Question

I am using the DateSerial Function to convert the date on a column like this:

(DateSerial(CInt(Left([EXAMPLE_TBL.APP_DATE],4)),CInt(Mid([EXAMPLE_TBL.APP_DATE],5,2)),
CInt(Right([EXAMPLE_TBL.APP_DATE],2)))) AS Application_Date

The date comes from an Oracle linked table which is in a text datatype in Access. All is working, however, I need to add the MAX Function or find a way to get the most recent APP_DATE.

How do I add the MAX Function or what Function can I use so that if there are two APP_DATES, I get the most recent?

Thanks everyone!

Answer 1

This will change depending on what you really need to accomplish. If this is the only column you need to query then you should be able to do:

SELECT MAX((DateSerial(CInt(Left([EXAMPLE_TBL.APP_DATE],4)),CInt(Mid([EXAMPLE_TBL.APP_DATE],5,2)),
CInt(Right([EXAMPLE_TBL.APP_DATE],2)))) 
AS Application_Date FROM EXAMPLE_TBL;

On the other hand, if you need to query multiple columns you need to try something like this:

SELECT col1, col2, MAX(DateSerial(CInt(Left([APP_DATE],4)),CInt(Mid([APP_DATE],5,2)),CInt(Right([AP‌​P_D‌​‌​ATE],2)))) AS Application FROM tablename GROUP BY col1, col2;

Is there a reason you are storing it as a text type rather than DateTime?