Re: sql question - distinct

PRP wrote:
> I have one doubt regarding distinct.
>
> select distinct(empno) ,ENAME from emp;
> select distinct EMPNO ,ENAME from emp;
> >From my understanding of distinct clause, both the above queries will
> give same result in all conditions. Is there any reason why I am
> allowed to write " distinct(columnname) " when its always expected
> to behave for the result row?

The same reason you are permitted to use parentheses around any scalar expression:

SELECT DISTINCT (a), (b), (a+b), (a+b+c) FROM tbl;

-- 
David Portas