limited field duplicates

Hello,

I am trying to find rows in a table that are duplicates only in the
sense of certain columns; i.e, not all columns are the same, and then
for each duplicate entry, I want to retrieve one of the columns that is
not part of the duplication criteria. Ok, enough English description,
here is the real information (simplified).
Table "master" --~925000 records
Column | Type | Modifiers
-------------------+--------------+-----------
apinum | text | not null
state | character(2) | not null
county | text | not null
township_n | integer |
township_d | character(1) |
range_n | integer |
range_d | character(1) |
section | integer |
location | text | not null

(Indexes on state,county,township,range,apinum)

Find duplicates based on
state,county,township_n||township_d,range_n||range_d,section

select state,county,township_n||township_d as township,range_n||range_d
as range,section,location,count(*) from master where state='OK' and
county='MAJOR' group by state,county,township,range,section,location
having count(*)>1;

Works great, is efficient: now, how do I get the apinum associated with
each of the limited duplicate rows (i.e., those returned in the above
query). I need the apinum because another system involved only knows
about apinum.

It must be simple, but I have failed miserably in finding the answer.
The following horrible query works, but it takes forever for even the
small sample above.

explain select m.apinum,m.township_n||m.township_d as
township,m.range_n||m.range_d as range,m.section,m.location from master
m where (select count(*) from master m1 where
m.township_n||m.township_d=m1.township_n||m1.township_d and
m.range_n||m.range_d=m1.range_n||m1.range_d and m.section=m1.section and
m.location=m1.location and m1.state='OK' and m1.county='MAJOR') > 1 and
m.state='OK' and m.county='MAJOR' order by township,range,section;
NOTICE: QUERY PLAN:

Sort (cost=7040332.16..7040332.16 rows=450 width=55)
-> Index Scan using mstcty on master m (cost=0.00..7040312.32
rows=450 width=55)
SubPlan
-> Aggregate (cost=5208.86..5208.86 rows=1 width=0)
-> Index Scan using mstcty on master m1
(cost=0.00..5208.85 rows=1 width=0)

EXPLAIN

So, somebody please enlighten me. All help is appreciated.

Don

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Don Isgitt <djisgitt@soundenergy.com> writes:

I am trying to find rows in a table that are duplicates only in the
sense of certain columns; i.e, not all columns are the same, and then
for each duplicate entry, I want to retrieve one of the columns that is
not part of the duplication criteria.

Try SELECT DISTINCT ON. There's a simple example in the SELECT
reference page (something about weather reports I think).

regards, tom lane