SQL Server Query using GROUP BY - sql

Question

I am having trouble writing a query that will select all Skills, joining the Employee and Competency records, but only return one skill per employee, their newest Skill. Using this sample dataset
Skills
======
id employee_id competency_id created
1 1 1 Jan 1
2 2 2 Jan 1
3 1 2 Jan 3
Employees
===========
id first_name last_name
1 Mike Jones
2 Steve Smith
Competencies
============
id title
1 Problem Solving
2 Compassion
I would like to retrieve the following data
Skill.id Skill.employee_id Skill.competency_id Skill.created Employee.id Employee.first_name Employee.last_name Competency.id Competency.title
2 2 2 Jan 1 2 Steve Smith 2 Compassion
3 1 2 Jan 3 1 Mike Jones 2 Compassion
I was able to select the employee_id and max created using
SELECT MAX(created) as created, employee_id FROM skills GROUP BY employee_id
But when I start to add more fields in the select statement or add in a join I get the 'Column 'xyz' is invalid in the select list because it is not contained in either an aggregate function or the GROUP BY clause.' error.
Any help is appreciated and I don't have to use GROUP BY, it's just what I'm familiar with.

Answer 1

The error that you were getting is because SQL Server requires any item in the SELECT list to be included in the GROUP BY if there is an aggregate function being used.
The problem with that is you might have unique values in some columns which can throw off the result. So you will want to rewrite the query to use one of the following:
You can use a subquery to get this result. This gets the max(created) in a subquery and then you use that result to get the correct employee record:
select s.id SkillId,
s.employee_id,
s.competency_id,
s.created,
e.id employee,
e.first_name,
e.last_name,
c.id competency,
c.title
from Employees e
left join Skills s
on e.id = s.employee_id
inner join
(
SELECT MAX(created) as created, employee_id
FROM skills
GROUP BY employee_id
) s1
on s.employee_id = s1.employee_id
and s.created = s1.created
left join Competencies c
on s.competency_id = c.id
See SQL Fiddle with Demo
Or another way to do this is to use row_number():
select *
from
(
select s.id SkillId,
s.employee_id,
s.competency_id,
s.created,
e.id employee,
e.first_name,
e.last_name,
c.id competency,
c.title,
row_number() over(partition by s.employee_id
order by s.created desc) rn
from Employees e
left join Skills s
on e.id = s.employee_id
left join Competencies c
on s.competency_id = c.id
) src
where rn = 1
See SQL Fiddle with Demo

Answer 2

For every non-aggregated column you add to your SELECT statement you need to update your GROUP BY to include it.
This article may help you understand why.

Answer 3

;WITH
MAX_SKILL_created AS
(
SELECT
MAX(skills.created) as created,
skills.employee_id
FROM
skills
GROUP BY
skills.employee_id
),
MAX_SKILL_id AS
(
SELECT
MAX(skills.id) as id,
skills.employee_id
FROM
skills
INNER JOIN MAX_SKILL_created
ON MAX_SKILL_created.employee_id = skills.employee_id
AND MAX_SKILL_created.created = skills.created
GROUP BY
skills.employee_id
)
SELECT
* -- type all your columns here
FROM
employees
INNER JOIN MAX_SKILL_id
ON MAX_SKILL_id.employee_id = employees.employee_id
INNER JOIN skills
ON skills.id = MAX_SKILL_id.id
INNER JOIN competencies
ON competencies.id = skills.competency_id

Answer 4

If you are using SQL Server than you can use OUTER APPLY
SELECT *
FROM employees E
OUTER APPLY (
SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM skills
WHERE employee_id = E.id
ORDER BY created DESC
) S
INNER JOIN competencies C
ON C.id = S.competency_id