MySQL query with UNION returning duplicate rows despite using DISTINCT
I'm working with MySQL 8.0 and trying to combine results from two different tables using a `UNION` query, but I'm still getting duplicate rows in the output. I thought using `DISTINCT` would help eliminate those duplicates, but it seems like it's not functioning as expected. Here’s the query I’m using: ```sql SELECT DISTINCT name, email FROM users WHERE active = 1 UNION SELECT DISTINCT name, email FROM clients WHERE status = 'active'; ``` The `users` table contains records of active users, and the `clients` table contains active clients. I expected the `UNION` to merge results and remove duplicates, but I'm still seeing multiple entries for the same name and email pair in the output. I’ve verified that both tables might have overlapping data - for instance, a user could also be a client - which I believe is causing the duplicates. However, I’m confused about how to handle this situation correctly. I also tried using `UNION ALL` instead of `UNION`, but that just returns all records from both tables, including the duplicates, which is not the desired outcome. Here's a simplified set of sample data: - **users table**: - John Doe, john@example.com - Jane Smith, jane@example.com - **clients table**: - John Doe, john@example.com - Alice Johnson, alice@example.com I even considered running a query first to find the duplicates before combining the results, but that feels inefficient. What’s the best way to approach this without altering the underlying data? Any help would be greatly appreciated!