[RESOLVED] Select latest date from database

[mrgrammar]

I have a database with a table of events. Each event has a date

fieldname = events_date
fieldtype = date
format = 0000-00-00

What is the MySQL query to select only the one record with the latest date?

[toplay]

One way:

SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY events_date DESC LIMIT 1

Another way:

SELECT MAX(events_date) FROM table_name

The second example being faster than the first.

hth.

EDIT:

I forgot that you want the whole row's data - in that case the second example won't work. If you need to retrieve more columns like, SELECT *, MAX(events_date) then it's required you have a GROUP BY as well. So, just go with the first example.

[mrgrammar]

Thanks! The first choice worked perfect.