DISTINCT and GROUP BY both are used to remove duplicates. Performance is same during both queries. So best practice to use DISTINCT is when there is no Aggregate function involved in the query. If any aggregate function is involved than GROUP BY should be used.
Create table #Temp( EmpName varchar(100), Course Varchar(100) ) Insert into #Temp Select 'Neha','DotNet' union Select 'Bhawesh','PHP' union Select 'Abhi','PHP' union Select 'Hitesh','DotNet' union Select 'Priyanka','English'
Select query with DISTINCT
Select Distinct EmpName,Course from #Temp
Select query with GROUP BY
Select Course,Count(1) as 'Count' from #Temp group by Course
Great effort…go ahead..