How can I do amalgamate 3 select queries and then get unique entries from the result

[Astra]

Hi All

Strange request I know, but could somebody give me pointers on how I can put
3 queries into 1 'thing' and then get only the unique entries from this
'thing'.

To explain, I'm using Excel/VBA/ODBC to query an SQL DB. The 3 queries
themselves aren't that complex and all return the same 2 fieldsets of stock
code and stock desc. Because these separate queries might bring back the
same stock code/description I need to amalgamate the data and then query
again to bring out only distinct stock values, eg:

Query 1 brings back:

stock code stock desc
IVP Invoice Paper
STP Statement Paper
KGC Keyboard Cover
etc... etc...

Query 2 brings back:

stock code stock desc
IVP Invoice Paper
BOB Back Pack
KGC Keyboard Cover
etc... etc...

Query 3 brings back:

stock code stock desc
KGC Keyboard Cover
3.5"D 3.5" Disks
etc... etc...

I need to produce 1 resultset that shows:
stock code stock desc
IVP Invoice Paper
BOB Back Pack
3.5"D 3.5" Disks
KGC Keyboard Cover
STP Statement Paper
etc... etc...
(all unique entries)

I'm currently just bringing back the 3 query results in Excel, but I'd like
to be able to do the above.

In light of I'm using Excel/VBA/ODBC on a PC, is it possible to do?

Thanks

Robbie

 

[Ardus Petus]

You'll first have to concatenate the 3 Query results (with one header row)
Then you can use Data>Filter>Advanced Filter to eliminate the dupes

PS: if you used SQL like:

SELECT ... FROM ... (Query 1)
UNION
SELECT... FROM ... (Query 2)
UNION
SELECT ... FROM ... (Query 3)
you would already get one set of results instead of 3

HTH

 

[Bob Phillips]

Couldn't you just amalgamate the 3 queries into one, thereby not getting any
duplicates?

Saving that, you could use a dictionary object on each set of data, such as

Dim dic As Object
Dim dicItems
Dim i As Long
Dim sTemp As String

Set dic = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
On Error Resume Next
dic.Add "IVP", "Invoice Paper"
dic.Add "BOB", "Back Pack"
dic.Add "KGC", "Keyboard Cover"
dic.Add "KGC", "Keyboard Cover"
dic.Add "3.5D", "3.5 Disks"
On Error GoTo 0

dicItems = dic.Items
For i = 0 To dic.Count - 1
sTemp = sTemp & dicItems(i) & vbNewLine
Next

MsgBox sTemp

Set dic = Nothing


--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)