Get the first instance of a row using MS Access - sql

Question

EDITED:
I have this query wherein I want to SELECT the first instance of a record from the table petTable.
SELECT id,
pet_ID,
FIRST(petName),
First(Description)
FROM petTable
GROUP BY pet_ID;
The problem is I have huge number of records and this query is too slow. I discovered that GROUP BY slows down the query. Do you have any idea that could make this query faster? or better, a query wherein I don't need to use GROUP BY?

Answer 1

"The problem is I have huge number of records and this query is too slow. I discovered that GROUP BY slows down the query. Do you have any idea that could make this query faster?"
And an index on pet_ID, then create and test this query:
SELECT pet_ID, Min(id) AS MinOfid
FROM petTable
GROUP BY pet_ID;
Once you have that query working, you can join it back to the original table --- then it will select only the original rows which match based on id and you can retrieve the other fields you want from those matching rows.
SELECT pt.id, pt.pet_ID, pt.petName, pt.Description
FROM
petTable AS pt
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT pet_ID, Min(id) AS MinOfid
FROM petTable
GROUP BY pet_ID
) AS sub
ON pt.id = sub.MinOfid;

Answer 2

Your Query could change as,
SELECT ID, pet_ID, petName, Description
FROM petTable
WHERE ID IN
(SELECT Min(ID) As MinID FROM petTable GROUP BY pet_ID);
Or use the TOP clause,
SELECT petTable.petID, petTable.petName, petTable.[description]
FROM petTable
WHERE petTable.ID IN
(SELECT TOP 1 ID
FROM petTable AS tmpTbl
WHERE tmpTbl.petID = petTable.petID
ORDER BY tmpTbl.petID DESC)
ORDER BY petTable.petID, petTable.petName, petTable.[description];