Why Does \"DELETE FROM employee WHERE (empid, empssn) NOT IN (...)\" Error When Removing Duplicates in MySQL?

Removing Duplicate Rows in MySQL Tables: Tackling the Error

To eliminate duplicate records from a table named "employee" that contains fields 'empid', 'empname', and 'empssn', first identify them using the query:

<code class="sql">SELECT COUNT(empssn), empssn FROM employee 
GROUP BY empssn 
HAVING COUNT(empssn) > 1</code>

However, the subsequent deletion query:

<code class="sql">DELETE FROM employee 
WHERE (empid, empssn) NOT IN (
    SELECT MIN(empid), empssn FROM employee 
    GROUP BY empssn
);</code>

encounters an error about specifying the target table 'employee' in the FROM clause.

Solution:

To address this error, wrap the subquery in a derived table:

<code class="sql">DELETE FROM employee 
WHERE (empid, empssn) NOT IN (
    SELECT empid, empssn FROM (
        SELECT MIN(empid) AS empid, empssn FROM employee 
        GROUP BY empssn
    ) X
);</code>

This modification allows you to reference the original table within the subquery and successfully delete the duplicate rows.

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