This is a follow-up to #1644748 where I successfully answered my own question, but Quassnoi helped me to realize that it was the wrong question. He gave me a solution that worked for my sample data, but I couldn't plug it back into the parent stored procedure because I fail at SQL 2005 syntax. So here is an attempt to paint the broader picture and ask what I actually need. This is part of a stored procedure that returns a list of items in a bug tracking application I've inherited. There are are over 100 fields and 26 joins so I'm pulling out only the mostly relevant bits. SELECT tickets.ticketid, tickets.tickettype, tickets_tickettype_lu.tickettypedesc, tickets.stage, tickets.position, tickets.sponsor, tickets.dev, tickets.qa, DATEDIFF(DAY, ticket_history_assignment.savedate, GETDATE()) as 'daysinqueue' FROM dbo.tickets WITH (NOLOCK) LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.tickets_tickettype_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON tickets.tickettype = tickets_tickettype_lu.tickettypeid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.tickets_history_assignment WITH (NOLOCK) ON tickets_history_assignment.ticketid = tickets.ticketid AND tickets_history_assignment.historyid = ( SELECT MAX(historyid) FROM dbo.tickets_history_assignment WITH (NOLOCK) WHERE tickets_history_assignment.ticketid = tickets.ticketid GROUP BY tickets_history_assignment.ticketid ) WHERE tickets.sponsor = @sponsor The area of interest is the daysinqueue subquery mess. The tickets_history_assignment table looks roughly as follows declare @tickets_history_assignment table ( historyid int, ticketid int, sponsor int, dev int, qa int, savedate datetime ) insert into @tickets_history_assignment values (1521402, 92774,20,14, 20, '2009-10-27 09:17:59.527') insert into @tickets_history_assignment values (1521399, 92774,20,14, 42, '2009-08-31 12:07:52.917') insert into @tickets_history_assignment values (1521311, 92774,100,14, 42, '2008-12-08 16:15:49.887') insert into @tickets_history_assignment values (1521336, 92774,100,14, 42, '2009-01-16 14:27:43.577') Whenever a ticket is saved, the current values for sponsor, dev and qa are stored in the tickets_history_assignment table with the ticketid and a timestamp. So it is possible for someone to change the value for qa, but leave sponsor alone. What I want to know, based on all of these conditions, is the historyid of the record in the tickets_history_assignment table where the sponsor value was last changed so that I can calculate the value for daysinqueue. If a record is inserted into the history table, and only the qa value has changed, I don't want that record. So simply relying on MAX(historyid) won't work for me. Quassnoi came up with the following which seemed to work with my sample data, but I can't plug it into the larger query, SQL Manager bitches about the WITH statement. ;WITH rows AS ( SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY ticketid ORDER BY savedate DESC) AS rn FROM @Table ) SELECT rl.sponsor, ro.savedate FROM rows rl CROSS APPLY ( SELECT TOP 1 rc.savedate FROM rows rc JOIN rows rn ON rn.ticketid = rc.ticketid AND rn.rn = rc.rn + 1 AND rn.sponsor <> rc.sponsor WHERE rc.ticketid = rl.ticketid ORDER BY rc.rn ) ro WHERE rl.rn = 1 I played with it yesterday afternoon and got nowhere because I don't fundamentally understand what is going on here and how it should fit into the larger context. So, any takers? UPDATE Ok, here's the whole thing. I've been switching some of the table and column names in an attempt to simplify things so here's the full unedited mess. snip - old bad code Here are the errors: Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Procedure usp_GetProjectRecordsByAssignment, Line 159 Incorrect syntax near ';'. Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Procedure usp_GetProjectRecordsByAssignment, Line 179 Incorrect syntax near ')'. Line numbers are of course not correct but refer to ;WITH rows AS And the ')' char after the WHERE rl.rn = 1 ) Respectively Is there a tag for extra super long question? UPDATE #2 Here is the finished query for anyone who may need this: CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_GetProjectRecordsByAssignment] ( @assigned numeric(18,0), @assignedtype numeric(18,0) ) AS SET NOCOUNT ON WITH rows AS ( SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY recordid ORDER BY savedate DESC) AS rn FROM projects_history_assignment ) SELECT projects_records.recordid, projects_records.recordtype, projects_recordtype_lu.recordtypedesc, projects_records.stage, projects_stage_lu.stagedesc, projects_records.position, projects_position_lu.positiondesc, CASE projects_records.clientrequested WHEN '1' THEN 'Yes' WHEN '0' THEN 'No' END AS clientrequested, projects_records.reportingmethod, projects_reportingmethod_lu.reportingmethoddesc, projects_records.clientaccess, projects_clientaccess_lu.clientaccessdesc, projects_records.clientnumber, projects_records.project, projects_lu.projectdesc, projects_records.version, projects_version_lu.versiondesc, projects_records.projectedversion, projects_version_lu_projected.versiondesc AS projectedversiondesc, projects_records.sitetype, projects_sitetype_lu.sitetypedesc, projects_records.title, projects_records.module, projects_module_lu.moduledesc, projects_records.component, projects_component_lu.componentdesc, projects_records.loginusername, projects_records.loginpassword, projects_records.assistedusername, projects_records.browsername, projects_browsername_lu.browsernamedesc, projects_records.browserversion, projects_records.osname, projects_osname_lu.osnamedesc, projects_records.osversion, projects_records.errortype, projects_errortype_lu.errortypedesc, projects_records.gsipriority, projects_gsipriority_lu.gsiprioritydesc, projects_records.clientpriority, projects_clientpriority_lu.clientprioritydesc, projects_records.scheduledstartdate, projects_records.scheduledcompletiondate, projects_records.projectedhours, projects_records.actualstartdate, projects_records.actualcompletiondate, projects_records.actualhours, CASE projects_records.billclient WHEN '1' THEN 'Yes' WHEN '0' THEN 'No' END AS billclient, projects_records.billamount, projects_records.status, projects_status_lu.statusdesc, CASE CAST(projects_records.assigned AS VARCHAR(5)) WHEN '0' THEN 'N/A' WHEN '10000' THEN 'Unassigned' WHEN '20000' THEN 'Client' WHEN '30000' THEN 'Tech Support' WHEN '40000' THEN 'LMI Tech Support' WHEN '50000' THEN 