In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, James Keeline <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >--- Emily Berk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Let's say I have a set of records and I want to retrieve the first and the >> last (ordered by, say, the value of one of the columns). >> >> Is there >> >> To get either the first or the last, I'm assuming I would >> >> Select * order by columnX ASC LIMIT 1 >> >> and to get the last I'd order descending. >> >> But how would I get both the first and the last in one query? >> >> Emily Berk >> http://www.armadillosoft.com > >You could UNION the two queries: > >SELECT * ORDER BY columnX ASC LIMIT 1 >UNION >SELECT * ORDER BY columnX DESC LIMIT 1; > >James Keeline
I tried this, because I have something similar that I need - "show me the next and previous record WHERE... " But I can't get your example to work, I get the error message "Incorrect usage of UNION and ORDER BY" The full SQL command that I am using is SELECT * from sales ORDER BY salID ASC LIMIT 1 UNION SELECT * from sales ORDER BY salID DESC LIMIT 1; Have I done something silly? -- Pete Clark
