[DUG]: sql help please

[Tracey Maule]

Hi to all u SQL Gurus out there!   could someone help me with my query please?    I have the following tables   Skill Attempt:        //holds all attempts at "skill" even failed and disqualified (for licences) SkillAttemptID        //eg licence attempts etc PersonID AttemptDate ValidTo ProviderDI SkillID Result Ref Comments   Skill:                    //holds names of skills and time valid SkillID Name TimeValid CompanyID   SkillNeeded:            //holds what skills are required for what job SkillNeededID EmploymentID TimePeriodID SkillID   Employment:        //job names EmploymentID Name   TimePeriod:            //time periods in weeks for select box TimePeriodID Weeks   PersonEmployment:        //who does what jobs PersonEmploymentID CommenceDate PersonID   PErson: personid name etc   In the SkillNeeded table, some skills are required within a certain period of beginning a job.  these hold a foreign key linking to timeperiod if the skill is a prerequisite, the value will be 0 if there is no time limit, the skillneeded.timeperiodid will be null - hence the left join   i have the following sql to show what skills a person requires that they do not yet have:   select distinct pe.commencedate, sn.skillid, s.name, sn.timeperiodid, tp.weeks  from personemployment pe join skillneeded sn on sn.employmentid = pe.employmentid left join timeperiod tp on tp.timeperiodid = sn.timeperiodid join skill s on s.skillid = sn.skillid where pe.personid = 4 and sn.skillid not in (select skillid from skillattempt where (personid = 4 and skillid = sn.skillid and result = 'P' and (validto is null or validto > '02/11/2003')))   Some skills are required in more than one job.  If this person has both those jobs and doesnt have that skill, then the query returns the skill for as many times as it is needed.   What i really want, is for the skill itsself to be only returned once, with the earliest timeperiod.  Is this possible in SQL or do i need to frig with code? (distinct isnt working with all my joins)       Tracey Software Developer / Web Master Logis [EMAIL PROTECTED] (025) 213-1065