Question

When grouping is there a simple way to get the first or top value out of a column. In the following example I want the last value in [Text] if sorted by [Date] descending.

SELECT 
   [Id],
   MAX([Date]),
   TOP 1 [Text],  <-- How do I do do this
   COUNT(*)
FROM
   [ExampleTable]
GROUP BY [Id]
ORDER BY [Date] DESC

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If you want the text corresponding to that [Id] & that [MaxDate], you can do this:

SELECT T2.*, T1.Text
FROM [ExampleTable] T1
     JOIN (SELECT 
               [Id],
               MAX([Date]) MaxDate,
               COUNT(*) Cnt
             FROM
               [ExampleTable]
         GROUP BY [Id]) T2
     ON T1.Id = T2.Id AND T1.Date = T2.MaxDate
ORDER BY [Date] DESC

if [Id] & [Date] form a primary key you will have a single row per (Id, Date) other wise many. If you really want one, either you put other constraints or use MAX or MIN::

SELECT T2.*, MAX(T1.Text) Text -- or MIN(T1.Text)
FROM [ExampleTable] T1
     JOIN (SELECT 
               [Id],
               MAX([Date]) MaxDate,
               COUNT(*) Cnt
             FROM
               [ExampleTable]
         GROUP BY [Id]) T2
     ON T1.Id = T2.Id AND T1.Date = T2.MaxDate
GROUP BY T2.*
ORDER BY [Date] DESC

If you want just a value for Text you can use MAX or MIN:

SELECT 
   [Id],
   MAX([Date]),
   MAX([Text]),
   COUNT(*)
FROM
   [ExampleTable]
GROUP BY [Id]
ORDER BY [Date] DESC