ANY_VALUE(arg)

For example, if name is a nonindexed column, the following query fails with ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY enabled:

SELECT name, address, MAX(age) FROM t GROUP BY name;
ERROR 1055 (42000): Expression #2 of SELECT list is not in GROUP
BY clause and contains nonaggregated column 'mydb.t.address' which
is not functionally dependent on columns in GROUP BY clause; this
is incompatible with sql_mode=only_full_group_by

The failure occurs because address is a nonaggregated column that is neither named among GROUP BY columns nor functionally dependent on them. As a result, the address value for rows within each name group is nondeterministic. There are multiple ways to cause MySQL to accept the query:

SELECT name, ANY_VALUE(address), MAX(age) FROM t GROUP BY name;

Alter the table to make name a primary key or a unique NOT NULL column. This enables MySQL to determine that address is functionally dependent on name; that is, address is uniquely determined by name. (This technique is inapplicable if NULL must be permitted as a valid name value.)

SELECT age FROM t GROUP BY age-1;

Use ANY_VALUE() to refer to address:

SELECT ANY_VALUE(age) FROM t GROUP BY age-1;

In this case, MySQL ignores the nondeterminism of address values within each name group and accepts the query. This may be useful if you simply do not care which value of a nonaggregated column is chosen for each group. ANY_VALUE() is not an aggregate function, unlike functions such as SUM() or COUNT(). It simply acts to suppress the test for nondeterminism.

SELECT name, MAX(age) FROM t;
ERROR 1140 (42000): In aggregated query without GROUP BY, expression
#1 of SELECT list contains nonaggregated column 'mydb.t.name'; this
is incompatible with sql_mode=only_full_group_by

Disable ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY. This is equivalent to using ANY_VALUE() with ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY enabled, as described in the previous item.

SELECT ANY_VALUE(name), MAX(age) FROM t;