Question

Is there an easy, non-JOIN way, to perform this task?

mysql_query("select DISTINCT artist, id from ringtones where artletter='A'");

Result should be: all artist values without duplicates with corresponding id.

Answer 1

You can get one row per artist, with all the IDs for that artist on one line by doing this:

SELECT artist, GROUP_CONCAT(id) as `IDs`
FROM ringtones
WHERE artletter='A'
GROUP BY artist;

If you want only the first id for each artist, try this:

SELECT artist, MIN(id) as `first_id`
FROM ringtones
WHERE artletter='A'
GROUP BY artist;

(you could get the last id by using MAX instead of MIN)

If you want the first or last row (based on id) for that artist, you can do a groupwise max as described in that link.