How can I select the first dataset, of two multiple rows with the same non-unique ID in MS-Access?
I did not design this mess with a non unique ID, and other fields than ID are random string values, so could be unique or duplicates.
Say I have the input table
Tab_INPUT
--------------------------
| ID | VAL1 | VAL2 | ... |
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
| 1 | "A" | "1a" | ... |
| 2 | "B" | "2b" | ... |
| 2 | "C" | "2a" | ... |
| 3 | "D" | "3c" | ... |
| 3 | "E" | "3b" | ... |
| 3 | "F" | "3a" | ... |
| 4 | "G" | "4a" | ... |
--------------------------
I now want to select the first row for each distinct ID, so i.e.
Tab_OUTPUT (DESIRED)
--------------------------
| ID | VAL1 | VAL2 | ... |
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
| 1 | "A" | "1a" | ... |
| 2 | "B" | "2b" | ... |
| 3 | "D" | "3c" | ... |
| 4 | "G" | "4a" | ... |
--------------------------
I can not use something like
SELECT ID, Min(VAL1), Min(Val2) FROM Tab_INPUT GROUP BY ID
since this would mess up the rows itsself
Tab_OUTPUT (WRONG)
--------------------------
| ID | VAL1 | VAL2 | ... |
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
| 1 | "A" | "1a" | ... |
| 2 | "B" | "2a" | ... |
| 3 | "D" | "3a" | ... |
| 4 | "G" | "4a" | ... |
--------------------------
I need the rows itsself to stay intact, just selecting the first with a unique ID