Question

I have the following data in a MySQL database table called MyTable:

+----------+------------+---------------------+
|    my_id | country_gb | date_updated        |
+----------+------------+---------------------+
|       10 |        224 | 2013-02-07 00:00:00 |
|       30 |        224 | 2013-02-07 00:00:00 |
|       40 |        299 | 2013-02-07 00:00:00 |
|       60 |        277 | 2013-02-09 00:00:00 |
|       70 |        222 | 2013-02-09 00:00:00 |
|      100 |        349 | 2013-02-09 00:00:00 |

How do I query the database so that only the rows with the latest date is returned?

I know I could do SELECT * from 'MyTable' WHERE 'date_updated'="2013-02-09 00:00:00", but what if I don’t now the specific date_updated (as I don’t)? I thought I could sort the table by date_updated DESC in one command (something like SELECT date_updated FROM 'MyTable' ORDER BY date_updated DESC LIMIT 1) and then use the date_updated value to do another search but I don’t know how to do this all in one command or even if there is a way.

Answer 1

Use subquery

SELECT * from 'MyTable' WHERE 'date_updated'=(
    SELECT date_updated FROM 'MyTable' ORDER BY date_updated DESC LIMIT 1)