MAX(DATE) - SQL ORACLE

Question

I want to select only the latest membership_id from table user_payments of the user with the user_id equal to 1.

This is how the table user_payment looks like:

Answer 1

Oracle 9i+ (maybe 8i too) has FIRST/LAST aggregate functions, that make computation over groups of rows according to row's rank in group. Assuming all rows as one group, you'll get what you want without subqueries:

SELECT
  max(MEMBSHIP_ID)
  keep (
      dense_rank first
      order by paym_date desc NULLS LAST
  ) as LATEST_MEMBER_ID
FROM user_payment
WHERE user_id=1