'Upload' WHEN '60000' THEN 'Spider' WHEN '70000' THEN 'DB Admin' ELSE rtrim(users_assigned.nickname) + ' ' + rtrim(users_assigned.lastname) END AS assigned, CASE CAST(projects_records.assigneddev AS VARCHAR(5)) WHEN '0' THEN 'N/A' WHEN '10000' THEN 'Unassigned' ELSE rtrim(users_assigneddev.nickname) + ' ' + rtrim(users_assigneddev.lastname) END AS assigneddev, CASE CAST(projects_records.assignedqa AS VARCHAR(5)) WHEN '0' THEN 'N/A' WHEN '10000' THEN 'Unassigned' ELSE rtrim(users_assignedqa.nickname) + ' ' + rtrim(users_assignedqa.lastname) END AS assignedqa, CASE CAST(projects_records.assignedsponsor AS VARCHAR(5)) WHEN '0' THEN 'N/A' WHEN '10000' THEN 'Unassigned' ELSE rtrim(users_assignedsponsor.nickname) + ' ' + rtrim(users_assignedsponsor.lastname) END AS assignedsponsor, projects_records.clientcreated, CASE projects_records.clientcreated WHEN '1' THEN 'Yes' WHEN '0' THEN 'No' END AS clientcreateddesc, CASE projects_records.clientcreated WHEN '1' THEN rtrim(clientusers_createuser.firstname) + ' ' + rtrim(clientusers_createuser.lastname) + ' (Client)' ELSE rtrim(users_createuser.nickname) + ' ' + rtrim(users_createuser.lastname) END AS createuser, projects_records.createdate, projects_records.savedate, projects_resolution.sitesaffected, projects_sitesaffected_lu.sitesaffecteddesc, DATEDIFF(DAY, projects_history_assignment.savedate, GETDATE()) as 'daysinqueue', projects_records.iOnHitList, projects_records.changetype FROM dbo.projects_records WITH (NOLOCK) LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_recordtype_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.recordtype = projects_recordtype_lu.recordtypeid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_stage_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.stage = projects_stage_lu.stageid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_position_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.position = projects_position_lu.positionid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_reportingmethod_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.reportingmethod = projects_reportingmethod_lu.reportingmethodid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.project = projects_lu.projectid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_version_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.version = projects_version_lu.versionid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_version_lu projects_version_lu_projected WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.projectedversion = projects_version_lu_projected.versionid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_sitetype_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.sitetype = projects_sitetype_lu.sitetypeid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_module_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.module = projects_module_lu.moduleid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_component_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.component = projects_component_lu.componentid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_browsername_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.browsername = projects_browsername_lu.browsernameid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_osname_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.osname = projects_osname_lu.osnameid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_errortype_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.errortype = projects_errortype_lu.errortypeid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_resolution WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.recordid = projects_resolution.recordid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_sitesaffected_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_resolution.sitesaffected = projects_sitesaffected_lu.sitesaffectedid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_gsipriority_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.gsipriority = projects_gsipriority_lu.gsipriorityid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_clientpriority_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.clientpriority = projects_clientpriority_lu.clientpriorityid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_status_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.status = projects_status_lu.statusid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_clientaccess_lu WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.clientaccess = projects_clientaccess_lu.clientaccessid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.users users_assigned WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.assigned = users_assigned.userid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.users users_assigneddev WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.assigneddev = users_assigneddev.userid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.users users_assignedqa WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.assignedqa = users_assignedqa.userid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.users users_assignedsponsor WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.assignedsponsor = users_assignedsponsor.userid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.users users_createuser WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.createuser = users_createuser.userid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.clientusers clientusers_createuser WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_records.createuser = clientusers_createuser.userid LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.projects_history_assignment WITH (NOLOCK) ON projects_history_assignment.recordid = projects_records.recordid AND projects_history_assignment.historyid = ( SELECT ro.historyid FROM rows rl CROSS APPLY ( SELECT TOP 1 rc.historyid FROM rows rc JOIN rows rn ON rn.recordid = rc.recordid AND rn.rn = rc.rn + 1 AND rn.assigned <> rc.assigned WHERE rc.recordid = rl.recordid ORDER BY rc.rn ) ro WHERE rl.rn = 1 AND rl.recordid = projects_records.recordid ) WHERE (@assignedtype='0' and projects_records.assigned = @assigned) OR (@assignedtype='1' and projects_records.assigneddev = @assigned) OR (@assignedtype='2' and projects_records.assignedqa = @assigned) OR (@assignedtype='3' and projects_records.assignedsponsor = @assigned) OR (@assignedtype='4' and projects_records.createuser = @assigned)