asked on

need to get an average

I am trying to get the average pay for a group of people, but the way the database is setup everytime someone gets a raise it is a new entry, so someone could have 1 entry or 20. This is screwing up my average because it is taking the average of what they originally got paid through what they are making now and I just need their latest pay rate.

For instance this is what I see

Joe Mc $8
Joe Mc $8.50
Joe Mc $10
John Cour $9

Average = $8.88 where it should be $9.50. Joe should only count the one time.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Guy Hengel [angelIII / a3]

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Mike McCracken

Do you have a date field that indicates when the pay change occurred?

If so you could use that to find the current pay.

Same basic query

select average(pay)
  from ( select username, pay, Max(paydate) as max_paydate )
                from yourtable
            group by username
     ) subquery

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mlmcc

James0628

mlmcc,

I don't think that will work. The sub-query will include each different pay rate, so you're still getting an average for all of the rates. It will include the maximum date with each rate, but that doesn't help (if anything, it makes things more confusing, since all of the rates now have the same date). I think you need another level. At the bottom level, find the maximum date, then find the rate for that date, then do the average.

Also, FWIW, in your query and angelIII's, the ")" should not be at the end of the second line.

James

Mike McCracken

YOu are right. Need to check for max date in the query.

mlmcc