MySQL Order before Group by

select wp_posts.* from wp_posts
where wp_posts.post_status='publish'and wp_posts.post_type='post'
group by wp_posts.post_author
having wp_posts.post_date = MAX(wp_posts.post_date) /* ONLY THE LAST POST FOR EACH AUTHOR */
order by wp_posts.post_date desc

EDIT:

After some comments I have decided to add some additional informations.

The company I am working at also uses Postgres and especially SQL Server. This databases don't allow such queries. So I know that there is a other way to do this (I write a solution below). You shoud also have to know what you do if you don't group by all columns treated in the projection or use aggregate functions. Otherwise let it be!

I chose the solution above, because it's a specific question. Tom want to get the recent post for each author in a wordpress site. In my mind it is negligible for the analysis if a author do more than one post per second. Wordpress should even forbid it by its spam-double-post detection. I know from personal experience that there is a really significant benefit in performance doing a such dirty group by with MySQL. But if you know what you do, then you can do it! I have such dirty groups in apps where I'm professionally accountable for. Here I have tables with some mio rows which need 5-15s instead of 100++ seconds.

May be useful about some pros and cons: http://ftp.nchu.edu.tw/MySQL/tech-resources/articles/debunking-group-by-myths.html

SELECT    wp_posts.*FROM     wp_posts    JOIN     (        SELECT            g.post_author            MAX(g.post_date) AS post_date        FROM wp_posts as g        WHERE            g.post_status='publish'            AND g.post_type='post'        GROUP BY g.post_author    ) as t     ON wp_posts.post_author = t.post_author AND wp_posts.post_date = t.post_dateORDER BY wp_posts.post_date

But if here is more then one post per second for a author you will get more then one row and not the only last one.

Now you can spin the wheel again and get the post with the highest Id. Even here it is at least not guaranteed that you really get the last one.

Not sure if I understand your requirement correct but following inner statement gets the list of the latest post_date for each author and joins these back with the wp_posts table to get a complete record.

SELECT  *FROM    wp_posts wp        INNER JOIN (          SELECT  post_author                  , MAX(post_date) AS post_date          FROM    wp_posts          WHERE   post_status = 'publish'                  AND post_type = 'post'          GROUP BY                  post.author        ) wpmax ON wpmax.post_author = wp.post_author                   AND wpmax.post_date = wp.post_dateORDER BY        wp.post_date DESC

I think that @edze response is wrong.

In the MySQL manual you can read:

MySQL extends the use of GROUP BY so that the select list can refer to nonaggregated columns not named in the GROUP BY clause. You can use this feature to get better performance by avoiding unnecessary column sorting and grouping. However, this is useful primarily when all values in each nonaggregated column not named in the GROUP BY are the same for each group. The server is free to choose any value from each group, so unless they are the same, the values chosen are indeterminate. Furthermore, the selection of values from each group cannot be influenced by adding an ORDER BY clause. Sorting of the result set occurs after values have been chosen, and ORDER BY does not affect which values the server chooses.

Two great references:

• http://kristiannielsen.livejournal.com/6745.html
• http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2006/12/07/how-to-select-the-firstleastmax-row-per-group-in-sql/

Sorry, but I can not comment the @edze response because of my reputation, so I have written a new answer.