to remove all the duplicates?
Add Unique Index on your table:
ALTER IGNORE TABLE `TableA`
ADD UNIQUE INDEX (`member_id`, `quiz_num`, `question_num`, `answer_num`);
Another way to do this would be:
Add primary key in your table then you can easily remove duplicates from your table using the following query:
DELETE FROM member
WHERE id IN (SELECT *
FROM (SELECT id FROM member
GROUP BY member_id, quiz_num, question_num, answer_num HAVING (COUNT(*) > 1)
) AS A
);
Instead of drop table TableA, you could delete all registers (delete from TableA;) and then populate original table with registers coming from TableA_Verify (insert into TAbleA select * from TAbleA_Verify). In this way you won't lost all references to original table (indexes,... )
CREATE TABLE TableA_Verify AS SELECT DISTINCT * FROM TableA;
DELETE FROM TableA;
INSERT INTO TableA SELECT * FROM TAbleA_Verify;
DROP TABLE TableA_Verify;
This doesn't use TEMP Tables, but real tables instead. If the problem is just about temp tables and not about table creation or dropping tables, this will work:
SELECT DISTINCT * INTO TableA_Verify FROM TableA;
DROP TABLE TableA;
RENAME TABLE TableA_Verify TO TableA;
Thanks to jveirasv for the answer above.
If you need to remove duplicates of a specific sets of column, you can use this (if you have a timestamp in the table that vary for example)
CREATE TABLE TableA_Verify AS SELECT * FROM TableA WHERE 1 GROUP BY [COLUMN TO remove duplicates BY];
DELETE FROM TableA;
INSERT INTO TableA SELECT * FROM TAbleA_Verify;
DROP TABLE TableA_Verify;
Add Unique Index on your table:
ALTER IGNORE TABLE TableA
ADD UNIQUE INDEX (member_id, quiz_num, question_num, answer_num);
is work very well
If you are not using any primary key, then execute following queries at one single stroke. By replacing values:
# table_name - Your Table Name
# column_name_of_duplicates - Name of column where duplicate entries are found
create table table_name_temp like table_name;
insert into table_name_temp select distinct(column_name_of_duplicates),value,type from table_name group by column_name_of_duplicates;
delete from table_name;
insert into table_name select * from table_name_temp;
drop table table_name_temp
create temporary table and store distinct(non duplicate) values
make empty original table
insert values to original table from temp table
delete temp table
It is always advisable to take backup of database before you play with it.
As noted in the comments, the query in Saharsh Shah's answer must be run multiple times if items are duplicated more than once.
Here's a solution that doesn't delete any data, and keeps the data in the original table the entire time, allowing for duplicates to be deleted while keeping the table 'live':
alter table tableA add column duplicate tinyint(1) not null default '0';
update tableA set
duplicate=if(#member_id=member_id
and #quiz_num=quiz_num
and #question_num=question_num
and #answer_num=answer_num,1,0),
member_id=(#member_id:=member_id),
quiz_num=(#quiz_num:=quiz_num),
question_num=(#question_num:=question_num),
answer_num=(#answer_num:=answer_num)
order by member_id, quiz_num, question_num, answer_num;
delete from tableA where duplicate=1;
alter table tableA drop column duplicate;
This basically checks to see if the current row is the same as the last row, and if it is, marks it as duplicate (the order statement ensures that duplicates will show up next to each other). Then you delete the duplicate records. I remove the duplicate column at the end to bring it back to its original state.
It looks like alter table ignore also might go away soon: http://dev.mysql.com/worklog/task/?id=7395
An alternative way would be to create a new temporary table with same structure.
CREATE TABLE temp_table AS SELECT * FROM original_table LIMIT 0
Then create the primary key in the table.
ALTER TABLE temp_table ADD PRIMARY KEY (primary-key-field)
Finally copy all records from the original table while ignoring the duplicate records.
INSERT IGNORE INTO temp_table AS SELECT * FROM original_table
Now you can delete the original table and rename the new table.
DROP TABLE original_table
RENAME TABLE temp_table TO original_table
Tested in mysql 5.Dont know about other versions.
If you want to keep the row with the lowest id value:
DELETE n1 FROM 'yourTableName' n1, 'yourTableName' n2 WHERE n1.id > n2.id AND n1.member_id = n2.member_id and n1.answer_num =n2.answer_num
If you want to keep the row with the highest id value:
DELETE n1 FROM 'yourTableName' n1, 'yourTableName' n2 WHERE n1.id < n2.id AND n1.member_id = n2.member_id and n1.answer_num =n2.answer_num

Deleting duplicates in mysql (2 tables)

