How Do I write a MySql select statement that will select all
information from 1 record based on the recors with the highest value
within a group

My example would be, I want to know what the transaction code was for
the most recent transaction date for each customer

SAMPLE TABLE.
RECORD ID    CUSTOMER        TRANSACTION CODE    TRANSACTION DATE
1            Alpha           3                   01/01/2005
2            Bravo           3                   01/01/2005
3            Charlie         3                   01/01/2005
4            Alpha           5                   01/02/2005
5            Bravo           4                   01/03/2005
6            Alpha           2                   01/03/2005
7            Alpha           2                   01/05/2005
8            Bravo           7                   01/07/2005
9            Alpha           3                   01/07/2005
10           Alpha           2                   01/06/2005

Result Set I Am Looking For

CUSTOMER  TRANSACTION DATE    TRANSACTION CODE
Alpha     01/07/2005          3     
Bravo     01/07/2005          7
Charlie   01/01/2005          3

Its easy my friend

SELECT customer,transaction_code,max(transaction_date)
FROM sample_table
GROUP BY customer;

Let me know it this does not work

sorry, it won't work as the transaction_code is not in the group list

What you could do is write a derived tables for this as 

SELECT T2.customer,T1.transaction_code,T2.transaction_date
FROM
(SELECT record_id,transaction_code
FROM sample_table) AS T1
INNER JOIN
(SELECT record_id,customer,max(transaction_date) 'transaction_date'
FROM sample_table
GROUP BY record_id,customer) AS T2
ON T1.record_id=T2.record_id;

Assuming record_id as the Primary Key

Jack,

Thanks for the help so far.  The query returned an error message
saying the syntax was wrong.  I did break the 2 portions of the query
down indidually and looked at them.  The first portion returned all
recordID and code.  The second returned company name and record id and
date.  Even though the join was failing I still did not se how these 2
subtables would give me my information. But
your structure was very helpful in allowing me to understand the
fundamentals I needed.

I am thinking now that 

SELECT T2.customer,T1.transaction_code,T2.transaction_date
FROM
(SELECT name,date,code
FROM sample_table) AS T1
INNER JOIN
(SELECT customer,max(date) 'transaction_date'
FROM sample_table
GROUP BY customer) AS T2
ON (T1.customer=T2.customer;) AND (T1.date=T2.date;)

would give me the result set I am looking for, but there is an error
in the code that keeps it from running, any ideas there?

What version of mySQL ?
What tool you use to run the query ?
My query should work fine in version 4.1 and above.

Let me know if you still have the problem.

i just noticed a small error in your code in this line:
ON (T1.customer=T2.customer;) AND (T1.date=T2.date;)

u have 2 semi-colons which tell SQL to run the query
it should look like this:
ON (T1.customer=T2.customer) AND (T1.date=T2.date);

-jeff

I have just upgraded over the weekend to a server that is using 4.1 I
will try the query on Monday when I get back into work.. Thank you!!!

Try this,

SELECT *
FROM tableName a
WHERE a.CUSTOMER + ',' + a.[Transaction Date] IN
(
	SELECT b.CUSTOMER + ',' + MAX(b.[Transaction Date])
	FROM tableName b
	GROUP BY b.CUSTOMER
)

Thanks,