Question

I have a table with some of the data a test performs on different samples that have different desirability (P1 is better than S1 which is better than S3 which is better than S2) AND sometimes any of these tests could be repeated. If a test fails, someone has to do it over.

I want my query to display only the best sample (P1>S1>S3>S2) AND only the repeated data, (not the original data).

The following query works but as you can see it is rather long and complicated. I am still a junior SQL person so how can I accomplish the same thing with a shorter/better query ?

I am trying to learn better SQL so I do not always have to ask these types of questions so explanations of why your query works better would be very helpful !

   DECLARE @TempTable TABLE (Sample_ID varchar(10), TestRepeat int, TestResult varchar(1))
   --  In the end, ONLY the samples with Y should be displayed
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0001-P1', 0, 'R') -- 1  Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0002-P1', 0, 'R') -- 2  Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0003-S1', 0, 'S') -- 3  Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0004-S1', 0, 'R') -- 4  Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0005-P1', 0, 'I') -- 5 
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0005-P1', 1, 'S') -- 6  Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0006-P1', 0, 'S') -- 7  Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0006-S3', 0, 'R') -- 8
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0007-P1', 0, 'S') -- 9  Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0008-S3', 0, 'I') -- 10
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0008-S3', 1, 'R') -- 11 Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0009-P1', 0, 'R') -- 12 Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0009-S1', 0, 'S') -- 13
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0010-P1', 0, 'S') -- 14 Y
   INSERT INTO @TempTable VALUES('61-0011-S3', 0, 'S') -- 15 Y

   DECLARE @TempTable1 TABLE (Subject_ID varchar(7), Sample_ID varchar(10), SampleOrder int, TestRepeat int, TestResult varchar(1))

   INSERT @TempTable1
   SELECT  LEFT(Sample_ID,7) AS Subject_ID, 
     Sample_ID,
     SampleOrder = 
       CASE 
         WHEN RIGHT(Sample_ID,2) = 'P1' THEN 4
         WHEN RIGHT(Sample_ID,2) = 'S1' THEN 3
         WHEN RIGHT(Sample_ID,2) = 'S3' THEN 2
         WHEN RIGHT(Sample_ID,2) = 'S2' THEN 1
       END, 
     TestRepeat, 
     TestResult
   FROM @TempTable
   ORDER BY Subject_ID, SampleOrder;

   --SELECT * FROM @TempTable1;

   DECLARE @TempTable2 TABLE (Sample_ID varchar(10), TestRepeat int, TestResult varchar(1))

   INSERT @TempTable2 SELECT 
     tt1.Sample_ID,
     tt1.TestRepeat,
     tt1.TestResult
    FROM @TempTable1 tt1
    INNER JOIN (
        SELECT Subject_ID, MAX(SampleOrder) AS Max_SampleOrder
        FROM @TempTable1
        GROUP BY Subject_ID) subQ1 
        ON (tt1.Subject_ID=subQ1.Subject_ID AND tt1.SampleOrder=subQ1.Max_SampleOrder)
    ORDER BY tt1.Sample_ID;

   SELECT tt2.Sample_ID,
          tt2.TestRepeat, 
          tt2.TestResult
   FROM @TempTable2 tt2
   INNER JOIN (
        SELECT Sample_ID, MAX(TestRepeat) AS Max_TestRepeat
        FROM @TempTable2
        GROUP BY Sample_ID) subQ 
        ON (tt2.Sample_ID = subQ.Sample_ID AND tt2.TestRepeat=subq.Max_TestRepeat)
   ORDER BY tt2.Sample_ID, tt2.TestResult;

Answer 1

You can use row_number() in a sub query for this.

select Sample_ID, TestRepeat, TestResult
from
  (
    select Sample_ID, TestRepeat, TestResult,
           row_number() over(partition by left(Sample_ID, 7)
                             order by case right(Sample_ID,2)
                                        when 'P1' then 1
                                        when 'S1' then 2
                                        when 'S3' then 3
                                        when 'S2' then 4
                                       end, TestRepeat desc) as rn
    from @TempTable
  ) as T
where rn  = 1
order by Sample_ID

You can test the query on SE-Data

Explanation:
row_number will enumerate your rows from 1. The partition by clause controls when numbering start from 1 again and the order by clause specifies the order of the numbering. The over() clause used above will give you a row_number() of 1 for the rows you are interested in. It is not possible to use row_number() in the where clause of a query so you have to use a derived table to be able to filter your rows on the result of row_number()