Selecting Max with Lots of Other Items - sql-server

Question

Sorry for the poor title. I wasn't sure how to describe my problem. I've written a query that returns about 23,000 records. A lot of those records have similar information and I want to only select the records with the maximum of the field dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldBuddyLinkSigStrength. I've tried grouping by all of the other columns being selected, but it doesn't appear to work correctly. I don't fully understand SQL, especially the max and group functions. I can do simple max functions when I only want or need to select one thing. I don't understand how it works when I want to select a bunch of other data. Below is the query.
SELECT
dbo.tblmeterinfo.fldMeterSerialNumber AS "MOP_FNP_Meter",
dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldRBuddyId AS "MOP_FNP_FNID",
dbo.TBLMETERMAINT.fldmeterid AS "Meter_ID_Helped",
dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldCBuddyId AS "FNID_Helped",
dbo.fn_dt(dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldRBuddyToi) AS "TOI",
dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldBuddyLinkSigStrength AS "Sig_Str",
dbo.TBLSAWN_CIS_INFO.SML AS "Buddy_SML",
dbo.TBLMETERLIST.fldaddress AS "Buddy_Address",
dbo.TBLSAWNGISCOORD.X_COORD AS "X_Coord",
dbo.TBLSAWNGISCOORD.Y_COORD AS "Y_Coord"
FROM dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.TBLMETERLIST
ON (dbo.TBLMETERLIST.FLDREPID = dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldCBuddyId)
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.TBLMETERMAINT
ON (dbo.TBLMETERMAINT.FLDREPID = dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldCBuddyID)
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.TBLSAWN_CIS_INFO
ON (dbo.TBLSAWN_CIS_INFO.FLDREPID = dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldCBuddyId)
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.TBLSAWNGISCOORD
ON (dbo.TBLSAWNGISCOORD.SRV_MAP_LOC = dbo.TBLSAWN_CIS_INFO.SML)
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.tblmeterinfo
ON (dbo.tblmeterinfo.fldRepId = dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldRBuddyId)
WHERE dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldRBuddyId IN (SELECT
dbo.tblSAWN_FNPmap.Repid
FROM dbo.tblSAWN_FNPmap)
AND dbo.TBLMETERMAINT.fldmeterid IS NOT NULL
The query below is simple and does what I want, but doesn't get all of the other field. This query only returns 617 records. I would like the above query to return 617 records, but include all of the other information I've selected.
SELECT
dbo.TBLMETERMAINT.fldmeterid AS "Meter_ID_Helped",
MAX(dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldBuddyLinkSigStrength) AS "Max_Sig"
FROM dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.TBLMETERMAINT
ON (dbo.TBLMETERMAINT.FLDREPID = dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldCBuddyID)
WHERE dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldRBuddyId IN (SELECT
dbo.tblSAWN_FNPmap.Repid
FROM dbo.tblSAWN_FNPmap)
AND dbo.TBLMETERMAINT.fldmeterid IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY dbo.TBLMETERMAINT.fldmeterid

Answer 1

Probably row_number() to the rescue. You can use it to find the best records in a set, with a grouping by some subset or other. Something like
select *
from ....
where row_number over (partition by id order by fldBuddyLinkSigStrength) = 1
So SQL Server assigns a row number within the groups. Each record will be sub-grouped by id, in this case, and given 1 if it's the best strength, 2 if it's next, etc.

Answer 2

If you are getting duplicates have you tried using SELECT DISTINCT?
Basically how Max works is that it will select the highest value in the group.
So if you have a table:
ID | VALUE
1 | 10
1 | 7
1 | 9
2 | 6
2 | 8
And do
SELECT ID, MAX(VALUE)
FROM TABLE
GROUP BY ID
You'll get the max value per ID
ID | VALUE
1 | 10
2 | 8
If you want to get the Max while not grouping the result then you can do the group in a subselect
SELECT ID, VALUE, MAX_VALUE etc etc
FROM TABLE
JOIN ( SELECT ID, MAX(VALUE) AS MAX_VALUE FROM TABLE GROUP BY ID) as MAX ON MAX.ID = TABLE.ID

Answer 3

Without knowing your table structures in more detail I can't be sure this is the best way, but here's something that should work. Use the 2nd query as the left side of a left join, to pick up the extra columns:
select a.*
from (<your 2nd query>) a
left join dbo.TBLMETERLIST
on (a.FLDREPID = dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8.fldCBuddyId)
left join <next table> ...
and so on. You'll also have to left join on dbo.tblMsgsOnAir_Type8 in order to pick up the columns in that table, so that's one additional left join beyond what your first query does. By the way, it's a good idea to post code here laid out so it's readable; it makes it a lot easier for others to understand.