how to get distinct rows with max value

Question

my apologies for asking what must be very simple to solve, but I just can\'t seem to wrap my mind around this.. I couldn\'t even come up with a really fitting title for my q

Answer 1

You can use a sub-select:

select min(a1.id), a1.authorid, a2.mxvotes
from answers a1
inner join
(
  select authorid, max(votes) mxvotes
  from answers
  group by authorid
) a2
  on a1.authorid = a2.authorid
  and a1.votes = a2.mxvotes
group by a1.authorid, a2.mxvotes
order by mxvotes desc

see SQL Fiddle with Demo