Select most recent record in query

[Janus9217]

I have two tables, a personnel table and a qualification table. An
individuals qualifies multiple times per year so has multiple qualification
records from different dates.

How do I perform a query that only pulls up the most recent qualification
record for an individual?

 

[Dodo]

How do I perform a query that only pulls up the most recent
qualification record for an individual?

Sort on one or the other and take top1?
(Visble in query design.)

 

[peregenem]

Sort on one or the other and take top1?

The aggregate MAX is the usual way e.g.

SELECT employee_ID, MAX(qualification_date)
FROM Skills
GROUP BY employee_ID;

TOP N is proprietary, horribly non-relational, gives incorrect results,
etc. MAX is in the SQL Standards.

 

[Dodo]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

TOP N is proprietary, horribly non-relational, gives incorrect results,
etc. MAX is in the SQL Standards.

It's a choice!

 

[peregenem]

It's a choice!

Good moaning,
I can see that TOP N may be justifiable when N > 1 because you must
learn a set-based mindset to write the equivalent standard SQL code and
not everyone wants to take that road. Yes, TOP 1 is a choice but as an
alternative to MIN or MAX it may be a daft one