I have two tables (id_test, test) , each of them has an ID column, which is unique, and two entries with the same id in the two tables are the same. Now, i have another column in one of the tables (id_test) that also should be unique, so I want to eliminate duplicates according to this other column, let's call it YD.
To identify the duplicates I used
SELECT ID, YD AS x, COUNT(*) AS y
FROM id_test
GROUP BY x
HAVING y>1;
now, I want to delete these entries in both tables. How can I do it?
This query shows the first ID for every YD in id_test table:
SELECT ID, YD
FROM id_test
GROUP BY YD
and these are the rows you have to keep. The following query returns the IDs you have to delete:
SELECT id_test.ID
FROM id_test LEFT JOIN (select ID, YD from id_test group by YD) id_test_keep
on id_test.ID=id_test_keep.ID and id_test.YD = id_test_keep.YD
WHERE id_test_keep.ID IS NULL
Now I think i need more details about your tables, but what I think you need is this:
DELETE FROM test
WHERE
test.ID IN (
SELECT id_test.ID
FROM id_test LEFT JOIN (select ID, YD from id_test group by YD) id_test_keep
on id_test.ID=id_test_keep.ID and id_test.YD = id_test_keep.YD
WHERE id_test_keep.ID IS NULL)
As documented under ALTER TABLE Syntax (emphasis added):
IGNORE is a MySQL extension to standard SQL. It controls how ALTER TABLE works if there are duplicates on unique keys in the new table or if warnings occur when strict mode is enabled. If IGNORE is not specified, the copy is aborted and rolled back if duplicate-key errors occur. If IGNORE is specified, only the first row is used of rows with duplicates on a unique key. The other conflicting rows are deleted. Incorrect values are truncated to the closest matching acceptable value.
Therefore:
ALTER IGNORE TABLE id_test ADD UNIQUE (YD)
I think you don't user select in because if data large it impossible.
You should clone a table the same structure. Insert data not duplicate in it.
INSERT INTO test_new (ID, YD) SELECT t.ID, t.YD FROM test t LEFT JOIN test_id ti ON t.ID = ti.id WHERE ti.id IS NULL;
After drop table test, rename test_new -> test.

Duplicate Entries in DB

I have a huge table of products but there are lot of duplicate entries. The table has more than10 Thousand entries and I want to remove the duplicate entries in it without manually finding and deleting it. Please let me know if you can provide me a solution for this
You could use SELECT DISTINCT INTO TempTable, drop the original table, and then rename the temp one.
You should also add primary and unique keys to avoid this sort of thing in the future.
for full row duplicates try this.
select distinct * into mytable_tmp from mytable
drop table mytable
alter table mytable_tmp rename mytable
Seems the below statements will help you in resolving your requirements.
if the table(foo) has primary key field
First step
store key values in temporary table, give your unique conditions in group by clause
if you want to delete the duplicate email id, give email id in group by clause and give the primary key name in
select clause like either min(primarykey) or max(primarykey)
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE temptable AS SELECT min( primarykey ) FROM foo GROUP BY uniquefields;
Second step
call the below delete statement and give the table name and primarykey columns
DELETE FROM foo WHERE primarykey NOT IN (SELECT * FROM temptable );
execute both the query combined in your query analyser or db tool.
If the table(foo) doesn't have a primary key filed
step 1
CREATE TABLE temp_table AS SELECT * FROM foo GROUP BY field or fileds;
step 2
DELETE FROM foo;
step 3
INSERT INTO foo select * from temp_table;
There are different solutions to remove duplicate rows and it fully depends upon your scenario to make use of one from them. The simplest method is to alter the table making the Unique Index on Product Name field:
alter ignore table products add unique index `unique_index` (product_name);
You can remove the index after getting all the duplicate rows deleted:
alter table products drop index `unique_index`;
Please let me know if this resolves the issue. If not I can give you alternate solutions for that.
You can add more than one column to a group by. I.E.
SELECT * from tableName GROUP BY prod_name HAVING count(prod_name) > 1
That will show the unique products. You can write it dump it to new table and drop the existing one.

