SQL MAX of multiple columns?
SqlSql ServerTsqlSql Problem Overview
How do you return 1 value per row of the max of several columns:
TableName
[Number, Date1, Date2, Date3, Cost]
I need to return something like this:
[Number, Most_Recent_Date, Cost]
Query?
Sql Solutions
Solution 1 - Sql
Here is another nice solution for the Max functionality using T-SQL and SQL Server
SELECT [Other Fields],
(SELECT Max(v)
FROM (VALUES (date1), (date2), (date3),...) AS value(v)) as [MaxDate]
FROM [YourTableName]
Values is the Table Value Constructor.
"Specifies a set of row value expressions to be constructed into a table. The Transact-SQL table value constructor allows multiple rows of data to be specified in a single DML statement. The table value constructor can be specified either as the VALUES clause of an INSERT ... VALUES statement, or as a derived table in either the USING clause of the MERGE statement or the FROM clause."
Solution 2 - Sql
If you're using MySQL or PostgreSQL or Oracle, you can use
SELECT GREATEST(col1, col2 ...) FROM table
Solution 3 - Sql
This is an old answer and broken in many way.
See https://stackoverflow.com/a/6871572/194653 which has way more upvotes and works with sql server 2008+ and handles nulls, etc.
Original but problematic answer:
Well, you can use the CASE statement:
SELECT
CASE
WHEN Date1 >= Date2 AND Date1 >= Date3 THEN Date1
WHEN Date2 >= Date1 AND Date2 >= Date3 THEN Date2
WHEN Date3 >= Date1 AND Date3 >= Date2 THEN Date3
ELSE Date1
END AS MostRecentDate
Solution 4 - Sql
There are 3 more methods where UNPIVOT (1) is the fastest by far, followed by Simulated Unpivot (3) which is much slower than (1) but still faster than (2)
CREATE TABLE dates
(
number INT PRIMARY KEY ,
date1 DATETIME ,
date2 DATETIME ,
date3 DATETIME ,
cost INT
)
INSERT INTO dates
VALUES ( 1, '1/1/2008', '2/4/2008', '3/1/2008', 10 )
INSERT INTO dates
VALUES ( 2, '1/2/2008', '2/3/2008', '3/3/2008', 20 )
INSERT INTO dates
VALUES ( 3, '1/3/2008', '2/2/2008', '3/2/2008', 30 )
INSERT INTO dates
VALUES ( 4, '1/4/2008', '2/1/2008', '3/4/2008', 40 )
GO
Solution 1 (UNPIVOT)
SELECT number ,
MAX(dDate) maxDate ,
cost
FROM dates UNPIVOT ( dDate FOR nDate IN ( Date1, Date2,
Date3 ) ) as u
GROUP BY number ,
cost
GO
Solution 2 (Sub query per row)
SELECT number ,
( SELECT MAX(dDate) maxDate
FROM ( SELECT d.date1 AS dDate
UNION
SELECT d.date2
UNION
SELECT d.date3
) a
) MaxDate ,
Cost
FROM dates d
GO
Solution 3 (Simulated UNPIVOT)
;WITH maxD
AS ( SELECT number ,
MAX(CASE rn
WHEN 1 THEN Date1
WHEN 2 THEN date2
ELSE date3
END) AS maxDate
FROM dates a
CROSS JOIN ( SELECT 1 AS rn
UNION
SELECT 2
UNION
SELECT 3
) b
GROUP BY Number
)
SELECT dates.number ,
maxD.maxDate ,
dates.cost
FROM dates
INNER JOIN MaxD ON dates.number = maxD.number
GO
DROP TABLE dates
GO
Solution 5 - Sql
Either of the two samples below will work:
SELECT MAX(date_columns) AS max_date
FROM ( (SELECT date1 AS date_columns
FROM data_table )
UNION
( SELECT date2 AS date_columns
FROM data_table
)
UNION
( SELECT date3 AS date_columns
FROM data_table
)
) AS date_query
The second is an add-on to lassevk's answer.
SELECT MAX(MostRecentDate)
FROM ( SELECT CASE WHEN date1 >= date2
AND date1 >= date3 THEN date1
WHEN date2 >= date1
AND date2 >= date3 THEN date2
WHEN date3 >= date1
AND date3 >= date2 THEN date3
ELSE date1
END AS MostRecentDate
FROM data_table
) AS date_query
Solution 6 - Sql
Scalar Function cause all sorts of performance issues, so its better to wrap the logic into an Inline Table Valued Function if possible. This is the function I used to replace some User Defined Functions which selected the Min/Max dates from a list of upto ten dates. When tested on my dataset of 1 Million rows the Scalar Function took over 15 minutes before I killed the query the Inline TVF took 1 minute which is the same amount of time as selecting the resultset into a temporary table. To use this call the function from either a subquery in the the SELECT or a CROSS APPLY.
