About "first" and "last" criteria when adding the operation

[akino25]

Hi, I'm very confused with this "first" and "last" criteria
I can easily understand for "max" "min" "sum" etc ... but not the "first" and "last"

I import monthly data for the year 2013
and for each month I import, it will have a record showing 201301 (for january 2013), 201302 (for february 2013) etc... until today which is 201312

I import them in order that is: 201301 first till the last one which is 201312

now is the Criteria "first" give me the date at which it is First entered in the table or just the first that he see in the table ? ( can putting them in order either a->z or z<-a affect this criteria?) or what if I put import them not in order but randomly like?

when I used last it didnt give me 201312 but 201311... does anyone have an explanation to this ?

[pbaldy]

I never use them:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/208190

[June7]

Neither do I.

And apparently the order of import is ignored as well.

Have you run Compact & Repair? Does that alter the results.

[JoeM]

I only use FIRST/LAST when I want to return any record, but don't really care which one comes back.
Otherwise I use MIN/MAX.