Removing duplicate rows from a MySql table

Similar questions were indeed asked, but I didn't find an answer.
I have a MySql table with 3 non-unique fields. I don't want duplicate rows. Meaning ("a", "b", "c") and ("a", "dasd", "dfsd") are okay (I don't mind having "a" twice in the first fields), but having ("a", "b", "c") twice is wrong.
I need a query which will remove duplicates, leaving only one row for each row group.
Edit This has already been covered on SO before.
One approach would be to create a new table based on the existing table. You could do this through something like:
create table myNewTable SELECT distinct * FROM myOldTable;
Then you could clear the old table's data, and create a unique constraint on the fields you don't want duplicated:
TRUNCATE TABLE myOldTable;
ALTER TABLE myOldTable
ADD UNIQUE (field1, field2);
Then insert your data back into the original table. Because you created myNewTable using DISTINCT, you should not have any duplicates.
INSERT INTO myOldTable SELECT * FROM myNewTable;
Note: It assumes we have primary key apart from column1 and column2 and column3. Also it assumes that last row should be preserved. Helpful when we have some other information also apart from column1,column2 and column3.
It saves the last primary key and delete the rest for unique values of Column1,Column2,Column3
Insert result of below query into a temp table
SELECT MAX(PrimaryKey)
FROM TABLENAME
GROUP BY Column1,Column2,Column3
Delete from TABLENAME where PrimaryKey NOT IN (SELECT PrimaryKey FROM TEMPTABLE)
If we have only these 3 columns, then
Save distinct in temp table
truncate original table
insert back into original from temp table.
You can retrieve a list of the duplicates like this:
SELECT field1, field2, field3, count(*) AS cnt
FROM yourtable
GROUP by field1, field2, field3
HAVING (cnt > 1)
You'll then have to delete the duplicate rows in subsequent seperate queries.
I will solve the problem by using a temporary table and subqueries to find the elements to erase. That will only work if your table 'yourTable' with the fields f1,f2,f3 has also an ID field that is unique.
Create the temporary table to store the IDs of the elements to erase.
CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE ids (ID int);
Find the IDs of the elements to erase:
INSERT INTO ids(ID) SELECT ID FROM yourTable AS t
WHERE 1 != (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM yourTable
WHERE yourTable.ID <= t.ID
AND yourTable.f1 = t.f1
AND yourTable.f2 = t.f2
AND yourTable.f3 = t.f3);
Delete the elements of the table with the previously selected indexes
DELETE yourTable FROM yourTable,ids WHERE yourTable.ID = ids.ID;
Remove the temporary table
DROP TABLE ids;
If SQL supported to to subqueries using the same table for a SELECT and a DELETE we could do all that in the same query, but this is not the case, so we need to go through a temporary table.
To avoir duplicates to happen I will set the three fields as primary keys of the table, in this way:
ALTER TABLE yourTable ADD PRIMARY KEY (f1, f2, f3);
You will be able to alter your table this way, only when you removed all the duplicates and once the table altered subsequent inserts with duplicated values will fail.

Deleting duplicate rows from a table

I have a table in my database which has duplicate records that I want to delete. I don't want to create a new table with distinct entries for this. What I want is to delete duplicate entries from the existing table without the creation of any new table. Is there any way to do this?
id action
L1_name L1_data
L2_name L2_data
L3_name L3_data
L4_name L4_data
L5_name L5_data
L6_name L6_data
L7_name L7_data
L8_name L8_data
L9_name L9_data
L10_name L10_data
L11_name L11_data
L12_name L12_data
L13_name L13_data
L14_name L14_data
L15_name L15_data
see these all are my fields :
id is unique for every row.
L11_data is unique for respective action field.
L11_data is having company names while action is having name of the industries.
So in my data I'm having duplicate name of the companies in L11_data for their respective industries.
What I want is to have is unique name and other data of the companies in the particular industry stored in action. I hope I have stated my problem in a way that you people can understand it.
Yes, assuming you have a unique ID field, you can delete all records that are the same except for the ID, but don't have "the minimum ID" for their group of values.
Example query:
DELETE FROM Table
WHERE ID NOT IN
(
SELECT MIN(ID)
FROM Table
GROUP BY Field1, Field2, Field3, ...
)
Notes:
I freely chose "Table" and "ID" as representative names
The list of fields ("Field1, Field2, ...") should include all fields except for the ID
This may be a slow query depending on the number of fields and rows, however I expect it would be okay compared to alternatives
EDIT: In case you don't have a unique index, my recommendation is to simply add an auto-incremental unique index. Mainly because it's good design, but also because it will allow you to run the query above.
ALTER IGNORE TABLE 'table' ADD UNIQUE INDEX(your cols);
Duplicates get NULL, then you can delete them
DELETE
FROM table_x a
WHERE rowid < ANY (
SELECT rowid
FROM table_x b
WHERE a.someField = b.someField
AND a.someOtherField = b.someOtherField
)
WHERE (
a.someField,
a.someOtherField
) IN (
SELECT c.someField,
c.someOtherField
FROM table_x c
GROUP BY c.someField,
c.someOtherField
HAVING count(*) > 1
)
In above query the combination of someField and someOtherField must identify the duplicates distinctively.