[sql] Select info from table where row has max date

My table looks something like this:

group    date      cash  checks
  1    1/1/2013     0      0
  2    1/1/2013     0      800
  1    1/3/2013     0      700
  3    1/1/2013     0      600
  1    1/2/2013     0      400
  3    1/5/2013     0      200

-- Do not need cash just demonstrating that table has more information in it

I want to get the each unique group where date is max and checks is greater than 0. So the return would look something like:

group    date     checks
  2    1/1/2013    800
  1    1/3/2013    700
  3    1/5/2013    200

attempted code:

SELECT group,MAX(date),checks
    FROM table
    WHERE checks>0
    GROUP BY group
    ORDER BY group DESC

problem with that though is it gives me all the dates and checks rather than just the max date row.

using ms sql server 2005

You can use a window MAX() like this:

SELECT
  *, 
  max_date = MAX(date) OVER (PARTITION BY group)
FROM table

to get max dates per group alongside other data:

group  date      cash  checks  max_date
-----  --------  ----  ------  --------
1      1/1/2013  0     0       1/3/2013
2      1/1/2013  0     800     1/1/2013
1      1/3/2013  0     700     1/3/2013
3      1/1/2013  0     600     1/5/2013
1      1/2/2013  0     400     1/3/2013
3      1/5/2013  0     200     1/5/2013

Using the above output as a derived table, you can then get only rows where date matches max_date:

SELECT
  group,
  date,
  checks
FROM (
  SELECT
    *, 
    max_date = MAX(date) OVER (PARTITION BY group)
  FROM table
) AS s
WHERE date = max_date
;

to get the desired result.

Basically, this is similar to @Twelfth's suggestion but avoids a join and may thus be more efficient.

You can try the method at SQL Fiddle.

SELECT group, date, checks
  FROM table 
  WHERE checks > 0
  GROUP BY group HAVING date = max(date) 

should work.

Using an in can have a performance impact. Joining two subqueries will not have the same performance impact and can be accomplished like this:

SELECT *
  FROM (SELECT msisdn
              ,callid
              ,Change_color
              ,play_file_name
              ,date_played
          FROM insert_log
         WHERE play_file_name NOT IN('Prompt1','Conclusion_Prompt_1','silent')
        ORDER BY callid ASC) t1
       JOIN (SELECT MAX(date_played) AS date_played
               FROM insert_log GROUP BY callid) t2
         ON t1.date_played = t2.date_played

SELECT distinct
  group, 
  max_date = MAX(date) OVER (PARTITION BY group), checks
FROM table

Should work.