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Get_Min_Max_Date
(
@Date1 datetime,
@Date2 datetime,
@Date3 datetime,
@Date4 datetime,
@Date5 datetime,
@Date6 datetime,
@Date7 datetime,
@Date8 datetime,
@Date9 datetime,
@Date10 datetime
)
RETURNS TABLE
AS
RETURN
(
SELECT Max(DateValue) Max_Date,
Min(DateValue) Min_Date
FROM (
VALUES (@Date1),
(@Date2),
(@Date3),
(@Date4),
(@Date5),
(@Date6),
(@Date7),
(@Date8),
(@Date9),
(@Date10)
) AS Dates(DateValue)
)
Solution 7 - Sql
For T-SQL (MSSQL 2008+)
SELECT
(SELECT
MAX(MyMaxName)
FROM ( VALUES
(MAX(Field1)),
(MAX(Field2))
) MyAlias(MyMaxName)
)
FROM MyTable1
Solution 8 - Sql
DECLARE @TableName TABLE (Number INT, Date1 DATETIME, Date2 DATETIME, Date3 DATETIME, Cost MONEY)
INSERT INTO @TableName
SELECT 1, '20000101', '20010101','20020101',100 UNION ALL
SELECT 2, '20000101', '19900101','19980101',99
SELECT Number,
Cost ,
(SELECT MAX([Date])
FROM (SELECT Date1 AS [Date]
UNION ALL
SELECT Date2
UNION ALL
SELECT Date3
)
D
)
[Most Recent Date]
FROM @TableName
Solution 9 - Sql
SELECT
CASE
WHEN Date1 >= Date2 AND Date1 >= Date3 THEN Date1
WHEN Date2 >= Date3 THEN Date2
ELSE Date3
END AS MostRecentDate
This is slightly easier to write out and skips evaluation steps as the case statement is evaluated in order.
Solution 10 - Sql
Unfortunately Lasse's answer, though seemingly obvious, has a crucial flaw. It cannot handle NULL values. Any single NULL value results in Date1 being returned. Unfortunately any attempt to fix that problem tends to get extremely messy and doesn't scale to 4 or more values very nicely.
databyss's first answer looked (and is) good. However, it wasn't clear whether the answer would easily extrapolate to 3 values from a multi-table join instead of the simpler 3 values from a single table. I wanted to avoid turning such a query into a sub-query just to get the max of 3 columns, also I was pretty sure databyss's excellent idea could be cleaned up a bit.
So without further ado, here's my solution (derived from databyss's idea).
It uses cross-joins selecting constants to simulate the effect of a multi-table join. The important thing to note is that all the necessary aliases carry through correctly (which is not always the case) and this keeps the pattern quite simple and fairly scalable through additional columns.
DECLARE @v1 INT ,
@v2 INT ,
@v3 INT
--SET @v1 = 1 --Comment out SET statements to experiment with
--various combinations of NULL values
SET @v2 = 2
SET @v3 = 3
SELECT ( SELECT MAX(Vals)
FROM ( SELECT v1 AS Vals
UNION
SELECT v2
UNION
SELECT v3
) tmp
WHERE Vals IS NOT NULL -- This eliminates NULL warning
) AS MaxVal
FROM ( SELECT @v1 AS v1
) t1
CROSS JOIN ( SELECT @v2 AS v2
) t2
CROSS JOIN ( SELECT @v3 AS v3
) t3
Solution 11 - Sql
Problem: choose the minimum rate value given to an entity Requirements: Agency rates can be null
[MinRateValue] =
CASE
WHEN ISNULL(FitchRating.RatingValue, 100) < = ISNULL(MoodyRating.RatingValue, 99)
AND ISNULL(FitchRating.RatingValue, 100) < = ISNULL(StandardPoorsRating.RatingValue, 99)
THEN FitchgAgency.RatingAgencyName
WHEN ISNULL(MoodyRating.RatingValue, 100) < = ISNULL(StandardPoorsRating.RatingValue , 99)
THEN MoodyAgency.RatingAgencyName
ELSE ISNULL(StandardPoorsRating.RatingValue, 'N/A')
END
Inspired by this answer from Nat
Solution 12 - Sql
If you are using SQL Server 2005, you can use the UNPIVOT feature. Here is a complete example:
create table dates
(
number int,
date1 datetime,
date2 datetime,
date3 datetime
)
insert into dates values (1, '1/1/2008', '2/4/2008', '3/1/2008')
insert into dates values (1, '1/2/2008', '2/3/2008', '3/3/2008')
insert into dates values (1, '1/3/2008', '2/2/2008', '3/2/2008')
insert into dates values (1, '1/4/2008', '2/1/2008', '3/4/2008')
select max(dateMaxes)
from (
select
(select max(date1) from dates) date1max,
(select max(date2) from dates) date2max,
(select max(date3) from dates) date3max
) myTable
unpivot (dateMaxes For fieldName In (date1max, date2max, date3max)) as tblPivot
drop table dates
Solution 13 - Sql
Using CROSS APPLY (for 2005+) ....
