Write your own sql to override the sql in your Drupal view

Here's a module that may do it http://drupal.org/project/views_modify_query, or use the code below:

Here is the module I wrote:
removedups_view.module is listed below

the query for the view news_events_rss is re-written prior to being executed. There were duplicate titles being listed so I used GROUP BY aggregator_item
_title to remove duplicates. The sql generated by the views module wasn't what was expected, so it had to go. I may make this into a module to submit to drupal.org. It is a module for developers like myself who found writing their own sql simpler, back during simpler times. This is a sql nostagia module. Retro.

<?php
function removedups_view_views_pre_execute(&$view) {
  watchdog('alert','tried to use views_pre_execute');
  if ($view->name \=\= 'news_events_rss') {
  //echo '
'; print_r($view->build_info['query']); echo '
';

$view->build_info['query'] = "SELECT aggregator_item.iid AS iid, aggregator_item.title AS aggregator_item_title, aggregator_item.link AS aggregator_item_link, aggregator_item.description AS aggregator_item_description, aggregator_item.timestamp AS aggregator_item_timestamp FROM aggregator_item aggregator_item  LEFT JOIN aggregator_category_feed aggregator_category_feed ON aggregator_item.fid = aggregator_category_feed.fid LEFT JOIN aggregator_category aggregator_category ON aggregator_category_feed.cid = aggregator_category.cid WHERE aggregator_category.cid in ('%s') GROUP BY aggregator_item

_title ORDER BY aggregator_item_timestamp DESC";

  //watchdog('alert','got here tried to use views_pre_execute');

}}

Note the ('%s') .... even though I ignore the views query builder in drupal, I still can use the variable set via the query builder! Very useful.

I just read a drupal planet article and the consultants did this differently: http://www.dynamiteheads.com/blog/jakub-suchy/optimizing-views-queries-…