Remove Duplicate Rows from a Table in SQL Server

Introduction

Most of the times, we use primary key or unique key for preventing insertion of duplicate rows in SQL Server. But if we don't use these keys, then it's obvious that duplicate rows could be entered by the user. After inserting duplicate rows into table, it becomes a major issue to delete those duplicate rows. In that time, we need to delete those duplicate rows to resolve the issue. So this topic will help us to delete those duplicate rows from the specific table.

Background

I used some basic T-SQL code to accomplish the target. So you don't need to worry to understand this code.

Problem

Firstly, we will create a table, where we will insert some duplicate rows to understand the topic properly. Create a table called ATTENDANCE by using the following code:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ATTENDANCE](
	[EMPLOYEE_ID] [varchar](50) NOT NULL,
	[ATTENDANCE_DATE] [date] NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]   

Now insert some data into this table.

INSERT INTO dbo.ATTENDANCE (EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE)VALUES
			('A001',CONVERT(DATETIME,'01-01-11',5)) 
INSERT INTO dbo.ATTENDANCE (EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE)VALUES
			('A001',CONVERT(DATETIME,'01-01-11',5)) 
INSERT INTO dbo.ATTENDANCE (EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE)VALUES
			('A002',CONVERT(DATETIME,'01-01-11',5)) 
INSERT INTO dbo.ATTENDANCE (EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE)VALUES
			('A002',CONVERT(DATETIME,'01-01-11',5)) 
INSERT INTO dbo.ATTENDANCE (EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE)VALUES
			('A002',CONVERT(DATETIME,'01-01-11',5)) 
INSERT INTO dbo.ATTENDANCE (EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE)VALUES
			('A003',CONVERT(DATETIME,'01-01-11',5)) 

After inserting the data, check the data of the below table. If we grouped the employee_id and attendance_date, then A001 and A002 become duplicates.

EMPLOYEE_ID	ATTENDANCE_DATE
A001	2011-01-01
A001	2011-01-01
A002	2011-01-01
A002	2011-01-01
A002	2011-01-01
A003	2011-01-01

So how can we delete those duplicate data?

Solution

First, insert an identity column in that table by using the following code:

ALTER TABLE dbo.ATTENDANCE ADD AUTOID INT IDENTITY(1,1)  

Now the table data will be like the following table:

EMPLOYEE_ID	ATTENDANCE_DATE	AUTOID
A001	2011-01-01	1
A001	2011-01-01	2
A002	2011-01-01	3
A002	2011-01-01	4
A002	2011-01-01	5
A003	2011-01-01	6

Check the AUTOID column. Now we will start playing the game with this column.

Now use the following code to find out the duplicate rows that exist in the table.

SELECT * FROM dbo.ATTENDANCE WHERE AUTOID NOT IN (SELECT MIN(AUTOID) _
	FROM dbo.ATTENDANCE GROUP BY EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE)  

The above code will give us the following result:

EMPLOYEE_ID	ATTENDANCE_DATE	AUTOID
A001	2011-01-01	2
A002	2011-01-01	4
A002	2011-01-01	5

Ultimately, these are the duplicate rows which we want to delete to resolve the issue. Use the following code to resolve it.

DELETE FROM dbo.ATTENDANCE WHERE AUTOID NOT IN (SELECT MIN(AUTOID) _
	FROM dbo.ATTENDANCE GROUP BY EMPLOYEE_ID,ATTENDANCE_DATE) 

Now check the data. No duplicate rows exist in the table.

Is it too complicated?

History

• 16^th February, 2011: Initial post