How can I get the most recent date in SQL? - sql

Question

I want to make a SQL query that gets todays date and the most recent date from a date column. So if I have three records in my database that have the following dates:
March 8, 2012
March 2, 2012
December 8, 2011
I want the SQL query to return all records for March 8, 2012 and March 2, 2012 (most recent date). How can I do this?
I can date today's date using:
CONVERT( varchar(100), DATEADD( DAY, 0, getdate() ), 111)
Thank You
Edit:
Thanks everyone. I just have one more question. I have created two views:
create view with top dates
CREATE VIEW topDates AS
select DISTINCT TOP 3 replace(CONVERT(VARCHAR(20),date,111),'-','/') AS dates from CSAResults.dbo.Details
create view dateTwo
select *
from (select ROW_NUMBER() over (order by dates desc) as srNo, dates
from topDates)
AS employee
WHERE srNo=2
And now I want to select * from my DB where a column is equal to the 'dates' column from the view 'dateTwo'
select buildNumber
from CSAResults.dbo.Details
where buildNumber LIKE '%Main '+ (SELECT dates FROM dateTwo) + '%'
But this returns nothing.
Thanks

Answer 1

You can do the following:
select date
from yourtable
where
(
date = Convert(varchar(10), getdate(), 101)
OR
date IN (SELECT Max(date)
FROM yourtable
WHERE date!= Convert(varchar(10), getdate(), 101))
)

Answer 2

Here is an example script that does what you are asking. It uses a sub-query to select all records with MAX on the date. You would just add an OR to also select items for the current date.
DECLARE #A TABLE
(
part_no VARCHAR(5),
rev CHAR,
on_hand TINYINT,
safety_stock TINYINT,
so_no VARCHAR(5),
so_date DATETIME
)
INSERT #A
SELECT '12345', 'A', 10, 15, 'S1234', '12/14/2009' UNION ALL
SELECT '12345', 'A', 10, 15, 'S1233', '10/01/2009' UNION ALL
SELECT '12345', 'A', 10, 15, 'S1232', '08/02/2009' UNION ALL
SELECT '12346', '', 5, 0, 'S1231', '08/01/2009' UNION ALL
SELECT '12347', '-', 0, 0, 'S1230', '10/20/2009' UNION ALL
SELECT '12347', '-', 0, 0, 'S1229', '07/15/2009'
SELECT * FROM #A AS A
WHERE so_date =
(
SELECT MAX(so_date)
FROM #A AS B
WHERE B.part_no = A.part_no AND B.Rev = A.Rev
)

Answer 3

SELECT *
INTO #TEMP
FROM
(
SELECT GETDATE() DATE_FIELD, 'Blah1...' OTHER_FIELDS
UNION SELECT GETDATE() DATE_FIELD, 'Blah2...' OTHER_FIELDS
UNION SELECT DATEADD(d,-1,GETDATE()) DATE_FIELD, 'Blah3...' OTHER_FIELDS
UNION SELECT DATEADD(d,-1,GETDATE()) DATE_FIELD, 'Blah4...' OTHER_FIELDS
UNION SELECT DATEADD(d,-3,GETDATE()) DATE_FIELD, 'Blah5...' OTHER_FIELDS
) A
SELECT * FROM #TEMP
SELECT * FROM
(
SELECT DATE_FIELD, OTHER_FIELDS,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY DATE_FIELD DESC) _RANK
FROM #TEMP
) A
WHERE A._RANK < 3

Answer 4

For your second question:
select buildNumber
from CSAResults.dbo.Details
inner join dateTwo
on buildNumber LIKE '%Main '+ dateTwo.dates + '%'