SQL Server select distinct latest values

Question

I have a table that has a ton of rows (>10K). Most of the rows have duplicate role values associated with the username.

What I am tryi

Answer 1

The max query didn't work because you included request_id in the grouping - try:

select distinct uname, role, max(request_id) as request_id 
from das_table where uname='jsmith'
group by uname, role

SQLFiddle here.

Answer 2

It seems like ISNULL would solve your problem, I use 1 here for simplicity but you could use -1 if that makes more sense for your usage.

MAX(ISNULL(request_id, 1))