Not elegant, but works:

SELECT cat, MAX(_date) _date FROM yy GROUP BY 1 INTO CURSOR tmp1
INDEX ON cat+DTOC(_date) TAG _1

SELECT cat,MAX(_date) FROM yy GROUP BY 1 ;
UNION;
SELECT cat,MAX(_date) FROM yy ;
	WHERE NOT INDEXSEEK(yy.cat+DTOC(yy._date),.f.,"tmp1","_1") GROUP BY 1 ;
ORDER BY 1,2

>I have a table layed out similar to the follownig:
>
>

>cat1     date1     amount
>cat1     date2     amount
>cat1     date3     amount
>cat1     date4     amount
>cat2     date1     amount
>cat2     date2     amount
>cat3     date1     amount
>cat3     date2     amount
>cat3     date3     amount
>

>
>I want to get the oldest 2 dates from each category into a table. I want my table to look like the following:
>
>

>cat1     date1     amount
>cat1     date2     amount
>cat2     date1     amount
>cat2     date2     amount
>cat3     date1     amount
>cat3     date2     amount
>

>
>Any easy way to do this with a select that I am overlooking?