How to delete pairs selected into own table

Question

I have joined a table myself and I have the duplicate pairs highlighted in the image below, how can I delete them?

select DISTINCT A.name as name1 , B.name as name2
from (select name , ratings.* from reviewers inner join ratings on reviewers.id = 
ratings.reviewer_id ) A ,
(select name , ratings.* from reviewers inner join ratings on reviewers.id = 
ratings.reviewer_id ) B
where A.reviewer_id <> B.reviewer_id 
and A.book_id = B.book_id
order by name1 , name2 ASC

Name 1	Name 2
Alice Lewis	Elizabeth Blake
Chris Thomas	John Smith
Chris Thomas	Mike White
Elizabeth Blake	Alice Lewis
Elizabeth Blake	Jack Green
Jack Green	Elizabeth Blake
Joe Martinez	Mike Anderson
John Smith	Chris Thomas
Mike Anderson	Joe Martinez
Mike White	Chris Thomas

The above table was once a picture

Answer 1

You can do this

select Name1, Name2
from ...
where Name1 < Name2;

See this example

Answer 2

I have created DDL and DML statements to reproduce the database and written queries that retrieve unique pairs. Here's the "build" code that might help others:

CREATE TABLE books (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  title VARCHAR(100)
);

CREATE TABLE reviewers (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(50)
);

CREATE TABLE ratings (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  reviewer_id INT,
  book_id INT,
  rating INT,
  FOREIGN KEY (reviewer_id) REFERENCES reviewers(id),
  FOREIGN KEY (book_id) REFERENCES books(id)
);

-- Inserting sample records
INSERT INTO reviewers (id, name)
VALUES
  (1, 'Alice Lewis'),
  (2, 'Elizabeth Black'),
  (3, 'Chris Thomas'),
  (4, 'John Smith'),
  (5, 'Mike White'),
  (6, 'Jack Green'),
  (7, 'Joe Martinez'),
  (8, 'Mike Anderson');

INSERT INTO books (id, title)
VALUES
  (1, 'The Gulag Archipelago'),
  (2, 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'),
  (3, 'Cancer Ward');

-- Insertion of rating records
INSERT INTO ratings (id, reviewer_id, book_id, rating)
VALUES
  (1, 1, 1, 4),
  (2, 1, 2, 3),
  (3, 2, 1, 5),
  (4, 2, 2, 4),
  (5, 2, 3, 2),
  (6, 3, 1, 3),
  (7, 3, 3, 4),
  (8, 4, 1, 2),
  (9, 4, 3, 3),
  (10, 5, 2, 5),
  (11, 6, 1, 1),
  (12, 6, 2, 3),
  (13, 6, 3, 4),
  (14, 7, 1, 3),
  (15, 7, 2, 4),
  (16, 8, 3, 2);

This is the reconstructed query:

SELECT DISTINCT
  A.name AS name1,
  B.name AS name2
FROM
  (
    SELECT
      reviewers.id,
      reviewers.name,
      ratings.book_id
    FROM
      reviewers
      INNER JOIN ratings ON reviewers.id = ratings.reviewer_id
  ) A
  JOIN (
    SELECT
      reviewers.id,
      reviewers.name,
      ratings.book_id
    FROM
      reviewers
      INNER JOIN ratings ON reviewers.id = ratings.reviewer_id
  ) B ON A.book_id = B.book_id
     AND A.id <> B.id
     AND A.name < B.name
ORDER BY
  name1,
  name2 ASC;

The same subquery uses aliases A and B twice, combining the reviewers and ratings tables and retrieving data for each reviewer-book rating pair.

The main outer query then selects distinct reviewer name pairs from the subquery results. We use JOIN between subqueries A and B under 3 conditions:

• A.book_id = B.book_id So these reviewers rated the same book.

• A.id <> B.id Used to filter out reviewer pairs with the same ID to prevent self-matching.

• A.name < B.name< B.name Make sure the pairs are ordered consistent with the output below, eliminating duplicates. This way, for a given pair, only one name combination is considered, such as "Elizabeth Black-Jack Green", but not "Jack Green-Elizabeth Black".

This is the output you will get from the restructured query:

+-----------------+-----------------+
|      name1      |      name2      |
+-----------------+-----------------+
| Alice Lewis     | Chris Thomas    |
| Alice Lewis     | Elizabeth Black |
| Alice Lewis     | Jack Green      |
| Alice Lewis     | Joe Martinez    |
| Alice Lewis     | John Smith      |
| Alice Lewis     | Mike White      |
| Chris Thomas    | Elizabeth Black |
| Chris Thomas    | Jack Green      |
| Chris Thomas    | Joe Martinez    |
| Chris Thomas    | John Smith      |
| Chris Thomas    | Mike Anderson   |
| Elizabeth Black | Jack Green      |
| Elizabeth Black | Joe Martinez    |
| Elizabeth Black | John Smith      |
| Elizabeth Black | Mike Anderson   |
| Elizabeth Black | Mike White      |
| Jack Green      | Joe Martinez    |
| Jack Green      | John Smith      |
| Jack Green      | Mike Anderson   |
| Jack Green      | Mike White      |
| Joe Martinez    | John Smith      |
| Joe Martinez    | Mike White      |
| John Smith      | Mike Anderson   |
+-----------------+-----------------+