MySQL: Select N rows, but with only unique values in one column

Question

Given this data set:

ID  Name            City            Birthyear
1   Egon Spengler   New York        1957
2   Mac Taylor      New York        1955
3   Sara         


        

Answer 1

This is probably not the most elegant and quickest solution, but it should work. I am looking forward the see the solutions of real database gurus.

select p.* from people p,
(select city, max(age) as mage from people group by city) t
where p.city = t.city and p.age = t.mage
order by p.age desc