Oracle Hierarchical query: how to follow max on each level

Question

I'm trying to get a query to "follow" the max values in each level excluding the max values in other branches.
Here some examples to illustrate what I'm trying to achieve:

Given this hierarchical structure:

    38
      15
        10
        5
          2
          3
      17
        9
        8
      6
    26
      13
      1
      12
    18
      11
      7

I would like to get:

    38
      17
        9

and not:

    38
      17
        10
          3

Like I would get by using the sql query I've come up with until now:

select lpad(' ',2*(level-1))|| max(child)
from test_connect_by  
start with parent is null
connect by prior child = parent
group by level

That get the absolute max from each level without excluding the other branches on each iteration over the levels.

The example data comes from http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/ora/sql/connect_by.html

Thanks in advance for any hint
Vlax

Answer 1

This seems to solve the question asked. Not sure if there is a solution without aggregating first:

select lpad(' ',2*(level-1)) || child as result
from 
  ( select parent, max(child) as child 
    from test_connect_by 
    group by parent
  ) t 
start with parent is null 
connect by prior child = parent
order by level ;