I am running mysql 4.0.24 on Debian sarge.
I have a table with two columns, "team" and "division", both varchar(255).
There are some errors in the table where division has a value but team is
blank. Given that I am getting new data, and the data entry folks may create
a record with a blank division and a team, I thought I would avoid any issues
with team or division being blank as follows:
SELECT DISTINCT division, team FROM registered WHERE team!='' OR DIVISION!=''
That returns what I expected - all division-team fields have data
Then I decided to order the output, so I added an ORDER BY clause and some
parenthesis to make the sql more readable:
SELECT DISTINCT division, team FROM registered WHERE (team!='' OR
DIVISION!='') ORDER BY division, team
But, I still get records with a blank team field (even if I remove the
parenthesis). I finally found a solution, but I do not understand it:
SELECT DISTINCT division, team FROM registered WHERE (team!='' AND
DIVISION!='') ORDER BY division, team
Why does the ORDER BY clause require an AND in the WHERE clause to work
correctly?? I do not understand the logic.
Thanks for any insight you can share with me.
--
Mark Phillips
Phillips Marketing, Inc
mark@stripped
602 524-0376
480 945-9197 fax
