How to join only one row in joined table with postgres?

Question

I have the following schema:

CREATE TABLE author (
    id   integer
  , name varchar(255)
);
CREATE TABLE book (
    id        integer
  , author_id integer
  ,          


        

Answer 1

As a slight variation on @wildplasser's suggestion, which still works across implementations, you can use max rather than not exists. This reads better if you like short joins better than long where clauses

select * 
  from author au
  join (
    select max(id) as max_id, author_id
      from book bk
     group by author_id) as lb 
    on lb.author_id = au.id
  join bk 
    on bk.id = lb.max_id;

or, to give a name to the subquery, which clarifies things, go with WITH

with last_book as 
   (select max(id) as max_id, author_id
      from book bk
     group by author_id)

select * 
  from author au
  join last_book lb
    on au.id = lb.author_id
  join bk 
    on bk.id = lb.max_id;