first  occurance of record

select distinct zip
from table
order by zip

select REP,ZIP,DATE from
(
select *, row_number() over (partition by zip order by date desc) rowno
from yourtable
) a
where a.rowno = 1

The above query should return latest date's zip records

If you want oldest date's zip records, try this query

select REP,ZIP,DATE from
(
select *, row_number() over (partition by zip order by date) rowno
from yourtable
) a
where a.rowno = 1

Note tested, since from mobile

Raj

If you just want unique Zips, @ewangoya looks close. If you want the first row for each unique Zip that is a different matter.

Unique Zips
SELECT DISTINCT Zip FROM Table

If you want the entire row data, please answer this question: When you say you want to select the "First" record, what do you mean, are they ordered somehow? Perhaps by date?

perfect.  thanks

@acardullo: Did you test the accepted query properly !? Is that result you asked for ?

The accepted solution, fetch the MAX of each column based on ZIP. Not from same row, each of the columns could be different rows of the same ZIP.

To be more clear see the screenshot below - First recordset is the samle data (4 rows). Next one is the result from the accepted solution's query
(Click on screenshots to open)

This is the result, based on my query

This is test data that I checked. Copy Paste to SQL Server Management Studio and check

create table #table
(
	ZIP		VARCHAR(10),
	REP		VARCHAR(10),
	DATE	DATETIME
)

INSERT INTO #table
SELECT '12345', 'AAAA', '03/15/2011' UNION ALL
SELECT '12345', 'ZZZZ', '03/01/2011' UNION ALL
SELECT '12346', 'AAAA', '03/12/2011' UNION ALL
SELECT '12346', 'ZZZZ', '03/01/2011' 

SELECT * FROM #TABLE

-- Accepted Solution
SELECT * FROM #TABLE
select MAX(ZIP) ZIP, MAX(REP) REP, MAX(DATE) DATE
from #table
group by ZIP
order by DATE DESC 


-- My Query
SELECT * FROM #TABLE 
select REP,ZIP,DATE from
(
select *, row_number() over (partition by zip order by date DESC) rowno
from #table
) a
where a.rowno = 1

Drop Table #TABLE

Select all Open in new window

 


Hope this make sense!
Raj