SQL get column value associated with max()

Question

I have the following table

ID     Version         
---    ----------    
123      1           
124      2           
125      3           
126      4           
127      5           
128      6    

Now I need to get ID value where version# is maximum

What I can do is

select ID from tbl where version = (select max(version) from tbl)

I don't want to use this since i need to use this part in a join inside another query and i don't want to complicate things further.

Answer 1

You can use select FIRST() :

SELECT FIRST(id) FROM tbl ORDER BY Version DESC

Or limit the number results using LIMIT 1 option:

SELECT id FROM tbl ORDER BY Version DESC LIMIT 1

Answer 2

You mentioned you need this in a join, so something like this should do it

select *
from table_1 as t1
  join (
      select id, 
             row_number() over (order by version desc) as rn
      from table_2
  ) as t2 on t1.id = t2.id and t2.rn = 1

(This is ANSI SQL as you didn't mention a DBMS - but should work on most modern DBMS)