How Can I Select Rows with Max(Column Value), Partition by Another Column in Mysql?

I have a table of player performance:

CREATE TABLE TopTen (
  id INT UNSIGNED PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
  home INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  `datetime`DATETIME NOT NULL,
  player VARCHAR(6) NOT NULL,
  resource INT NOT NULL
);

What query will return the rows for each distinct home holding its maximum value of datetime? In other words, how can I filter by the maximum datetime (grouped by home) and still include other non-grouped, non-aggregate columns (such as player) in the result?

For this sample data:

INSERT INTO TopTen
  (id, home, `datetime`, player, resource)
VALUES
  (1, 10, '04/03/2009', 'john', 399),
  (2, 11, '04/03/2009', 'juliet', 244),
  (5, 12, '04/03/2009', 'borat', 555),
  (3, 10, '03/03/2009', 'john', 300),
  (4, 11, '03/03/2009', 'juliet', 200),
  (6, 12, '03/03/2009', 'borat', 500),
  (7, 13, '24/12/2008', 'borat', 600),
  (8, 13, '01/01/2009', 'borat', 700)
;

the result should be:

id home datetime player resource
1 10 04/03/2009 john 399
2 11 04/03/2009 juliet 244
5 12 04/03/2009 borat 555
8 13 01/01/2009 borat 700

I tried a subquery getting the maximum datetime for each home:

-- 1 ..by the MySQL manual: 

SELECT DISTINCT
  home,
  id,
  datetime AS dt,
  player,
  resource
FROM TopTen t1
WHERE `datetime` = (SELECT
  MAX(t2.datetime)
FROM TopTen t2
GROUP BY home)
GROUP BY `datetime`
ORDER BY `datetime` DESC

The result-set has 130 rows although database holds 187, indicating the result includes some duplicates of home.

Then I tried joining to a subquery that gets the maximum datetime for each row id:

-- 2 ..join

SELECT
  s1.id,
  s1.home,
  s1.datetime,
  s1.player,
  s1.resource
FROM TopTen s1
JOIN (SELECT
  id,
  MAX(`datetime`) AS dt
FROM TopTen
GROUP BY id) AS s2
  ON s1.id = s2.id
ORDER BY `datetime`

Nope. Gives all the records.

I tried various exotic queries, each with various results, but nothing that got me any closer to solving this problem.

0

22 Answers

You are so close! All you need to do is select BOTH the home and its max date time, then join back to the topten table on BOTH fields:

SELECT tt.*
FROM topten tt
INNER JOIN
    (SELECT home, MAX(datetime) AS MaxDateTime
    FROM topten
    GROUP BY home) groupedtt 
ON tt.home = groupedtt.home 
AND tt.datetime = groupedtt.MaxDateTime
19

The fastest MySQL solution, without inner queries and without GROUP BY:

SELECT m.*                    -- get the row that contains the max value
FROM topten m                 -- "m" from "max"
    LEFT JOIN topten b        -- "b" from "bigger"
        ON m.home = b.home    -- match "max" row with "bigger" row by `home`
        AND m.datetime < b.datetime           -- want "bigger" than "max"
WHERE b.datetime IS NULL      -- keep only if there is no bigger than max

Explanation:

Join the table with itself using the home column. The use of LEFT JOIN ensures all the rows from table m appear in the result set. Those that don't have a match in table b will have NULLs for the columns of b.

The other condition on the JOIN asks to match only the rows from b that have bigger value on the datetime column than the row from m.

Using the data posted in the question, the LEFT JOIN will produce this pairs:

+------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+
|              the row from `m`            |    the matching row from `b`   |
|------------------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| id  home  datetime     player   resource | id    home   datetime      ... |
|----|-----|------------|--------|---------|------|------|------------|-----|
| 1  | 10  | 04/03/2009 | john   | 399     | NULL | NULL | NULL       | ... | *
| 2  | 11  | 04/03/2009 | juliet | 244     | NULL | NULL | NULL       | ... | *
| 5  | 12  | 04/03/2009 | borat  | 555     | NULL | NULL | NULL       | ... | *
| 3  | 10  | 03/03/2009 | john   | 300     | 1    | 10   | 04/03/2009 | ... |
| 4  | 11  | 03/03/2009 | juliet | 200     | 2    | 11   | 04/03/2009 | ... |
| 6  | 12  | 03/03/2009 | borat  | 500     | 5    | 12   | 04/03/2009 | ... |
| 7  | 13  | 24/12/2008 | borat  | 600     | 8    | 13   | 01/01/2009 | ... |
| 8  | 13  | 01/01/2009 | borat  | 700     | NULL | NULL | NULL       | ... | *
+------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+

Finally, the WHERE clause keeps only the pairs that have NULLs in the columns of b (they are marked with * in the table above); this means, due to the second condition from the JOIN clause, the row selected from m has the biggest value in column datetime.

Read the SQL Antipatterns: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Database Programming book for other SQL tips.

