Question

I have a logging table which has three columns. One column is a unique identifier, One Column is called ‘Name’ and the other is ‘Status’.
Values in the Name column can repeat so that you might see Name ‘Joe’ in multiple rows. Name ‘Joe’ might have a row with a status ‘open’, another row with a status ‘closed’, another with ‘waiting’ and maybe one for ‘hold’. I would like to, using a defined precedence in this highest to lowest order:(‘Closed’,’Hold’,’Waiting’ and ‘Open’) pull the highest ranking row for each Name and ignore the others. Anyone know a simple way to do this?

BTW, not every Name will have all status representations, so ‘Joe’ might only have a row for ‘waiting’ and ‘hold’, or maybe just ‘waiting’.

Answer 1

I would create a second table named something like ‘Status_Precedence’, with rows like:

Status  | Order --------------- Closed  |  1 Hold    |  2 Waiting |  3 Open    |  4 

In your query of the other table, do a join to this table (on Status_Precedence.Status) and then you can ORDER BY Status_Precedence.Order.