Finding Top Date in MySQL

[mikjall]

I am working on an attendance project using MySQL. I am trying to pull data from an attendance table but I need only the latest date that the student has attended. So far I have the following SQL code:

SELECT StudentID, FirstName, LastName, ClassDate
FROM Students INNER JOIN Attendance USING (StudentID)
GROUP BY StudentID, ClassDate
ORDER BY StudentID, ClassDate

Which returns:

StudentID   FirstName      LastName     ClassDate  
4           Student        One          2008-04-16 
5           Student        Two          2008-04-30 
5           Student        Two          2008-05-04 
6           Student        Three        2008-05-04 
6           Student        Three        2008-05-05 
7           Student        Four         2008-04-30 
7           Student        Four         2008-05-02 
7           Student        Four         2008-05-04 
7           Student        Four         2008-05-09

Which I would like the following returned:

StudentID   FirstName      LastName     ClassDate  
4           Student        One          2008-04-16 
5           Student        Two          2008-05-04 
6           Student        Three        2008-05-05 
7           Student        Four         2008-05-09

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

[skhanal]

SELECT StudentID, FirstName, LastName, max(ClassDate)
FROM Students INNER JOIN Attendance USING (StudentID)
GROUP BY StudentID, FirstName, LastName
ORDER BY StudentID, FirstName, LastName

[Island1]

I agree with the use of MAX() here to obtain the most recent date ...

Good Luck.

Bill