7

Here goes T-SQL version:

-- Test data
DECLARE @TestTable TABLE (id INT, home INT, date DATETIME, 
  player VARCHAR(20), resource INT)
INSERT INTO @TestTable
SELECT 1, 10, '2009-03-04', 'john', 399 UNION
SELECT 2, 11, '2009-03-04', 'juliet', 244 UNION
SELECT 5, 12, '2009-03-04', 'borat', 555 UNION
SELECT 3, 10, '2009-03-03', 'john', 300 UNION
SELECT 4, 11, '2009-03-03', 'juliet', 200 UNION
SELECT 6, 12, '2009-03-03', 'borat', 500 UNION
SELECT 7, 13, '2008-12-24', 'borat', 600 UNION
SELECT 8, 13, '2009-01-01', 'borat', 700

-- Answer
SELECT id, home, date, player, resource 
FROM (SELECT id, home, date, player, resource, 
    RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY home ORDER BY date DESC) N
    FROM @TestTable
)M WHERE N = 1

-- and if you really want only home with max date
SELECT T.id, T.home, T.date, T.player, T.resource 
    FROM @TestTable T
INNER JOIN 
(   SELECT TI.id, TI.home, TI.date, 
        RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY TI.home ORDER BY TI.date) N
    FROM @TestTable TI
    WHERE TI.date IN (SELECT MAX(TM.date) FROM @TestTable TM)
)TJ ON TJ.N = 1 AND T.id = TJ.id

EDIT
Unfortunately, there are no RANK() OVER function in MySQL.
But it can be emulated, see Emulating Analytic (AKA Ranking) Functions with MySQL.
So this is MySQL version:

SELECT id, home, date, player, resource 
FROM TestTable AS t1 
WHERE 
    (SELECT COUNT(*) 
            FROM TestTable AS t2 
            WHERE t2.home = t1.home AND t2.date > t1.date
    ) = 0
2

This will work even if you have two or more rows for each home with equal DATETIME's:

SELECT id, home, datetime, player, resource
FROM   (
       SELECT (
              SELECT  id
              FROM    topten ti
              WHERE   ti.home = t1.home
              ORDER BY
                      ti.datetime DESC
              LIMIT 1
              ) lid
       FROM   (
              SELECT  DISTINCT home
              FROM    topten
              ) t1
       ) ro, topten t2
WHERE  t2.id = ro.lid
6

I think this will give you the desired result:

SELECT   home, MAX(datetime)
FROM     my_table
GROUP BY home

BUT if you need other columns as well, just make a join with the original table (check Michael La Voie answer)

Best regards.

2

Since people seem to keep running into this thread (comment date ranges from 1.5 year) isn't this much simpler:

SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM topten ORDER BY datetime DESC) tmp GROUP BY home

No aggregation functions needed...

Cheers.

4

You can also try this one and for large tables query performance will be better. It works when there no more than two records for each home and their dates are different. Better general MySQL query is one from Michael La Voie above.

SELECT t1.id, t1.home, t1.date, t1.player, t1.resource
FROM   t_scores_1 t1 
INNER JOIN t_scores_1 t2
   ON t1.home = t2.home
WHERE t1.date > t2.date

Or in case of Postgres or those dbs that provide analytic functions try

SELECT t.* FROM 
(SELECT t1.id, t1.home, t1.date, t1.player, t1.resource
  , row_number() over (partition by t1.home order by t1.date desc) rw
 FROM   topten t1 
 INNER JOIN topten t2
   ON t1.home = t2.home
 WHERE t1.date > t2.date 
) t
WHERE t.rw = 1
3
SELECT  tt.*
FROM    TestTable tt 
INNER JOIN 
        (
        SELECT  coord, MAX(datetime) AS MaxDateTime 
        FROM    rapsa 
        GROUP BY
                krd 
        ) groupedtt
ON      tt.coord = groupedtt.coord
        AND tt.datetime = groupedtt.MaxDateTime

This works on Oracle:

with table_max as(
  select id
       , home
       , datetime
       , player
       , resource
       , max(home) over (partition by home) maxhome
    from table  
)
select id
     , home
     , datetime
     , player
     , resource
  from table_max
 where home = maxhome
1

Try this for SQL Server:

WITH cte AS (
   SELECT home, MAX(year) AS year FROM Table1 GROUP BY home
)
SELECT * FROM Table1 a INNER JOIN cte ON a.home = cte.home AND a.year = cte.year
0
SELECT c1, c2, c3, c4, c5 FROM table1 WHERE c3 = (select max(c3) from table)

SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE c3 = (select max(c3) from table1)
0

Here is MySQL version which prints only one entry where there are duplicates MAX(datetime) in a group.

You could test here

Sample Data

mysql> SELECT * from topten;
+------+------+---------------------+--------+----------+
| id   | home | datetime            | player | resource |
+------+------+---------------------+--------+----------+
|    1 |   10 | 2009-04-03 00:00:00 | john   |      399 |
|    2 |   11 | 2009-04-03 00:00:00 | juliet |      244 |
|    3 |   10 | 2009-03-03 00:00:00 | john   |      300 |
|    4 |   11 | 2009-03-03 00:00:00 | juliet |      200 |
|    5 |   12 | 2009-04-03 00:00:00 | borat  |      555 |
|    6 |   12 | 2009-03-03 00:00:00 | borat  |      500 |
|    7 |   13 | 2008-12-24 00:00:00 | borat  |      600 |
|    8 |   13 | 2009-01-01 00:00:00 | borat  |      700 |
|    9 |   10 | 2009-04-03 00:00:00 | borat  |      700 |
|   10 |   11 | 2009-04-03 00:00:00 | borat  |      700 |
|   12 |   12 | 2009-04-03 00:00:00 | borat  |      700 |
+------+------+---------------------+--------+----------+
Chloe Bennett

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