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SQL Deduplication Strategy
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SQL Deduplication Strategy

MediumSQL · PostgreSQL

Problem

Write SQL to find duplicate records and remove them while keeping the latest row per key.

Use the records table. Treat source_system and record_key together as the logical key. The latest row has the greatest updated_at; break timestamp ties by the greatest id.

Output

  1. Return the deleted rows with columns id, source_system, record_key, updated_at, and payload.
  2. Sort deleted rows by id ascending.

Schema

records
ColumnTypeDescription
idPKINTUnique row identifier
source_systemVARCHAR(50)System that supplied the record
record_keyVARCHAR(100)External logical key used for deduplication
updated_atTIMESTAMPTimestamp of the latest source update
payloadTEXTRecord content
Tablesrecords
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