get the latest records - sql

Question

I am currently still on my SQL educational journey and need some help!
The query I have is as below;
SELECT
Audit_Non_Conformance_Records.kf_ID_Client_Reference_Number,
Audit_Non_Conformance_Records.TimeStamp_Creation,
Audit_Non_Conformance_Records.Clause,
Audit_Non_Conformance_Records.NC_type,
Audit_Non_Conformance_Records.NC_Rect_Received,
Audit_Non_Conformance_Records.Audit_Num
FROM Audit_Non_Conformance_Records
I am trying to tweak this to show only the most recent results based on Audit_Non_Conformance_Records.TimeStamp_Creation
I have tried using MAX() but all this does is shows the latest date for all records.
basically the results of the above give me this;
But I only need the result with the date 02/10/2019 as this is the latest result. There may be multiple results however. So for example if 02/10/2019 had never happened I would need all of the idividual recirds from the 14/10/2019 ones.
Does that make any sense at all?

Answer 1

You can filter with a subquery:
SELECT
kf_ID_Client_Reference_Number,
TimeStamp_Creation,
Clause,
NC_type,
NC_Rect_Received,
Audit_Num
FROM Audit_Non_Conformance_Records a
where TimeStamp_Creation = (
select max(TimeStamp_Creation)
from Audit_Non_Conformance_Records
)
This will give you all whose TimeStamp_Creation is equal to the greater value available in the table.
If you want all records that have the greatest day (exluding time), then you can do:
SELECT
kf_ID_Client_Reference_Number,
TimeStamp_Creation,
Clause,
NC_type,
NC_Rect_Received,
Audit_Num
FROM Audit_Non_Conformance_Records a
where cast(TimeStamp_Creation as date) = (
select cast(max(TimeStamp_Creation) as date)
from Audit_Non_Conformance_Records
)
Edit
If you want the latest record per refNumber, then you can correlate the subquery, like so:
SELECT
kf_ID_Client_Reference_Number,
TimeStamp_Creation,
Clause,
NC_type,
NC_Rect_Received,
Audit_Num
FROM Audit_Non_Conformance_Records a
where TimeStamp_Creation = (
select max(TimeStamp_Creation)
from Audit_Non_Conformance_Records a1
where a1.refNumber = a.refNumber
)
For performance, you want an index on (refNumber, TimeStamp_Creation).

Answer 2

If you want the latest date in SQL Server, you can express this as:
SELECT TOP (1) WITH TIES ancr.kf_ID_Client_Reference_Number,
ancr.TimeStamp_Creation,
ancr.Clause,
ancr.NC_type,
ancr.NC_Rect_Received,
ancr.Audit_Num
FROM Audit_Non_Conformance_Records ancr
ORDER BY CONVERT(date, ancr.TimeStamp_Creation) DESC;
SQL Server is pretty good about handling dates with conversions, so I would not be surprised if this used an index on TimeStamp_Creation.