Yet another TOP Question

  • Ive a table I'd like to get the last entry from if the field contains data, is this possible with TOP

    field1 field2 field3

    john George Fred

    Alice Joan

    I'd like to do say select top on field2 and get George, but if I do select top on field3 I'd get Joan, is this possible?

  • 1) keep in mind there is no order in a table's rows.

    If you want results handled in a certain order, you should use an order by clause in your query.

    2) a top-clause works at row-level. It will return the top N rows and stop further processing of the resultset.

    So I don't think top will solve your question. Maybe some kind of max function can help out.

    Johan

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  • so could I not put a id field in and do something like select top from feild2 where field2 is not null order by id?

  • Yes you can, but will it give you the result you expect ?

    select top 1 field2

    from yourtable

    where field2 is not null

    order by id -- if id is deterministice in the way you want in this case

    It all depends on how strict you apply the concept of keys or surrogate keys and thier relation to a point time.

    If you have a column "datetimecreated", maybe that might serve you better.

    Johan

    Learn to play, play to learn !

    Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
    but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

    - How to post Performance Problems
    - How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

    - How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

    press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

    Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

    Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

  • many thanks, I'll give it a try. And thanks for getting back to me so quick

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