Add the ability to return distinct (non-duplicating) values from search conditions and from the SQL/REST query layer — the equivalent of SQL SELECT DISTINCT col FROM ....
Motivation
Common when users want to enumerate the set of possible values for a single attribute (or a small projection). Today this requires fetching all records and de-duplicating client-side, which is wasteful when the cardinality is small.
Ask
- Support
DISTINCT in SQL queries (via the SQL translator / AlaSQL path).
- Surface a
distinct: true (or equivalent) option in the search_by_conditions / search_by_value operations API so it's available without writing SQL.
- Optionally support it in REST/GraphQL query parameters where it makes sense.
Acceptance criteria
SELECT DISTINCT attr FROM table returns deduplicated rows in the projected columns.- Operations API: a
distinct flag on the search operations produces the same result without SQL.
- Documented in the search-conditions docs.
Implementation notes
- For a single attribute already covered by an index, iterating the index uniquely is cheap. For arbitrary projections / cross-attribute dedup, the natural implementation is a streaming hash de-duplicator with a configurable bound (so an extremely high-cardinality projection doesn't blow memory silently).
- Behavior on
null / undefined values should match SQL semantics (typically counted as a distinct value).
Tracked in Jira: CORE-3034
🤖 Filed by Claude on behalf of Kris.
Add the ability to return distinct (non-duplicating) values from search conditions and from the SQL/REST query layer — the equivalent of SQL
SELECT DISTINCT col FROM ....Motivation
Common when users want to enumerate the set of possible values for a single attribute (or a small projection). Today this requires fetching all records and de-duplicating client-side, which is wasteful when the cardinality is small.
Ask
DISTINCTin SQL queries (via the SQL translator / AlaSQL path).distinct: true(or equivalent) option in thesearch_by_conditions/search_by_valueoperations API so it's available without writing SQL.Acceptance criteria
SELECT DISTINCT attr FROM tablereturns deduplicated rows in the projected columns.distinctflag on the search operations produces the same result without SQL.Implementation notes
null/undefinedvalues should match SQL semantics (typically counted as a distinct value).Tracked in Jira: CORE-3034
🤖 Filed by Claude on behalf of Kris.