[sql] Create a SQL query to retrieve most recent records

another way, this will scan the table only once instead of twice if you use a subquery

only sql server 2005 and up

select Date, User, Status, Notes 
from (
       select m.*, row_number() over (partition by user order by Date desc) as rn
       from [SOMETABLE] m
     ) m2
where m2.rn = 1;