You might try running the code before making pronouncements like that. 😉

I'm looking at the following results on my screen right now.

Status State Name

Pending Nebraska ABC

Active NULL PQR

The WHERE clause dictates which records to include, and it contains an OR. So, if the state is not null, the row is included OR ,if there is only one row for that status, the row is included. Maybe it will make more sense to you this way. It produces identical results.

where

state is not null

OR

-- where

status in (select status from @sample group by status having count(*) = 1)