> Richard, that is the result i would need given that > data set. i have to digest this version, though. > > should this query be more efficient than the subquery > version as the table starts to get large?
My experience is that Distinct On queries do not preform as well as their group by counter parts. I believe that others have also commented to the same effect. To speed the query you could apply indexes on the group by fields and the join columns. Also, I produced a second query using PostgreSQL: select a.id_i, a.ir_id, a.test, a.stamp from test a join ( select max(stamp) as mstamp, id_i from test group by id_i ) b on a.stamp = b.mstamp where a.test = false ; -- result id_i | ir_id | test | stamp ------+-------+------+--------------------- 4 | 8 | f | 2006-06-05 08:00:00 ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq