SQL Least and Greatest
November 5, 2012
The least and greatest functions work in a similar way to coalesce, in that you can pass in any number of parameters, and the function will return the highest of them all. Parameters can be static values or columns.
SELECT LEAST(44,777,33,22,11)
returns the following on postgres.
least
-------
11
(1 row)
To do the same on Oracle, you'll need to select from dual.
Likewise, greatest returns the largest value:
SELECT GREATEST(44,777,33,22,11);
returns
greatest
----------
777
(1 row)
Strings
This also works with strings:
SELECT GREATEST('abc','drum','coder','zzz');
gives
greatest ---------- zzz (1 row)
whilst
SELECT LEAST('abcess','abc','drum','coder','zzz')
gives
least ------- abc (1 row)
