GROUP BY having MAX date

Question

I have problem when executing this code:

SELECT * FROM tblpm n 
WHERE date_updated=(SELECT MAX(date_updated) 
FROM tblpm GROUP BY control_number 
HAVING cont         


        

Answer 1

There's no need to group in that subquery... a where clause would suffice:

SELECT * FROM tblpm n
WHERE date_updated=(SELECT MAX(date_updated)
    FROM tblpm WHERE control_number=n.control_number)

Also, do you have an index on the 'date_updated' column? That would certainly help.

Answer 2

Fast and easy with HAVING:

SELECT * FROM tblpm n 
FROM tblpm GROUP BY control_number 
HAVING date_updated=MAX(date_updated);

In the context of HAVING, MAX finds the max of each group. Only the latest entry in each group will satisfy date_updated=max(date_updated). If there's a tie for latest within a group, both will pass the HAVING filter, but GROUP BY means that only one will appear in the returned table.

Answer 3

Putting the subquery in the WHERE clause and restricting it to n.control_number means it runs the subquery many times. This is called a correlated subquery, and it's often a performance killer.

It's better to run the subquery once, in the FROM clause, to get the max date per control number.

SELECT n.* 
FROM tblpm n 
INNER JOIN (
  SELECT control_number, MAX(date_updated) AS date_updated
  FROM tblpm GROUP BY control_number
) AS max USING (control_number, date_updated);

Answer 4

Another way that doesn't use group by:

SELECT * FROM tblpm n 
  WHERE date_updated=(SELECT date_updated FROM tblpm n 
                        ORDER BY date_updated desc LIMIT 1)