Assistance with the DISTINCT keyword

Hello. I'm wondering if I can get assistance with the DISTINCT keyword? I've got a Table with 5-6 fields/information but 1000+ records. I want to select all fields but only use DISTINCT on one specific field. There may be 1, 2, or 10+ records with a distinct code - I only want to choose the oldest record of each distinct code, but 5 unique/distinct records. PROBLEM: https://www.mysqltutorial.org/mysql-distinct.aspx If I select multiple records, SELECT DISTINCT field1, Field2, etc.. it seems to combine "Field1, Field2" into one field and make a DISTINCT on THAT information, instead of just field1. In all the tutorials I find I can only retrieve ONE field/information using DISTINCT, without retrieving all the information/fields. Is it possible to select distinct on 1field, but retrieve ALL fields for that record? An example of what I want: Select DISTINCT REF, * from Services ORDER BY Services.TIMECHECK ASC LIMIT 5; *TIMECHECK* is a simple timestamp Or do I need to do this in a 2-step process? - get 5 records Distinct on the REF, sort by oldest records - select all fields/columns of information for each unique record, (HOWEVER, I only want the oldest record). -- Gordon.