Sorting before GROUP BY - not working - mysql

Question

I need to perform a sort before the GROUP BY clause, but MySQL does not want to cooperate.
SELECT `article`, `date`, `aip`
FROM `official_prices`
WHERE `article` = 2003
GROUP BY `article`
ORDER BY `date` ASC
The row that should be picked is the one with the earliest date (2013-07-15) but instead it picks the date that comes first in table order. Changing to DESC does no difference.
First image shows both rows, ungrouped. Second image is them being grouped.
This table is being joined to by a main query, so (I think) any solutions involving LIMIT 1 won't be useful to me.
Full query:
SELECT `articles`.*, `official_prices`.`aip`
FROM `articles`
LEFT JOIN `official_prices`
ON (`official_prices`.`article` = `articles`.`id`)
GROUP BY `articles`.`id`, `official_prices`.`article`
ORDER BY `official_prices`.`date` ASC, `articles`.`name`

Answer 1

You can't use group by and order like that. The order will only apply to the complete record set being returned and not in the group itself. This will work:
select o1.*
from official_prices o1
inner join
(
SELECT `article`, min(`date`) as mdate
from `official_prices`
WHERE `article` = 2003
GROUP BY `article`
) o2 on o1.article = o2.article and o1.date = o2.mdate

Answer 2

What you are trying to do is simply incorrect. The ordering before the group by does not have a (guaranteed) effect on the results.
My guess is that you want to get the most recent date and aip for that date. Here is a better approach:
SELECT `article`, max(`date`),
substring_index(group_concat(`aip` order by date desc), ',', 1) as lastAip
FROM `official_prices`
WHERE `article` = 2003
GROUP BY `article`;
The only downside is that the group_concat() will convert any value to a string. If it is some other type (and a string poses problems), then convert it back to the desired type.
Actually, an even better approach is to skip the group by entirely, because you are already filtering down to one article:
select article, `date`, aip
from official_prices
where article = 2003
order by `date` desc
limit 1;
The first approach works for multiple articles.
EDIT:
Your full query is:
SELECT `articles`.*, `official_prices`.`aip`
FROM `articles` LEFT JOIN
`official_prices`
ON `official_prices`.`article` = `articles`.`id`
GROUP BY `articles`.`id`, `official_prices`.`article`
ORDER BY `official_prices`.`date` ASC, `articles`.`name`;
You are looking for more than one article, so the second approach won't work. So, use the first:
SELECT `articles`.*,
substring_index(group_concat(`official_prices`.`aip` order by `official_prices`.`date` desc),
',', 1) as lastAIP
FROM `articles` LEFT JOIN
`official_prices`
ON `official_prices`.`article` = `articles`.`id`
GROUP BY `articles`.`id`, `official_prices`.`article`
ORDER BY `articles`.`name`;