Getting max record on varchar field - mysql

Question

I have this query
SELECT
s.account_number,
a.id AS 'ASPIRION ID',
a.patient_first_name,
a.patient_last_name,
s.admission_date,
s.total_charge,
astat.name AS 'STATUS',
astat.definition,
latest_note.content AS 'LAST NOTE',
a.insurance_company
FROM
accounts a
INNER JOIN
services s ON a.id = s.account_id
INNER JOIN
facilities f ON f.id = a.facility_id
INNER JOIN
account_statuses astat ON astat.id = a.account_status_id
INNER JOIN
(SELECT
account_id, MAX(content) content, MAX(created)
FROM
notes
GROUP BY account_id) latest_note ON latest_note.account_id = a.id
WHERE
a.facility_id = 56
My problem comes from
(SELECT
account_id, MAX(content) content, MAX(created)
FROM
notes
GROUP BY account_id)
Content is a varchar field and I am needed to get the most recent record. I now understand that MAX will not work on a varchar field the way that I want it. I am not sure how to be able to get the corresponding content with the MAX id and group that by account id on in this join.
What would be the best way to do this?
My notes table looks like this...
id account_id content created
1 1 This is a test 2011-03-16 02:06:40
2 1 More test 2012-03-16 02:06:40

Answer 1

Here are two choices. If your content is not very long and don't have funky characters, you can use the substring_index()/group_concat() trick:
(SELECT account_id,
SUBSTRING_INDEX(GROUP_CONCAT(content ORDER BY created desc SEPARATOR '|'
), 1, '|') as content
FROM notes
GROUP BY account_id
) latest_note
ON latest_note.account_id = a.id
Given the names of the columns and tables, that is likely not to work. Then you need an additional join or a correlated subquery in the from clause. I think that might be easiest in this case:
select . . .,
(select n.content
from notes n
where n.account_id = a.id
order by created desc
limit 1
) as latest_note
from . . .
The advantage to this method is that it only gets the notes for the rows you need. And, you don't need a left join to keep all the rows. For performance, you want an index on notes(account_id, created).

Answer 2

SELECT
s.account_number,
a.id AS 'ASPIRION ID',
a.patient_first_name,
a.patient_last_name,
s.admission_date,
s.total_charge,
astat.name AS 'STATUS',
astat.definition,
latest_note.content AS 'LAST NOTE',
a.insurance_company
FROM
accounts a
INNER JOIN services s ON a.id = s.account_id
INNER JOIN facilities f ON f.id = a.facility_id
INNER JOIN account_statuses astat ON astat.id = a.account_status_id
INNER JOIN
(SELECT account_id, MAX(created) mxcreated
FROM notes GROUP BY account_id) latest_note ON latest_note.account_id = a.id and
latest_note.mxcreated = --datetime column from any of the other tables being used
WHERE a.facility_id = 56
You have to join on the max(created) which would give the latest content.
Or you can change the query to
SELECT account_id, content, MAX(created) mxcreated
FROM notes GROUP BY account_id
as mysql allows you even if you don't include all non-aggregated columns in group by clause. However, unless you join on the max date you wouldn't get the correct results.

Answer 3

The last created record is the one for which does not exist a newer one. Hence:
SELECT
s.account_number,
a.id AS "ASPIRION ID",
a.patient_first_name,
a.patient_last_name,
s.admission_date,
s.total_charge,
astat.name AS "STATUS",
astat.definition,
latest_note.content AS "LAST NOTE",
a.insurance_company
FROM accounts a
INNER JOIN services s ON a.id = s.account_id
INNER JOIN facilities f ON f.id = a.facility_id
INNER JOIN account_statuses astat ON astat.id = a.account_status_id
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT account_id, content
FROM notes
WHERE NOT EXISTS
(
SELECT *
FROM notes newer
WHERE newer.account_id = notes.account_id
AND newer.created > notes.created
)
) latest_note ON latest_note.account_id = a.id
WHERE a.facility_id = 56;