Getting latest entry from multiple groups in Mysql - mysql

Question

Apologies if the question title is not clear. Don't really know how to phrase the following in one line.
I hope I mange to explain what I want to achieve. This is wrecking me head.
Currently I have a table which keeps a record for the training status of employees for different projects. Structure is like this:
--------------------------------------------------------------
|id|timestamp |employee |project |status |
--------------------------------------------------------------
|1 |2015-10-01 00:00:00 | john doe | project_1 | In Training |
|2 |2015-10-04 00:00:00 | jane doe | project_1 | In Training |
|3 |2015-11-01 00:00:00 | john doe | project_1 | Live |
|4 |2015-10-08 00:00:00 | john doe | project_2 | In Training |
|5 |2015-11-01 00:00:00 | jane doe | project_2 | In Training |
|6 |2015-11-09 00:00:00 | jane doe | project_3 | Live |
Now management requested a table / view which gives an overview about the latest status per employee. So I'm looking for a query which returns this:
-----------------------------------------------------
| employee | project_1 | project_2 | project_3 |
-----------------------------------------------------
| John Doe | Live | In Training | |
| Jane Doe | In Training | In Training | Live |
So the query should look for the latest entry per employee and project and return the status of that project.
Is there any way this is doable?

Answer 1

Well, you're conflating 2 problems into 1. The first problem is how to get the latest status per employee per project. The second is how to show the data in columns. The first problem is more interesting, so that's the one I'll answer.
SELECT DISTINCT x.employee
, y.project
, z.timestamp
, z.status
FROM my_table x
JOIN my_table y
LEFT
JOIN
( SELECT a.*
FROM my_table a
JOIN
( SELECT employee
, project
, MAX(timestamp) max_timestamp
FROM my_table
GROUP
BY employee
, project
) b
ON b.employee = a.employee
AND b.project = a.project
AND b.max_timestamp = a.timestamp
) z
ON z.employee = x.employee
AND z.project = y.project;