LISTAGG in Oracle to return distinct values

Question

I am trying to use the LISTAGG function in Oracle. I would like to get only the distinct values for that column. Is there a way in which I can get only the distinct values without creating a function or a procedure?

  col1  col2 Created_by
   1     2     Smith 
   1     2     John 
   1     3     Ajay 
   1     4     Ram 
   1     5     Jack 

I need to select col1 and the LISTAGG of col2 (column 3 is not considered). When I do that, I get something like this as the result of LISTAGG: [2,2,3,4,5]

I need to remove the duplicate '2' here; I need only the distinct values of col2 against col1.

Answer 1

I wrote a function to handle this using regular expressions. The in parameters are: 1) the listagg call itself 2) A repeat of the delimiter

create or replace function distinct_listagg
  (listagg_in varchar2,
   delimiter_in varchar2)

   return varchar2
   as
   hold_result varchar2(4000);
   begin

   select rtrim( regexp_replace( (listagg_in)
      , '([^'||delimiter_in||']*)('||
      delimiter_in||'\1)+($|'||delimiter_in||')', '\1\3'), ',')
      into hold_result
      from dual;

return hold_result;

end;

Now you don't have to repeat the regular expression every time you do this, simply say:

select distinct_listagg(
                       listagg(myfield,', ') within group (order by 1),
                       ', '
                       )
     from mytable;

Answer 2

select col1, listaggr(col2,',') within group(Order by col2) from table group by col1 meaning aggregate the strings (col2) into list keeping the order n then afterwards deal with the duplicates as group by col1 meaning merge col1 duplicates in 1 group. perhaps this looks clean and simple as it should be and if in case you want col3 as well just you need to add one more listagg() that is select col1, listaggr(col2,',') within group(Order by col2),listaggr(col3,',') within group(order by col3) from table group by col1

Answer 3

you can use undocumented wm_concat function.

select col1, wm_concat(distinct col2) col2_list 
from tab1
group by col1;

this function returns clob column, if you want you can use dbms_lob.substr to convert clob to varchar2.

Answer 4

Use listagg_clob function created like this:

create or replace package list_const_p
is
list_sep varchar2(10) := ',';
end list_const_p;
/
sho err

create type listagg_clob_t as object(
v_liststring varchar2(32767),
v_clob clob,
v_templob number,

static function ODCIAggregateInitialize(
sctx IN OUT listagg_clob_t
) return number,
member function ODCIAggregateIterate(
self IN OUT listagg_clob_t, value IN varchar2
) return number,
member function ODCIAggregateTerminate(
self IN OUT listagg_clob_t, returnValue OUT clob, flags IN number
) return number,
member function ODCIAggregateMerge(
self IN OUT listagg_clob_t, ctx2 IN OUT listagg_clob_t
) return number
);
/
sho err

create or replace type body listagg_clob_t is

static function ODCIAggregateInitialize(sctx IN OUT listagg_clob_t)
return number is
begin
sctx := listagg_clob_t('', '', 0);
return ODCIConst.Success;
end;

member function ODCIAggregateIterate(
self IN OUT listagg_clob_t,
value IN varchar2
) return number is
begin
if nvl(lengthb(v_liststring),0) + nvl(lengthb(value),0) <= 4000 then
self.v_liststring:=self.v_liststring || value || list_const_p.list_sep;
else
if self.v_templob = 0 then
dbms_lob.createtemporary(self.v_clob, true, dbms_lob.call);
self.v_templob := 1;
end if;
dbms_lob.writeappend(self.v_clob, length(self.v_liststring), v_liststring);
self.v_liststring := value || list_const_p.list_sep;
end if;
return ODCIConst.Success;
end;

member function ODCIAggregateTerminate(
self IN OUT listagg_clob_t,
returnValue OUT clob,
flags IN number
) return number is
begin
if self.v_templob != 0 then
dbms_lob.writeappend(self.v_clob, length(self.v_liststring), self.v_liststring);
dbms_lob.trim(self.v_clob, dbms_lob.getlength(self.v_clob) - 1);
else
self.v_clob := substr(self.v_liststring, 1, length(self.v_liststring) - 1);
end if;
returnValue := self.v_clob;
return ODCIConst.Success;
end;

member function ODCIAggregateMerge(self IN OUT listagg_clob_t, ctx2 IN OUT listagg_clob_t) return number is
begin
if ctx2.v_templob != 0 then
if self.v_templob != 0 then
dbms_lob.append(self.v_clob, ctx2.v_clob);
dbms_lob.freetemporary(ctx2.v_clob);
ctx2.v_templob := 0;
else
self.v_clob := ctx2.v_clob;
self.v_templob := 1;
ctx2.v_clob := '';
ctx2.v_templob := 0;
end if;
end if;
if nvl(lengthb(self.v_liststring),0) + nvl(lengthb(ctx2.v_liststring),0) <= 4000 then
self.v_liststring := self.v_liststring || ctx2.v_liststring;
ctx2.v_liststring := '';
else
if self.v_templob = 0 then
dbms_lob.createtemporary(self.v_clob, true, dbms_lob.call);
self.v_templob := 1;
end if;
dbms_lob.writeappend(self.v_clob, length(self.v_liststring), self.v_liststring);
dbms_lob.writeappend(self.v_clob, length(ctx2.v_liststring), ctx2.v_liststring);
self.v_liststring := '';
ctx2.v_liststring := '';
end if;
return ODCIConst.Success;
end;
end;
/
sho err

CREATE or replace FUNCTION listagg_clob (input varchar2) RETURN clob
PARALLEL_ENABLE AGGREGATE USING listagg_clob_t;
/
sho err 

Answer 5

Using SELECT DISTINCT ... as part of a Subquery before calling LISTAGG is probably the best way for simple queries, as noted by @a_horse_with_no_name

However, in more complex queries, it might not be possible, or easy, to accomplish this. I had this come up in a scenario that was using top-n approach using an analytic function.

So I found the COLLECT aggregate function. It is documented to have the UNIQUE or DISTINCT modifier available. Only in 10g, it quietly fails (it ignores the modifier without error). However, to overcome this, from another answer, I came to this solution:

SELECT
  ...
  (
    SELECT LISTAGG(v.column_value,',') WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY v.column_value)
    FROM TABLE(columns_tab) v
  ) AS columns,
  ...
FROM (
  SELECT
    ...
    SET(CAST(COLLECT(UNIQUE some_column ORDER BY some_column) AS tab_typ)) AS columns_tab,
    ...
)

Basically, by using SET, I remove the duplicates in my collection.

You would still need to define the tab_typ as a basic collection type, and in the case of a VARCHAR, this would be for example:

CREATE OR REPLACE type tab_typ as table of varchar2(100)
/

Also as a correction to the answer from @a_horse_with_no_name on the multi column situation, where you might want to aggregate still on a third (or more) columns:

select
  col1, 
  listagg(CASE rn2 WHEN 1 THEN col2 END, ',') within group (order by col2) AS col2_list,
  listagg(CASE rn3 WHEN 1 THEN col3 END, ',') within group (order by col3) AS col3_list,
  SUM(col4) AS col4
from (
  select
    col1, 
    col2,
    row_number() over (partition by col1, col2 order by null) as rn2,
    row_number() over (partition by col1, col3 order by null) as rn3
  from foo
)
group by col1;

If you would leave the rn = 1 as a where condition to the query, you would aggregate other columns incorrectly.