Select the Latest Message Between the communication of two user in mysql

Question

I have a simple table maintaining messages between users. The table structure looks like

     sender    receiver   message   sendtime
      1          2          m1      2012-01-01 12:12:12  
      2          1          m2      2012-01-01 12:50:20
      1          2          m3      2012-01-01 12:55:55
      1          3          m4      2012-01-02 05:05:05
      1          4          m5      2012-01-05 05:20:20
      4          1          m6      2012-01-06 06:05:00
      4          1          m7      2012-01-07 11:11:11
      2          4          m8      2012-01-08 05:01:01

Now, for the user with ID 1, I need the result like this

    sender     receiver   message   sendtime
     1           2          m3      2012-01-01 12:55:55
     1           3          m4      2012-01-02 05:05:05
     4           1          m7      2012-01-07 11:11:11

That is I need the recent messages for the particular user whether he is sender or receiver.

Though, it seem easy, I cannot find a way to write a single mysql query.

Also, I want suggestion if for this kind of solution, my table design is poor.

Note: One thing, which I think I should mention is, for instance there are multiple communication between user 1 and user 2. I need the latest communication between them two whether user 1 is a sender or receiver, only the recent.

Most users are suggesting the query, that will bring one record with the sender 1, receiver 2 and then sender 2, receiver 1. I don't need these two record because this is a communication between same user 1 and user 2. I need one the latest one for the user specified with each of other users.

Thanks,

Answer 1

SELECT data.* FROM 
(SELECT MAX(sendtime) AS sendtime 
         FROM data 
         WHERE 1 IN (sender,receiver)
         GROUP BY IF (1 = sender,receiver,sender)) AS latest
LEFT JOIN data ON latest.sendtime = data.sendtime AND 1 IN (data.sender, data.receiver)
GROUP BY IF (1 = data.sender,data.receiver,data.sender)

I recommend to use unique sequence id in your table to avoid external GROUP BY. If you have incrementing unique message_id (i.e. bigger message_id corresponds to later sendtime), the query would be much simpler:

SELECT data.* FROM 
(SELECT MAX(message_id) AS message_id 
         FROM data 
         WHERE 1 IN (sender,receiver)
         GROUP BY IF (1 = sender,receiver,sender)) AS latest
LEFT JOIN data USING(message_id)