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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-25T15:27:41+00:00

I’m working with the Android SQLite db, and I have a table with messages

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I’m working with the Android SQLite db, and I have a table with messages in it. Each message has a ContactId. I need to get a list of the newest message associated with each ContactId.

My query looks like this so far:

SELECT * FROM messages GROUP_BY ContactId HAVING ( COUNT(ContactId) = 1 ) ORDER_BY MessageTime DESC

However when I run the query I get this exception:

near "ContactId": syntax error: , while compiling: SELECT * FROM messages GROUP_BY ContactId HAVING ( COUNT(ContactId) = 1 ) ORDER_BY MessageTime DESC

Here’s the table definition in case it helps:

create table messages (_id integer primary key autoincrement, ContactId text not null, ContactName text not null, ContactNumber text not null, isFrom int not null, Message text not null, MessageTime int not null);
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    NOTE: My answer below does not appear to be working as of SQLite 3.7.5, I suggest using the “JOIN” query suggested by Larry.

    You are close. What you need to do is sort all the records first, using a subquery table, and then group them. The values that are returned in the result set will be from the last row in each group. So you actually want newer messages to appear at the bottom if you are trying to get the newset message. The “GROUP BY” already ensures you get one row per ContactId.

    SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM messages ORDER BY MessageTime) GROUP BY ContactId

    The HAVING clause is not needed. I haven’t used it before but according to the docs the HAVING clause will discard whole groups that don’t match, but it doesn’t sound like you want any groups discarded, you want results from every ContactId.

    Also note there is no underscore in “ORDER BY” or “GROUP BY”.

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