using LIMIT or DISTINCT in a SELECT query

ejwf

I have a query which pulls all the information from a table based on a couple of variables.
However I know that in the table it is possible for there to be more than one record for a certain item and I want to select only one record for this item based on the most recent insertion - how do I do this?
at the moment I have

$sql = "SELECT * FROM tblResults WHERE DateRef = $DateId AND CRef = $ConcesRef ORDER BY LoadedWhen DESC";
$getInfo = mysql_query($sql);

this creates a list of the contents of tblResults sorted by date with the most recent at the top, but I have multiple rows for one or two items - how do I form the SELECT part of the query to say limit the 'box' column so that only one item ref for 'box' is listed and it is the most recently entered one.......

TIA

dalecosp

I'm no SQL expert, but try it as:

$sql = "SELECT * FROM tblResults WHERE DateRef = 
$DateId AND CRef = $ConcesRef 
ORDER BY LoadedWhen DESC LIMIT 1";

HTH,

ejwf

thanks for this, but unfortunately the LIMIT 1 causes the results to limit to one record only, I need to find a way of limiting the 'box' to one records only ....

dalecosp

Oh, I see ... you've tried UNIQUE?

Incidentally, you db experts ... I'm sorry, I dunno what in the world I'm doing over here. I think in almost 3 years and > 4000 posts I've NEVER posted in the db forum...

ejwf

thanks but no - this doesn't work either
I cannot work $result = array_unique into the code - wherever I try to put it I get a parse error.......