MS SQL Server - select rows with max value of column

In this article, we would like to show you how to select rows with the max value of a column in MS SQL Server.

Quick solution:

SELECT [column1], MAX([column2])
FROM [table_name]
GROUP BY [column1];

Practical example

To show how to select rows with the max value of a column, we will use the following table:

Note:

At the end of this article you can find database preparation SQL queries.

Example

In this example, we will select the maximum salary value for each department.

Query:

SELECT [department_id], MAX([salary])
FROM [users]
GROUP BY [department_id];

Result:

Database preparation

create_tables.sql file:

CREATE TABLE [users] (
	[id] INT IDENTITY(1,1),
	[name] VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	[surname] VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	[email] VARCHAR(100),
	[department_id] INT,
    [salary] DECIMAL(15,2) NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ([id])
);

insert_data.sql file:

INSERT INTO [users]
	( [name], [surname], [email], [department_id], [salary])
VALUES
	('John', 'Stewart', 'john@email.com', 1, '3512.00'),
	('Chris', 'Brown', 'chris@email.com', 2, '1344.00'),
	('Kate', 'Lewis', NULL, 3, '6574.00'),
	('Ailisa', 'Gomez', 'ailisa@email.com', 3, '6500.00'),
	('Gwendolyn', 'James', NULL, 2, '4200.00'),
	('Simon', 'Collins', NULL, 1, '3320.00'),
	('Taylor', 'Martin', NULL, 2, '1500.00'),
	('Andrew', 'Thompson', 'andrew@email.com', 1, '2100.00');