Problems with SQL Inner join - sql

Question

Having some problems while trying to optimize my SQL.
I got 2 tables like this:
Names
id, analyseid, name
Analyses
id, date, analyseid.
I want to get the newest analyse from Analyses (ordered by date) for every name (they are unique) in Names. I can't really see how to do this without using 2 x nested selects.
My try (Dont get confused about the names. It's the same principle):
SELECT
B.id,
B.chosendatetime,
vStockNames.name
FROM
vStockNames
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT TOP 1
vAnalysesHistory.id,
vAnalysesHistory.chosendatetime,
vAnalysesHistory.companyid
FROM
vAnalysesHistory
ORDER BY
vAnalysesHistory.chosendatetime DESC
) AS B
ON
B.companyid = vStockNames.stockid
In my example the problem is that i only get 1 row returned (because of top 1). But if I exclude this, I can get multiple analyses of the same name.
Can you help me ? - THanks in advance.

Answer 1

SQL Server 2000+:
SELECT (SELECT TOP 1
a.id
FROM vAnalysesHistory AS a
WHERE a.companyid = n.stockid
ORDER BY a.chosendatetime DESC) AS id,
n.name,
(SELECT TOP 1
a.chosendatetime
FROM vAnalysesHistory AS a
WHERE a.companyid = n.stockid
ORDER BY a.chosendatetime DESC) AS chosendatetime
FROM vStockNames AS n
SQL Server 2005+, using CTE:
WITH cte AS (
SELECT a.id,
a.date,
a.analyseid,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY a.analyseid
ORDER BY a.date DESC) AS rk
FROM ANALYSES a)
SELECT n.id,
n.name,
c.date
FROM NAMES n
JOIN cte c ON c.analyseid = n.analyseid
AND c.rk = 1
...without CTE:
SELECT n.id,
n.name,
c.date
FROM NAMES n
JOIN (SELECT a.id,
a.date,
a.analyseid,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY a.analyseid
ORDER BY a.date DESC) AS rk
FROM ANALYSES a) c ON c.analyseid = n.analyseid
AND c.rk = 1

Answer 2

You're only asking for the TOP 1, so that's all you're getting. If you want one per companyId, you need to specify that in the SELECT on vAnalysesHistory. Of course, JOINs must be constant and do not allow this. Fortunately, CROSS APPLY comes to the rescue in cases like this.
SELECT
B.id,
B.chosendatetime,
vStockNames.name
FROM
vStockNames
CROSS APPLY
(
SELECT TOP 1
vAnalysesHistory.id,
vAnalysesHistory.chosendatetime,
vAnalysesHistory.companyid
FROM
vAnalysesHistory
WHERE companyid = vStockNames.stockid
ORDER BY
vAnalysesHistory.chosendatetime DESC
) AS B
You could also use ROW_NUMBER() to do the same:
SELECT
B.id,
B.chosendatetime,
vStockNames.name
FROM
vStockNames
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT
vAnalysesHistory.id,
vAnalysesHistory.chosendatetime,
vAnalysesHistory.companyid,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY companyid ORDER BY chosendatetime DESC) AS row
FROM
vAnalysesHistory
) AS B
ON
B.companyid = vStockNames.stockid AND b.row = 1
Personally I'm a fan of the first approach. It will likely be faster and is easier to read IMO.

Answer 3

Will something like this work for you?
;with RankedAnalysesHistory as
(
SELECT
vah.id,
vah.chosendatetime,
vah.companyid
,rank() over (partition by vah.companyid order by vah.chosendatetime desc) rnk
FROM
vAnalysesHistory vah
)
SELECT
B.id,
B.chosendatetime,
vsn.name
FROM
vStockNames vsn
join RankedAnalysesHistory as rah on rah.companyid = vsn.stockid and vah.rnk = 1

Answer 4

It seems to me that you only need SQL-92 for this. Of course, explicit documentation of the joining columns between the tables would help.
Simple names
SELECT B.ID, C.ChosenDate, N.Name
FROM (SELECT A.AnalyseID, MAX(A.Date) AS ChosenDate
FROM Analyses AS A
GROUP BY A.AnalyseID) AS C
JOIN Analyses AS B ON C.AnalyseID = B.AnalyseID AND C.ChosenDate = B.Date
JOIN Names AS N ON N.AnalyseID = C.AnalyseID
The sub-select generates the latest analysis for each company; the join with Analyses picks up the Analyse.ID value corresponding to that latest analysis, and the join with Names picks up the company name. (The C.ChosenDate in the select-list could be replaced by B.Date AS ChosenDate, of course.)
Complicated names
SELECT B.ID, C.ChosenDateTime, N.Name
FROM (SELECT A.CompanyID, MAX(A.ChosenDateTime) AS ChosenDateTime
FROM vAnalysesHistory AS A
GROUP BY A.CompanyID) AS C
JOIN vAnalysesHistory AS B ON C.CompanyID = B.CompanyID
AND C.ChosenDateTime = B.ChosenDateTime
JOIN vStockNames AS N ON N.AnalyseID = C.AnalyseID
Same query with systematic renaming (and slightly different layout to avoid horizontal scrollbars).