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Asked: 2026-06-11T14:51:26+00:00

Here’s a picture of my database structure: With help from users on here I’ve

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Here’s a picture of my database structure:

Observation recording - database structure

With help from users on here I’ve managed to put together quite a complex SQL statement using GROUP_CONCAT:

SELECT
     t1.Name AS Teacher_Name,
     t2.Name AS Observer_Name,
     o.Datetime AS Datetime,
     o.Type AS Type,
     o.Year_Group AS Year_Group,
     o.Class_Name AS Class_Name,
     c.Title AS Course_Name,
     GROUP_CONCAT(l.Title) AS Focus,
     o.Achievement_Grade AS Achievement_Grade,
     o.Behaviour_Grade AS Behaviour_Grade,
     o.Teaching_Grade AS Teaching_Grade,
     GROUP_CONCAT(cl1.Title) AS Positive,
     GROUP_CONCAT(cl2.title) AS Development,
     o.Notes AS Notes
FROM observations o
LEFT JOIN teachers t1 
    ON o.Teacher_ID = t1.Teacher_ID
LEFT JOIN teachers t2 
    ON o.Observer_ID = t2.Teacher_ID
LEFT JOIN courses c 
    ON o.Course_ID = c.Course_ID
LEFT JOIN  foci f
    ON o.ID = f.Observation_ID
LEFT JOIN focus_labels l
    on f.focus_id = l.id
LEFT JOIN  criteria c1
    ON o.ID = c1.Observation_ID
LEFT JOIN criteria_labels cl1
    on c1.Criteria_ID = cl1.ID AND c1.Type = 'P'
LEFT JOIN  criteria c2
    ON o.ID = c2.Observation_ID AND c2.Type = 'D'
LEFT JOIN criteria_labels cl2
    on c2.Criteria_ID = cl2.ID
GROUP BY o.id
ORDER BY `Datetime` DESC";

This appears to work OK, apart from the fact that Focus, Positive and Development are each repeated depending on the field that has the highest number of concatenations in.

For example, if Positive has Pace,Progress,Attainment but Focus is only Appraisal, it’ll be repeated three times (Appraisal,Appraisal,Appraisal).

Observation Recording - Complex join structure

I’ve looked this up and I think it could be because I need to GROUP each of these GROUP_CONCAT JOINs. However, I have no idea how to go about this.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance,

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    GROUP_CONCAT has DISTINCT attribute that can be applied to remove duplicates.

    SELECT
     t1.Name AS Teacher_Name,
     t2.Name AS Observer_Name,
     o.Datetime AS Datetime,
     o.Type AS Type,
     o.Year_Group AS Year_Group,
     o.Class_Name AS Class_Name,
     c.Title AS Course_Name,
     GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT l.Title) AS Focus,
     o.Achievement_Grade AS Achievement_Grade,
     o.Behaviour_Grade AS Behaviour_Grade,
     o.Teaching_Grade AS Teaching_Grade,
     GROUP_CONCAT(cl1.Title) AS Positive,
     GROUP_CONCAT(cl2.title) AS Development,
     o.Notes AS Notes
FROM observations o
LEFT JOIN teachers t1 
    ON o.Teacher_ID = t1.Teacher_ID
LEFT JOIN teachers t2 
    ON o.Observer_ID = t2.Teacher_ID
LEFT JOIN courses c 
    ON o.Course_ID = c.Course_ID
LEFT JOIN  foci f
    ON o.ID = f.Observation_ID
LEFT JOIN focus_labels l
    on f.focus_id = l.id
LEFT JOIN  criteria c1
    ON o.ID = c1.Observation_ID
LEFT JOIN criteria_labels cl1
    on c1.Criteria_ID = cl1.ID AND c1.Type = 'P'
LEFT JOIN  criteria c2
    ON o.ID = c2.Observation_ID AND c2.Type = 'D'
LEFT JOIN criteria_labels cl2
    on c2.Criteria_ID = cl2.ID
GROUP BY o.id
ORDER BY `Datetime` DESC";
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