>Hi,
>
>Several of my reports use MAX(CHAR_FIELD) AS CHAR_FIELD when using GROUP BY clause. This, of course, to make sure that the GROUP BY does not "break" the report. My question is, is it wrong to have many MAX() for this purpose? Should I change the reports such as to minimize using MAX() around char type fields?
>
>TIA.

It depends on what exactly do you want to get. If you want to get the related record's info, then check these blog posts:

Optimizing TOP N per Group Queries - blog by Itzik Ben-Gan explaining various optimization ideas

Including an Aggregated Column's Related Values - Erik and mine blog presenting several solutions of the problem with explanations for each

Including an Aggregated Column's Related Values - Part 2 - my blog post with use cases for the previous blog