Can we use MySQL GROUP BY clause for multiple columns just like MySQL DISTINCT clause?

Yes, it is possible to use MySQL’s GROUP BY clause to group multiple columns, just like we can use MySQL’s DISTINCT clause. Consider the following example, in the first query we have used the DISTINCT clause and the second query using the GROUP BY clause on the 'fname' and 'Lname' columns of the table named 'testing'.

mysql> Select * from testing;
+------+---------+---------+
| id   | fname   | Lname   |
+------+---------+---------+
|  200 | Raman   | Kumar   |
|  201 | Sahil   | Bhalla  |
|  202 | Gaurav  | NULL    |
|  203 | Aarav   | NULL    |
|  204 | Harshit | Khurana |
|  205 | Rahul   | NULL    |
|  206 | Piyush  | Kohli   |
|  207 | Lovkesh | NULL    |
|  208 | Gaurav  | Kumar   |
|  209 | Raman   | Kumar   |
+------+---------+---------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> Select DISTINCT FNAME,LNAME from testing;
+---------+---------+
| FNAME   | LNAME   |
+---------+---------+
| Raman   | Kumar   |
| Sahil   | Bhalla  |
| Gaurav  | NULL    |
| Aarav   | NULL    |
| Harshit | Khurana |
| Rahul   | NULL    |
| Piyush  | Kohli   |
| Lovkesh | NULL    |
| Gaurav  | Kumar   |
+---------+---------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> Select Fname, LNAME from testing GROUP BY Fname,Lname;
+---------+---------+
| Fname   | LNAME   |
+---------+---------+
| Aarav   | NULL    |
| Gaurav  | NULL    |
| Gaurav  | Kumar   |
| Harshit | Khurana |
| Lovkesh | NULL    |
| Piyush  | Kohli   |
| Rahul   | NULL    |
| Raman   | Kumar   |
| Sahil   | Bhalla |
+---------+---------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)

The only difference is that the result set returned by the MySQL query using the GROUP BY clause is sorted, while the result set returned by the MySQL query using the DISTINCT clause is not sorted.

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