SQL query - Join that returns the first two records of joining table

Question

I have two tables:

Patient

• pkPatientId
• FirstName
• Surname

PatientStatus

• pk

Answer 1

EDIT: Both of the following solutions require that PatientStatus.StartDate is unique within each patient.

The traditional way (SQL Server 2000 compatible):

SELECT 
  p.pkPatientId,
  p.FirstName,
  p.Surname,
  ps.StatusCode,
  ps.StartDate,
  ps.EndDate
FROM 
  Patient p 
  INNER JOIN PatientStatus ps ON 
    p.pkPatientId = ps.fkPatientId
    AND ps.StartDate IN (
      SELECT TOP 2 StartDate 
      FROM     PatientStatus 
      WHERE    fkPatientId = ps.fkPatientId
      ORDER BY StartDate  /* DESC (to switch between first/last records) */
    )
WHERE 
  EXISTS (
    SELECT   1 
    FROM     PatientStatus
    WHERE    fkPatientId = p.pkPatientId
    GROUP BY fkPatientId
    HAVING   COUNT(*) >= 2
  )
ORDER BY 
  ps.fkPatientId, 
  ps.StartDate

A more interesting alternative (you'd have to try how well it performs in comparison):

SELECT 
  p.pkPatientId,
  p.FirstName,
  p.Surname,
  ps.StatusCode,
  ps.StartDate,
  ps.EndDate
FROM 
  Patient p 
  INNER JOIN PatientStatus ps ON p.pkPatientId = ps.fkPatientId
WHERE
  /* the "2" is the maximum number of rows returned */
  2 > (
    SELECT 
      COUNT(*)
    FROM 
      Patient p_i 
      INNER JOIN PatientStatus ps_i ON p_i.pkPatientId = ps_i.fkPatientId
    WHERE
      ps_i.fkPatientId = ps.fkPatientId
      AND ps_i.StartDate < ps.StartDate
      /* switch between "<" and ">" to get the first/last rows */
  )
  AND EXISTS (
    SELECT   1 
    FROM     PatientStatus
    WHERE    fkPatientId = p.pkPatientId
    GROUP BY fkPatientId
    HAVING   COUNT(*) >= 2
  )
ORDER BY 
  ps.fkPatientId, 
  ps.StartDate

Side note: For MySQL the latter query might be the only alternative - until LIMIT is supported in sub-queries.

EDIT: I added a condition that excludes patients with only one PatientStatus record. (Thanks for the tip, Ryan!)