In SQL, the DISTINCT keyword is used in a SELECT statement to remove duplicate records from the result set.
When selecting data from a column that may contain repeated values, DISTINCT ensures that only one occurrence of each value appears in the output.
For example, the query SELECT DISTINCT country FROM users; will return a list of unique countries from the users table.
DISTINCT applies to the entire row if multiple columns are specified.
This is useful in reporting and filtering scenarios where duplicates are not desired.