mysql sorting headache

[Helmet]

Hi,

 

I have a table with messages, with two important columns for this question, "thread-id" and "sent". Thread id is a string that every row belonging to the same thread has, and sent is an integer containing the php time it was sent. My inbox page shows the list of threads, and it should be showing them in the order of the last message sent in that thread, but because my query is insufficient, it does not. You'll see why:

 

SELECT DISTINCT threadid FROM messages WHERE xfrom = $member ORDER BY sent DESC

 

But this gives me one of each thread ordered by sent, not the latest in each thread ordered by sent. What am I missing?

 

[Helmet]

I believe I have answered my own question, though this might not be the most elegant solution:

 

SELECT threadid, max( sent ) as sent FROM messages WHERE xfrom = $member GROUP BY threadid ORDER BY sent DESC

 

 

[fenway]

That's the only solution.