GROUP BY, returning the highest something per group?

[httpwebwitch]

maybe I would solve this easier once I've had more coffee, but right now I'm not getting it. help!

sample data:
number | letter | word
----
1 | a | one
2 | a | two
3 | a | three
4 | b | four
5 | b | five

my query:

SELECT letter, number, word FROM table GROUP BY letter

what it returns is:

a 1 one
b 4 four


What I need is to get the maximum, or highest number in each letter group. Not the lowest.

desired output:

a 3 three
b 5 five

ORDER BY is merely ordering the results after grouping.

Is there a way to do this in one simple query?

[httpwebwitch]

I know I can do SELECT MAX(number)

but that doesn't return the word column

I'd never noticed this:

SELECT MAX(number),word FROM table GROUP BY letter

returns this:

3 one
5 four

isn't that weird.

[httpwebwitch]

now I've got this:

select * from table where number in (select max(number) from table group by letter)

it works - I've got the rows I want.

This seems kludgy to me. doing one select to get a list of ids, then another "IN" select to get the rows? it works, but isn't there a better way?

[LifeinAsia]

That's pretty much the way I'd do it.