>i might be phrasing it weird but
>order by tag ( where date is most recent)
>group by ID
>

phrased another way:

>i want the IDs together or grouped
>
>i want the IDs sorted by the Tag of the most recent one.

You're not phrasing it weird, Kelly, it is a slightly weird requirement! But here goes (it won't work on Firebird 1.5)

with MyCTE as
(SELECT ID, Tag
FROM KellyTbl K1
WHERE NOT EXISTS(SELECT * FROM KellyTbl K2
WHERE K1.ID = K2.ID
AND K1.Date < K2.Date))
SELECT KT.Tag, KT.ID, KT.Date
FROM KellyTbl KT
JOIN MyCTE M ON M.ID = KT.ID
ORDER BY M.Tag, KT.Date

This will at least almost give you what you specified as desired output in your first email, though ID 22 will be at the bottom since the record of ID 22 with the latest date is HHH and not AAA.

HTH,
Set