Optimize a query : Replacing the Group By Clause ?

Hi Everyone.
I have a (newbie ?) question about this example query :

Two tables :
PEOPLE (FamilyName, BirthDate)
Name1 | 01/01/2000
Name2 | 02/02/2000

ITEM (FamilyName, ItemNumber, Option, CreationDate)

Name1 | #1 | <empty>| 10/10/1999
Name2 | #1 | <empty> | 11/11/1999
Name2 | #2 | Option_for_ Name2 | 12/12/1999

This means : Name2 has an Option, and Name1 don't. The option can be on #1 OR #2 item number => this means I cannot use ItemNumber to select the line from ITEM

QUERY :
This is the result I want :
Name1 | 01/01/2000 | <Empty> | 10/10/1999 Name2 | 02/02/2000 | Option for Name2 | 12/12/1999

This is the Query I am using for now :

SELECT People.FamilyName, BirthDate, MAX(Option), MAX(CreationDate) FROM PEOPLE, ITEM
WHERE People.FamilyName = Item.FamilyName GROUP BY People.FamilyName, BirthDate

It's working, but is very slow because of the "group by" clause. In addition, this is not very "clean" especially for the MAX(CreationDate)....
Is there another way to get the same result ? Thanks for reading this long post !...

Lassie Received on Mon Mar 06 2000 - 08:59:02 CST