DROP TABLE IF EXISTS t1; Warnings: Note 1051 Unknown table 't1' CREATE TABLE t1 ( a varchar(32) character set utf8 collate utf8_bin NOT NULL, b varchar(32) character set utf8 collate utf8_bin NOT NULL ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8; INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('AAAAAAAAAA','AAAAAAAAAA'), ('AAAAAAAAAB','AAAAAAAAAB '), ('AAAAAAAAAB','AAAAAAAAAB'), ('AAAAAAAAAC','AAAAAAAAAC'), ('AAAAAAAAAD','AAAAAAAAAD'), ('AAAAAAAAAE','AAAAAAAAAE'), ('AAAAAAAAAF','AAAAAAAAAF'), ('AAAAAAAAAG','AAAAAAAAAG'), ('AAAAAAAAAH','AAAAAAAAAH'), ('AAAAAAAAAI','AAAAAAAAAI'), ('AAAAAAAAAJ','AAAAAAAAAJ'), ('AAAAAAAAAK','AAAAAAAAAK'); set tmp_table_size=1024; set session debug="d,raise_error"; SELECT MAX(a) FROM t1 GROUP BY a,b; ERROR 23000: Can't write; duplicate key in table 'tmp_table' set tmp_table_size=default; DROP TABLE t1;