Re: problem query ...

On Thursday 31 January 2002 17:02, Tom Lane wrote:
> John Taylor <postgres@jtresponse.co.uk> writes:
> > I want to return 1 row for each id, that contains the maximum update
> > value for that id, and the values for name and desc.
>
> There's no simple way to do that in standard SQL.  However you can do
> it easily with SELECT DISTINCT ON, if you don't mind using a nonstandard
> construct.  See the "weather report" example on the SELECT reference
> page.

That was it!
I did try distinct on before, but was trying to be too complicated, with group or subselects.
What I wanted is:

select distinct on (id)  id,name,descr from john order by id,update desc;

Thanks
JohnT