select only one row that has the highest count in sql - sql

Question

I need to select one row only which has the highest count. How do I do that?
This is my current code:
select firstname, lastname, count(*) as total
from trans
join work
on trans.workid = work.workid
join artist
on work.artistid = artist.artistid
where datesold is not null
group by firstname, lastname;
Example current:
FIRSTNAME | LASTNAME | TOTAL
------------------------------
Tom | Cruise | 3
Angelina | Jolie | 9
Britney | Spears | 5
Ellie | Goulding | 4
I need it to select only this:
FIRSTNAME | LASTNAME | TOTAL
--------------------------------
Angelina | Jolie | 9

Answer 1

You can add order by total desc and fetch first 1 row only (since Oracle 12c r1 only, otherwise you should use your result as temp table and select from it to use rownum = 1 limitation in the where clause) , in case you total can't be the same for different groups. The other way is to add this having clause, so you can list all people with maximum total:
having count(*) = (select max(total) from (select count(*) as total from <your_query>) tmp)
or that:
having count(*) = (select count(*) as total from <your_query> order by total desc fetch first 1 row only)

Answer 2

In Oracle 12, you can do:
select firstname, lastname, count(*) as total
from trans join
work
on trans.workid = work.workid join
artist
on work.artistid = artist.artistid
where datesold is not null
group by firstname, lastname
order by count(*) desc
fetch first 1 row only;
In older versions, you can do this with a subquery:
select twa.*
from (select firstname, lastname, count(*) as total
from trans join
work
on trans.workid = work.workid join
artist
on work.artistid = artist.artistid
where datesold is not null
group by firstname, lastname
order by count(*) desc
) twa
where rownum = 1;

Answer 3

this will work sql server 2012..
with CTECount (firstname, lastname,total)
as
(
select firstname, lastname, count(1) as total
from trans
join work
on trans.workid = work.workid
join artist
on work.artistid = artist.artistid
where datesold is not null
group by firstname, lastname
)
select top(1) with ties from CTECount
order by total desc
Thanks

Answer 4

You could do like this, very simple:
select TOP 1 firstname, lastname, count(*) as total from trans
join work on trans.workid=work.workid
join artist on work.artistid=artist.artistid
where datesold is not null
group by firstname, lastname
Order By Total DESC;