Sybase select distinct on one column, do not care about others - sql

Question

I have seen many similar questions but none that meet my needs exactly, and I cannot seem to deduce a solution on my own from inspecting the other questions.
I have the following (mock) table below. My actual table has many more columns.
TableA:
ID | color | feel | size | alive | age
------------------------------------------
1 | blue | soft | large | true | 36
2 | red | soft | large | true | 36
2 | blue | hard | small | false | 37
2 | blue | soft | large | true | 36
2 | blue | soft | small | false | 39
15 | blue | soft | medium | true | 04
15 | blue | soft | large | true | 04
15 | green | soft | large | true | 15
40 | pink | sticky | large | true | 83
51 | brown | rough | tiny | false | 01
51 | gray | soft | tiny | true | 59
34 | blue | soft | large | true | 02
I want the result to look like:
Result of query on TableA:
ID | color | feel | size | alive | age
-------------------------------------------
1 | blue | soft | large | true | 36
2 | red | soft | large | true | 36
15 | blue | soft | medium | true | 04
40 | pink | sticky | large | true | 83
51 | brown | rough | tiny | false | 01
34 | blue | soft | large | true | 02
I want one row for every unique ID column, but I do not want to check the other columns. I need the other columns returned in my result set, but I do not want to filter on them. I just need one row for every unique ID - I do not care which row.
In my example, I selected the first row of every unique ID.
I have tried variations of
select *
from TableA
group by ID having ID = max(ID)
Most examples I have seen with group by and max and/or min functions involve only 2 columns. I have many more columns, however.
I have also seen examples using CTE, but I am not using SQL Server (I am using Sybase).
How can I achieve the result set described?
EDIT
We are using Sybase version 15.1.

Answer 1

Your solution with MIN has some drawbacks. It doesn't return you a specific row but MIN values from the group of rows. You can get as result rows which are not in database. Is it OK for you ?
Row_number is supported in sybase 15.2
http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.infocenter.dc38151.1520/html/iqrefbb/iqrefbb262.htm
It's sad if it is not supported in 15.1. You can use then identity column and temporary table to achieve what you want.

Answer 2

There are a variety of ways to do this. If you have a more recent version of Sybase, you can use row_number():
select t.*
from (select t.*, row_number() over (partition by id order by id) as seqnum
from table t
) t
where seqnum = 1;

Answer 3

The solution I have come up with is below.
It "feels" like a poor solution - I am still open to new answers:
SELECT
ID,
min(color),
min(feel),
min(size),
min(alive),
min(age)
FROM TableA
group by ID
I do not like how verbose I am with the application of the min function to every column, but this returns the desired result set.