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Sqlserver Max with Over 

if you have alteast one entry in your table than this will be fastest

Declare @tblMinMaxExample table 

(

  pk integer not null identity(1,1) primary key,

  dataYearMonth integer,

  dataYear integer,

  dataMonth integer,

  recordedValue float,

  attributeA varchar(1),

  attributeB varchar(1)

)

insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201401, 2014, 1,   200.0, 'A', 'a')

insert into @tblMinMaxExample  

select '201412', '2014', max(dataMonth) over(order by pk)

,  100.0, 'L', 'l' from @tblMinMaxExample 

else use this

Declare @tblMinMaxExample table 

(

  pk integer not null identity(1,1) primary key,

  dataYearMonth integer,

  dataYear integer,

  dataMonth integer,

  recordedValue float,

  attributeA varchar(1),

  attributeB varchar(1)

)

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201401, 2014, 1,   200.0, 'A', 'a')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201402, 2014, 2,   400.0, 'B', 'b')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201403, 2014, 3,   600.0, 'C', 'c')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201404, 2014, 4,   800.0, 'D', 'd')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201405, 2014, 5,  1000.0, 'E', 'e')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201406, 2014, 6,  1200.0, 'F', 'f')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201407, 2014, 7,  1100.0, 'G', 'g')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201408, 2014, 8,   900.0, 'H', 'h')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201409, 2014, 9,   700.0, 'I', 'i')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201410, 2014, 10,  500.0, 'J', 'j')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201411, 2014, 11,  300.0, 'K', 'k')

--insert into @tblMinMaxExample values (201412, 2014, 12,  100.0, 'L', 'l')

insert into @tblMinMaxExample  

 values ('201412', '2014', isnull( (select max(dataMonth) over(order by pk) from @tblMinMaxExample ), 1)

,  100.0, 'L', 'l' )

select * from @tblMinMaxExample