Can I do this kind of join operation with pure SQL?

Question

there are some data like this:

name                            number

12_PAGE19901_CHN.DISPLAY_NT     n.115
12_PAGE19901_CHN.DISPLAY_NT     n.114
KAITEST123.DISPLAY_NT           n.110
KAITEST123.DISPLAY_NT           n.109
KAITEST123.DISPLAY_NT           n.108
KAITEST123.DISPLAY_NT           n.107
KAITEST33333.DISPLAY_NT         n.105

I want retrieve some data like this:

 name                            number

12_PAGE19901_CHN.DISPLAY_NT     n.115
KAITEST123.DISPLAY_NT           n.110
KAITEST33333.DISPLAY_NT         n.105

I need the first value of number for each particular name, is this possible?

Answer 1

It appears that you just need the max value of number for each particular name .

SELECT
  name,
  MAX(number) AS number
FROM
  yourTable
GROUP BY
  name

Be aware that as number is an alpha-numeric field; n.09 is 'higher' than n.011 . To make this more numerically consistent , you would need n.009 instead of n.09 .

(As I don't know the behaviour of your number field, this is just a general note, not about your example data.)

Answer 2

If you want the max for number and group by name , try this.

select name, max(number) as number 
from TABLE
group by name

Answer 3

SELECT name, 
       'n.' + Cast(Max(Cast(Substring([number], 3, Len([number]) - 2) AS INT)) 
                   AS 
                   VARCHAR(10)) 
FROM   table 
GROUP  BY name