Question: Is it possible to create a mysql select (directly or using a stored procedure) that will return blanks for repeating columns. For example, a select that would normally return these 7 records with 2 columns:

```
Bob   123
Bob   557
Bob   888
Joe   887
Joe   223
Tom   899
Tom   999

```

I would prefer to see this directly from the sql select:

```
Bob   123
      557
      888
Joe   887
      223
Tom   899
      999

```

I realize I can just post process the records in my program, but I'd like to replace the duplicates with blanks within the sql call.

Answer: 
It seems like it would be a huge waste of resources to not do it through your application, but one way that you could do this is to use [PL/SQL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/SQL) in a stored procedure or something similar to populate a some temporary table. With this you could declare a variable for if the name equals the last name that was iterated over. So if the name is a new name add it to the temporary table otherwise do not. 

Again though this is a huge waste of resources
For future readers, here is a select query that will return blanks for repeating column values.

```
SELECT IF(name=@previous, "", @previous:=name) as name_, value
FROM (SELECT @previous:= '') AS temp, tableName
ORDER BY name

```