How to select a maximum value row in mysql table

Question

I have the following table

Table structure:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `people` ( 
`name` varchar(10) NOT NULL, 
`age` smallint(5) u         


        

Answer 1

Question 1 : If you really want to use the MAX() you could try this SELECT age, name FROM people WHERE age IN (SELECT MAX(age) FROM people);

Question 2: I think it depends, for my suggestion in question 1, you do the query twice, but in the ORDER BY solution you provided, the database performed a sort like procedure.