how to select top ID from join operation and staging tables I have this inner join from staging and operations table jobsCode  I want to select the top surrogate key ID and get the Start_Date from this join my problem is my Query rerunning 2 records
original query 

SELECT a.JobCode 
    ,b.ID
    ,b.Start_Date   
    ,a.EndDate  
    ,b.Start_Date  
    ,b.End_Date
FROM [RPStage].[dbo].[GLBJobCode] a 
    INNER JOIN [operations].[dbo].[Job_Code] b ON  a.JobCode =  b.Job_Code
        AND a.EndDate = b.End_Date
        AND a.EndDate = '9998-12-31'
        AND a.StartDate != b.Start_Date;


trying to get it using max function 

SELECT a.JobCode 
    ,MAX(b.ID) ID
    ,MAX(B.Start_Date) Start_Date  
    ,a.EndDate  
    ,b.Start_Date  
    ,b.End_Date
FROM [Stage].[dbo].[JobCode] a 
    INNER JOIN [operations].[dbo].[Job_Code] b ON  a.JobCode =  b.Job_Code
        AND a.EndDate = b.End_Date
        AND a.EndDate = '9998-12-31'
        AND a.StartDate != b.Start_Date
GROUP BY a.JobCode
    ,b.ID
    ,a.EndDate
    ,b.Start_Date
    ,b.End_Date;
Window Functions, or the OVER() Clause

It appears that what you are looking for is a window function or an OVER() clause.

In your original example, you are trying to use two max() conditions, which doesn't work, because when you try to then apply GROUP BY, you can have a condition where the max of the first column ID and the second column startdate aren't in the same row, and so then GROUP BY simply can't be understood.

However, if you are looking to extract the max over a grouping, and you can define that grouping, and you want to obtain the 'column-wise' maximum for more than one column for that grouping (as you seem to want to do), then here's the solution.

CREATE TABLE test (
  jobcode integer,
  id integer, 
  a_startdate datetime,
  a_enddate datetime,
  b_startdate datetime,
  b_enddate datetime);

  INSERT INTO test VALUES (513801, 7136, '11-01-2011', '12-31-9998', '11-01-2011', '12-31-9998');
  INSERT INTO test VALUES (513801, 7137,'04-26-2014', '12-31-9998','04-26-2014', '12-31-9998');


I first made this table to recreate your input data in the picture.  I then applied this query.

SELECT jobcode, max(id) OVER (PARTITION BY jobcode), 
max(a_startdate) OVER(PARTITION BY jobcode), 
a_enddate,  b_startdate, b_enddate FROM test;


Try out this SQL Fiddle, and see if it gives the results you're looking for.  I did the best I could with the description I had.