Question

I am trying to sort data by using the GROUP BY function. My query works fine until I add this to it. Here it is:

SELECT a.cust_id, a.account_id, a.product_cd, status, b.name, i.fname, i.lname, 
from account a, branch b, individual i
where b.name = 'So. NH Branch' or b.name = 'Woburn Branch' and a.status = 'ACTIVE'
group by b.name;

I get this message: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ‘from account a, branch b, individual i
where b.name = ‘So. NH Branch’ or b.name ‘ at line 2

Answer 1

You have an extra comma in your SELECT:

SELECT a.cust_id, 
  a.account_id, 
  a.product_cd, 
  status, 
  b.name, 
  i.fname, 
  i.lname, 
         ^ --- this is incorrect.

One thing that I do see that is strange with your query is you are not joining your tables, you are returning a cartesian result set.

If you do not want a cartesian result set, then you would use a JOIN between the tables. Similar to this:

SELECT a.cust_id, 
   a.account_id, 
   a.product_cd, 
   status, 
   b.name, 
   i.fname, 
   i.lname
from account a
INNER JOIN branch b
  ON a.branchid = b.id
INNER JOIN individual i
  ON a.individualid = i.id
where b.name = 'So. NH Branch' or b.name = 'Woburn Branch' and a.status = 'ACTIVE'
group by b.name;

Note: I guessed on the column names that would join the tables.