Help needed with weird select

From: joebob <joebob_at_zipcon.n0t>
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 10:56:48 -0800
Message-ID: <977511423.460831@news.zipcon.net>

Lets say I have 1000 products and want to return the product id, product name, ordered by product name ascending, and (here is the weird part) I also want to return the first instance of each letter of the alphabet from the product name's first character. Kind of like this:

product id     product-name     first instance of letter
-----------     --------------     -----------------------
1                    apple pie            a
2                    aspirin
3                    coffee                 c
4                    ground beef        g
5                    gum                    

etc ..

How would this be done if it's even possible? Thanks

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Received on Fri Dec 22 2000 - 12:56:48 CST