sql query selecting one name no matter how many rows it was mentioned in

Question

Basically what I'm trying to do is get the information from column x no matter how many times it was mentioned. means that if I have this kind of table:

x     | y     | z
------+-------+--------    
hello | one   | bye    
hello | two   | goodbye     
hi    | three | see you

so what I'm trying to do is create a query that would get all of the names that are mentions in the x column without duplicates and put it into a select list.

my goal is that I would have a select list with TWO not THREE options, hello and hi

this is what I have so far which isn't working. hope you guys know the answer to that:

 function getList(){
 $options="<select id='names' style='margin-right:40px;'>"; 
 $c_id = $_SESSION['id'];

 $sql="SELECT * FROM names";
 $result=mysql_query($sql); 

$options.="<option value='blank'>-- Select something --</option>"   ;
 while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)) { 

$name=$row["x"]; 

$options.="<option value='$name'>$name</option>"; 
} 

 $options.= "</SELECT>";
return "$options";
 }

Sorry for confusing... i edited my source

Answer 1

You seem to be using only x. So you can just use query:

SELECT DISTINCT x FROM names

Answer 2

if this is your query

$sql="SELECT * FROM names";
 $result=mysql_query($sql); 

Then

$sql="SELECT DISTINCT x FROM names";
 $result=mysql_query($sql);

Change * to x if you want only one column as it is faster