Question

New to SQL and have a query pulling some data with a number of joins across a number of tables.

Sample Data:

PERSON_NAME FUNCTION_NAME  FUNCTION_ID  FUNCTION_GROUP

Bob         View Result    1            Editor
Bob         Edit Result    4            Editor
Bob         Delete Result  3            Editor
Bob         Email Result   8            Editor
Mary        Print Letter   45           Admin
Mary        Grant Access   37           Admin

Functions have IDs, and function_groups have numerous functions. I want to query the data so instead of how it appears similar to the example above, it would look like:

PERSON_NAME FUNCTION_NAME                             FUNCTION_ID     FUNCTION_GROUP

Bob         View Result,Edit Result, Delete Result   1,4,3,8          Editor
Mary        Print Letter,Grant Access                 45,37           Admin

“Bob belongs to Editor, editor has the following functions” as one result, rather than the initial example, where multiple line after line is returned.

Am I correct in thinking the unique or distinct keywords can help me?
Thanks!

EDIT: Now with code

select staff_member.person_name, function.function_name,staff_group_function.function_id, staff_group.function_group_name
 from staff_member
 inner join staff_group
 on staff_group.staff_group_id=staff_group_member.staff_group_id
 inner join staff_group_function
 on staff_group_function.staff_group_id=staff_group_member.staff_group_id
 inner join function
 on function.function_id=staff_group_function.function_group_name

Answer 1

Nope. What you need is LISTAGG() if you have Oracle 11g2. This could be your query:

SELECT person_name,
       LISTAGG(function_name, ', ') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY 1) function_name,
       LISTAGG(function_id,   ', ') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY 1) function_id,
       function_group
FROM my_table
GROUP BY person_name, function_group

alternatively (following your latest comment):

SELECT person_name,
       LISTAGG(function_name,  ', ') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY 1) function_name,
       LISTAGG(function_id,    ', ') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY 1) function_id,
       LISTAGG(function_group, ', ') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY 1) function_group
FROM my_table
GROUP BY person_name

For any version prior to 11g2, this interesting article holds the solution for you:

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/misc/string-aggregation-techniques.php