How does distinct work? I need a query to return me the most recent replies by a specified User and well,
to put it simple, i can't do it!

lets take a simple table called Replies.

Table: Replies

Fields:
ReplyID
ArticleID
AccountID
PostDate
UpdateDate
NickName
Email

Well, i need a query like:

SELECT Distinct Top 5 ReplyID, ArticleID, AccountID, PostDate, NickName FROM
Replies WHERE AccountID=1 ORDER BY PostDate Desc

Well if you can already guess that when the person with accountid of 1 replies to an article
more than 1 time, then that entry with that articleID will show up twice in the top 5 query which i
don't need!! I need the top 5 most recent articles that have benn posted to with no duplicates entries, just
the top 5 articles they have posted to no matter how many times they responded to an article.

thanks

You will need to do a sub query within an other
First : Do a query that will return only the 5 last distinct ArticleID,max(PostedDate)
Second : Using last result, select the entries of Replies


Use something like this :
SELECT Replies.* from Replies
INNER JOIN
   (
   select distinct top 5 ArticleID, max(PostDate) as LastPostDate
   from replies
   where accountID = 1
   group by ArticleID
   order by max(PostDate) desc
   ) as LastPosted
on LastPosted.ArticleID = Replies.ArticleID
and LastPosted.LastPostDate = Replies.PostDate
and Replies.AccountID = 1

order by PostDate desc

that worked perfectly!!! thanks a bunch!!