Select Rows with Maximum Column Value group by Another Column

I’ve struggled with this many times myself and the solution is to think about your query differently.

I want each DocGroupViewID row where the Del_Index is the highest(max) for all rows with that DocGroupViewID:

SELECT
    T.DocGroupViewID,
    T.Del_Index,
    T.ID
FROM MyTable T
WHERE T.Del_Index = (
    SELECT MAX( T1.Del_Index ) FROM MyTable T1
    WHERE T1.DocGroupViewID = T.DocGroupViewID 
)

It gets more complex when more than one row can have the same Del_Index, since then you need some way to choose which one to show.

---

EDIT: wanted to follow up with another option

You can use the RANK() or ROW_NUMBER() functions with a CTE to get more control over the results, as follows:

-- fake a source table
DECLARE @t TABLE (
    ID int IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
    Del_Index int,
    DocGroupViewID int
)

INSERT INTO @t
SELECT 1, 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1, 2 UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 2 UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 2 UNION ALL
SELECT 1, 3 UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 3 UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 3 UNION ALL
SELECT 4, 3

-- show our source
SELECT * FROM @t

-- select using RANK (can have duplicates)
;WITH cteRank AS
(
    SELECT
        DocGroupViewID,
        Del_Index,
        ID,
        RANK() OVER
            (PARTITION BY DocGroupViewID ORDER BY Del_Index DESC)
        AS RowRank,
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER
            (PARTITION BY DocGroupViewID ORDER BY Del_Index DESC)
        AS RowNumber
    FROM @t
)
SELECT *
FROM cteRank
WHERE RowRank = 1

-- select using ROW_NUMBER
;WITH cteRowNumber AS
(
    SELECT
        DocGroupViewID,
        Del_Index,
        ID,
        RANK() OVER
            (PARTITION BY DocGroupViewID ORDER BY Del_Index DESC)
        AS RowRank,
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER
            (PARTITION BY DocGroupViewID ORDER BY Del_Index DESC)
        AS RowNumber
    FROM @t
)
SELECT *
FROM cteRowNumber
WHERE RowNumber = 1

If you have ways to sort out ties, just add it to the ORDER BY.