Getting the last record in SQL in WHERE condition

Question

i have loanTable that contain two field loan_id and status

loan_id status
==============
1       0
2       9
1       6
5       3
4       5
1       4  <-- How do I select this??
4       6

In this Situation i need to show the last Status of loan_id 1 i.e is status 4. Can please help me in this query.

Answer 1

Since the 'last' row for ID 1 is neither the minimum nor the maximum, you are living in a state of mild confusion. Rows in a table have no order. So, you should be providing another column, possibly the date/time when each row is inserted, to provide the sequencing of the data. Another option could be a separate, automatically incremented column which records the sequence in which the rows are inserted. Then the query can be written.

If the extra column is called status_id, then you could write:

SELECT L1.*
  FROM LoanTable AS L1
 WHERE L1.Status_ID = (SELECT MAX(Status_ID)
                         FROM LoanTable AS L2
                        WHERE L2.Loan_ID = 1);

(The table aliases L1 and L2 could be omitted without confusing the DBMS or experienced SQL programmers.)

As it stands, there is no reliable way of knowing which is the last row, so your query is unanswerable.

Answer 2

Does your table happen to have a primary id or a timestamp? If not then what you want is not really possible.

If yes then:

    SELECT TOP 1 status
    FROM loanTable
    WHERE loan_id = 1
    ORDER BY primaryId DESC
    -- or
    -- ORDER BY yourTimestamp DESC