Simple Problem with SQL

Question

Table structure is as follows.
Name Char Key
Promotion_Date Date Key
Job Char Key
Title Char Key
Role Char Key
Amount No Key
My business requirement is to select Name of the person with the maximum Propmotion_Date and also the promotion_date should be less than current date.
My query is as follows
SELECT * FROM Employee A
WHERE A.Name = 'xyz'
AND A.Job = 'HR'
AND A.Title = 'S/W'
AND A.Role = 'TL'
AND A.Promotion_Date = (SELECT MAX(P.Promotion_Date)
FROM Employee B
WHERE B.Name = A.Name
AND B.Job = 'HR'
AND B.Title = A.Title
AND B.Role = A.Role
AND B.Amount = A.Amount
AND B.Promotion_Date <= SYSDATE
There is data in my table but above query returns no result. When i change the query as follows it works.But i think thats not the right way
SELECT * FROM Employee A
WHERE A.Name = 'xyz'
AND A.Job = 'HR'
AND A.Title = 'S/W'
AND A.Role = 'TL' --removed
AND A.Promotion_Date <= SYSDATE --Changed
AND A.Promotion_Date = (SELECT MAX(P.Promotion_Date)
FROM Employee B
WHERE B.Name = A.Name
AND B.Job = 'HR'
AND B.Title = A.Title
AND B.Role = A.Role
AND B.Amount = A.Amount
Please help me out with the first query. What is wrong with it.
Thanks,
Amit

Answer 1

Hi Amit,
Try this query:
SELECT * FROM Employee a
WHERE a.Name = 'xyz'
AND a.Job = 'HR'
AND a.Title = 'S/W'
AND a.Role = 'TL'
AND a.Promotion_Date = (SELECT MAX(b.Promotion_Date)
FROM Employee b
WHERE b.Name = A.Name
AND B.Job = 'HR'
AND B.Title = A.Title
AND B.Role = A.Role
AND B.Amount = A.Amount
AND b.Promotion_Date < SYSDATE -1
Please note the SYSDATE -1!
If your MAX(Promotion_Date) for 'xyz' is today, Oracle will store it like this:
select to_char(Promotion_Date, 'YYYY.MM.DD. HH24:MI:SS') from emp
where Promotion_Date = (select MAX(Promotion_Date) from emp);
2007.11.28. 00:00:00
And shows SYSDATE as:
select to_char(SYSDATE, 'YYYY.MM.DD. HH24:MI:SS') from dual;
2007.11.28. 10:02:17
So, if you compare this MAX(Promotion_Date) to SYSDATE, this line will be returned because MAX(Promotion_Date) < SYSDATE.
Regards
Gabor