query for most recent status

[CurtisHight]

I have a table tracking the historical "actions" (activate/deactivate/surplus) of a workshop, and in another table I have an "inventory" of (a fixed number of) pager IDs (and other tables tracking other inventories (cell phones etc.), all of which have been worked on by the workshop over time). In the "pager ID table" I need to query the historical "actions table" for the most recent "action" for each "pager ID" and then show that (status) on my "pager ID form".

What is the most effective approach? (and the happiest Thanksgiving to good answers:-)

[June7]

For one method, review http://allenbrowne.com/subquery-01.html#TopN

Other methods involve use of domain aggregate functions.