SELECT a, b, c
FROM (
SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY a ORDER BY b, c) rn
FROM mytable
) q
WHERE rn = 1
ORDER BY
a
or
SELECT mi.*
FROM (
SELECT DISTINCT a
FROM mytable
) md
CROSS APPLY
(
SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM mytable mi
WHERE mi.a = md.a
ORDER BY
b, c
) mi
ORDER BY
a
Create a composite index on (a, b, c)to make queries faster.
Which one is more efficient depends on your data distribution.
If you have several different values a, but many entries in each a, a second query would be better.
, :
CREATE VIEW v_mytable_da
WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS
SELECT a, COUNT_BIG(*) cnt
FROM dbo.mytable
GROUP BY
a
GO
CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX
pk_vmytableda_a
ON v_mytable_da (a)
GO
SELECT mi.*
FROM v_mytable_da md
CROSS APPLY
(
SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM mytable mi
WHERE mi.a = md.a
ORDER BY
b, c
) mi
ORDER BY
a