php mysql Group By to get latest record

If you select attributes that are not used in the group clause, and are not aggregates, the result is unspecified. I.e you don't know which rows the other attributes are selected from. (The sql standard does not allow such queries, but MySQL is more relaxed).

try something like

change the order by and limit as needed.

SELECT post_id, forum_id, topic_id 
FROM   (SELECT post_id, forum_id, topic_id
        FROM posts
        ORDER BY post_time DESC) 
GROUP BY topic_id 
ORDER BY topic_id desc
LIMIT 0,5

Special thanks to stackoverslow .