Is there a SQL that I can use to delete duplicate entries from a data store, while leaving a distinct copy - leave a single copy, remove all duplicate except one?

From your question, it is unclear whether your table has a unique key or not. Since you refer to this as a "data store", I'm guessing that your duplicates might be true duplicates, meaning that every value in every column is identical. Let me first address the case where the table does not have a unique key.

NO UNIQUE KEY
In this case, we have a difficult problem if we are trying to solve this with a single SQL Statement. In this situation, I recommend one of the following approaches:

1.) Add a unique key to the table This is easy. Add a column called ID as an integer, and make it an identifier column by checking the identity box in the table design window. Set the Identity Seed to 1 and the Identity Increment to 1. The column will automatically be populated with unique values for each row in the table. Proceed to UNIQUE KEY section below.

2.) Write a stored procedure. The strategy here would be to write a query that returns a row for each set of duplicates, using a query such as the following:

SELECT Field1, Field2, Count(ID) FROM Foo1 GROUP BY Foo1.Field1, Foo1.Field2 HAVING Count(Foo1.ID) > 1

Use a cursor to loop through the returned rows, then for each set of duplicates, read all rows for that set:

SELECT Field1, Field2, ID FROM Foo1 WHERE Field1 = @FIELD1 and Field2 = @FIELD2

Then delete each row except the first one returned, for each set of duplicates.

UNIQUE KEY
If dealing with a table that does have a unique key, the problem of removing duplicates is much easier, and able to be accomplished in one SQL statement such as the following:

DELETE FROM Foo1 WHERE Foo1.ID IN -- List 1 - all rows that have duplicates (SELECT F.ID FROM Foo1 AS F WHERE Exists (SELECT Field1, Field2, Count(ID) FROM Foo1 WHERE Foo1.Field1 = F.Field1 AND Foo1.Field2 = F.Field2 GROUP BY Foo1.Field1, Foo1.Field2 HAVING Count(Foo1.ID) > 1)) AND Foo1.ID NOT IN -- List 2 - one row from each set of duplicate (SELECT Min(ID) FROM Foo1 AS F WHERE Exists (SELECT Field1, Field2, Count(ID) FROM Foo1 WHERE Foo1.Field1 = F.Field1 AND Foo1.Field2 = F.Field2 GROUP BY Foo1.Field1, Foo1.Field2 HAVING Count(Foo1.ID) > 1) GROUP BY Field1, Field2);

Since this may appear complicated, let me explain. My strategy here is to return two lists: The first, List 1, is a list of all rows that have duplicates, and the second, List 2, is a list of one row from each set of duplicates. This query simply deletes all rows that are in List 1 but not in List 2.

Tom

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