Question

I’m trying to combine distinct and max on this table

id      name      surname   group   year
113865  JOHN      RED       29      2012
112756  ANNE      REDS      128     2011
111960  MATT      RED       88      2011
108615  JOHN      RED       29      2011
102801  JOHN      REDMOND   29      2010
98152   CARL      RED       36      2009
98175   MANUEL    RED       36      2009
96569   JOHN      RED       31      2009
95684   CARL      RED       36      2008
95685   MANUEL    RED       36      2008

I would like to filter for distinct name, surname in the same group with highest year

id      name      surname   group   year
113865  JOHN      RED       29      2012
112756  ANNE      REDS      128     2011
111960  MATT      RED       88      2011
102801  JOHN      REDMOND   29      2010
98152   CARL      RED       36      2009
98175   MANUEL    RED       36      2009
96569   JOHN      RED       31      2009

what’s the right way?

Answer 1

You use group by rather than distinct:

select name, surname, group, max(year)
from TheTable
group by name, surname, group

Result:

name      surname   group   year
JOHN      RED       29      2012
ANNE      REDS      128     2011
MATT      RED       88      2011
JOHN      REDMOND   29      2010
CARL      RED       36      2009
MANUEL    RED       36      2009
JOHN      RED       31      2009

I didn’t include the id field, as you haven’t specified which value you want for each distinct row. If you for example want the highest id, you can use max(id) to include it in the result.

You can include the id field in list and MySQL will include it in the result, but the result for that field isn’t predictable. Some other databases, like MS SQL Server, won’t allow you to include it in the result without using an aggregate like for example max.