How to get the previous row-text - sql

Question

First of all: I am a SQL beginner and I use SQL Server 2008.
The tables as it is now, is written as:
SELECT
Transaction.description, Person.name
FROM
Transaction, Person, SystemUser
WHERE
Person.personnumber = SystemUser.personnumber
AND Transaction.art_ID = SystemUser.art_ID
ORDER BY
Transaction.description
where personnumber is PK nvarchar (could look like N0890) where the last numbers of it grows with +1 for every new person.
art_ID (Transaction) is PK smallint, art_ID (SystemUser) is smallint, description is nvarchar.
I want to get the text from the previous row, in the same column, so that I can manipulate the text to be clear and make the result-table look more simple.
Example as it is now:
|Transactions | Persons |
|-------------------|----------|
|Statistic | Ursula |
|Statistic | Peter |
|Statistic | Alan |
|Settlement | Christie |
|Settlement | Tania |
|Deptor department | Jack |
|Economy department | Rickie |
|Economy department | Annie |
|Economy department | Tom |
|Economy department | Seth |
How I want it to be:
|Transactions | Persons |
|-------------------|----------|
|Statistic | Ursula |
| | Peter |
| | Alan |
|Settlement | Christie |
| | Tania |
|Deptor department | Jack |
|Economy department | Rickie |
| | Annie |
| | Tom |
| | Seth |
as in select case when description = description - 1 row then ''
I have searched for examples and every one of them are based on integers, not varchar/nvarchar), and I keep getting errors when i try to do it with varchars. Such as With CTE, min() and max().
Do you have any ideas of what function I can use or how to set up the select-statement to do as I want?

Answer 1

First use a rank function to identify just one of them:
SELECT Transaction.description, Person.name,
RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY Transaction.description ORDER BY Person.name) As R
FROM Transaction, Person, SystemUser
WHERE Person.personnumber = SystemUser.personnumber
AND Transaction.art_ID = SystemUser.art_ID
ORDER BY Transaction.description, Person.name
Notice the lines you want to see have 1 against them? Use that:
SELECT
CASE WHEN R=1 THEN Transaction.description ELSE '' END description,
Person.name
FROM
(
SELECT Transaction.description, Person.name,
RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY Transaction.description ORDER BY Person.name) As R
FROM Transaction, Person, SystemUser
WHERE Person.personnumber = SystemUser.personnumber
AND Transaction.art_ID = SystemUser.art_ID
) Subtable
ORDER BY Transaction.description, Person.name

Answer 2

I think following SQL should work
CREATE TABLE #TempTable (rowrank INT, description VARCHAR(256), name VARCHAR(256));
INSERT INTO #TempTable (rowrank, description, name)
VALUES
Select RANK() OVER (ORDER BY Transaction.description)
,Transaction.description
,name
FROM Transaction, Person, SystemUser
WHERE Person.personnumber = SystemUser.personnumber
AND Transaction.art_ID = SystemUser.art_ID
ORDER BY Transaction.description
SELECT
CASE
WHEN prev.RANK = TT.RANK
THEN ""
ELSE TT.Description
END AS Description,
name
FROM #TempTable TT
LEFT JOIN #TempTable prev ON prev.rownum = TT.rownum - 1