mysql> select catid,name,ts from foo group by name order by (select max(ts) from foo where name in (select distinct nam e from foo));
+-------+------+---------------------+
| catid | name | ts                  |
+-------+------+---------------------+
|     1 | cat1 | 2006-07-06 08:51:29 |
|     2 | cat2 | 2006-07-06 08:53:10 |
+-------+------+---------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select distinct name from foo;
+------+
| name |
+------+
| cat1 |
| cat2 |
+------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select max(ts) from foo where name in (select distinct name from foo));
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server versio n for the right syntax to use near ')' at line 1
mysql> select max(ts) from foo where name in (select distinct name from foo);
+---------------------+
| max(ts)             |
+---------------------+
| 2006-07-12 08:52:16 |
+---------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select max(ts), name, from foo group by name order by max(ts) desc;
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server versio n for the right syntax to use near 'from foo group by name order by max(ts) desc' at line 1
mysql> select max(ts), name, from foo group by name order by max(ts);
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server versio n for the right syntax to use near 'from foo group by name order by max(ts)' at line 1
mysql> select max(ts), name, from foo group by name;
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server versio n for the right syntax to use near 'from foo group by name' at line 1
mysql> select max(ts), name, from foo;
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server versio n for the right syntax to use near 'from foo' at line 1
mysql> select max(ts), name from foo group by name order by max(ts) desc;
+---------------------+------+
| max(ts)             | name |
+---------------------+------+
| 2006-07-12 08:52:16 | cat1 |
| 2006-07-08 08:53:10 | cat2 |
+---------------------+------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)