sql server remove duplicates from query

You can use SQL row_number() function to remove duplicate rows from a query.

Create table Employees (fname varchar(100), lname varchar(100))

Insert into Employees Values 

               ('Tim', 'May')

             , ('Clara', 'Magrette') 

             , ('Clara', 'Magrette')

             , ('Jeff', 'Lawry') 

             , ('Brian', 'Adams')

             , ('Paul', 'Oliver')

As you can see there are duplicate records in the Employees table,

Select * from(

SELECT fname 

       ,lname 

       ,row_number() over (partition by fname , lname order by fname , lname ) as rownum 

FROM Employees 

) result

where rownum= 1 -- selects DISTINCT Employees only

Cheers,

Samitha