SELECT MostRecentDate
FROM SourceTable
CROSS APPLY (SELECT MAX(d) MostRecentDate FROM (VALUES (Date1), (Date2), (Date3)) AS a(d)) md
Solution 14 - Sql
From SQL Server 2012 we can use IIF.
DECLARE @Date1 DATE='2014-07-03';
DECLARE @Date2 DATE='2014-07-04';
DECLARE @Date3 DATE='2014-07-05';
SELECT IIF(@Date1>@Date2,
IIF(@Date1>@Date3,@Date1,@Date3),
IIF(@Date2>@Date3,@Date2,@Date3)) AS MostRecentDate
Solution 15 - Sql
Based on the ScottPletcher's solution from http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/Q_24204894.html I’ve created a set of functions (e.g. GetMaxOfDates3 , GetMaxOfDates13 )to find max of up to 13 Date values using UNION ALL. See T-SQL function to Get Maximum of values from the same row However I haven't considered UNPIVOT solution at the time of writing these functions
CREATE FUNCTION GetMaxOfDates13 (
@value01 DateTime = NULL,
@value02 DateTime = NULL,
@value03 DateTime = NULL,
@value04 DateTime = NULL,
@value05 DateTime = NULL,
@value06 DateTime = NULL,
@value07 DateTime = NULL,
@value08 DateTime = NULL,
@value09 DateTime = NULL,
@value10 DateTime = NULL,
@value11 DateTime = NULL,
@value12 DateTime = NULL,
@value13 DateTime = NULL
)
RETURNS DateTime
AS
BEGIN
RETURN (
SELECT TOP 1 value
FROM (
SELECT @value01 AS value UNION ALL
SELECT @value02 UNION ALL
SELECT @value03 UNION ALL
SELECT @value04 UNION ALL
SELECT @value05 UNION ALL
SELECT @value06 UNION ALL
SELECT @value07 UNION ALL
SELECT @value08 UNION ALL
SELECT @value09 UNION ALL
SELECT @value10 UNION ALL
SELECT @value11 UNION ALL
SELECT @value12 UNION ALL
SELECT @value13
) AS [values]
ORDER BY value DESC
)
END –FUNCTION
GO
CREATE FUNCTION GetMaxOfDates3 (
@value01 DateTime = NULL,
@value02 DateTime = NULL,
@value03 DateTime = NULL
)
RETURNS DateTime
AS
BEGIN
RETURN dbo.GetMaxOfDates13(@value01,@value02,@value03,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL)
END –FUNCTION
Solution 16 - Sql
Please try using UNPIVOT:
SELECT MAX(MaxDt) MaxDt
FROM tbl
UNPIVOT
(MaxDt FOR E IN
(Date1, Date2, Date3)
)AS unpvt;
Solution 17 - Sql
I prefer solutions based on case-when, my assumption is that it should have the least impact on possible performance drop compared to other possible solutions like those with cross-apply, values(), custom functions etc.
Here is the case-when version that handles null values with most of possible test cases:
SELECT
CASE
WHEN Date1 > coalesce(Date2,'0001-01-01') AND Date1 > coalesce(Date3,'0001-01-01') THEN Date1
WHEN Date2 > coalesce(Date3,'0001-01-01') THEN Date2
ELSE Date3
END AS MostRecentDate
, *
from
(values
( 1, cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
,( 2, cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
,( 3, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
,( 4, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date))
,( 5, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
,( 6, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date))
,( 11, cast(NULL as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
,( 12, cast(NULL as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
,( 13, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
,( 14, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
,( 15, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL as Date))
,( 16, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL as Date))
,( 21, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL as Date), cast(NULL as Date))
,( 22, cast(NULL as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL as Date))
,( 23, cast(NULL as Date), cast(NULL as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
,( 31, cast(NULL as Date), cast(NULL as Date), cast(NULL as Date))
) as demoValues(id, Date1,Date2,Date3)
order by id
;
and the result is:
MostRecent id Date1 Date2 Date3
2003-01-01 1 2001-01-01 2002-01-01 2003-01-01
2003-01-01 2 2001-01-01 2003-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01 3 2002-01-01 2001-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01 4 2002-01-01 2003-01-01 2001-01-01
2003-01-01 5 2003-01-01 2001-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01 6 2003-01-01 2002-01-01 2001-01-01
2003-01-01 11 NULL 2002-01-01 2003-01-01
2003-01-01 12 NULL 2003-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01 13 2003-01-01 NULL 2002-01-01
2003-01-01 14 2002-01-01 NULL 2003-01-01
2003-01-01 15 2003-01-01 2002-01-01 NULL
2003-01-01 16 2002-01-01 2003-01-01 NULL
2003-01-01 21 2003-01-01 NULL NULL
2003-01-01 22 NULL 2003-01-01 NULL
2003-01-01 23 NULL NULL 2003-01-01
NULL 31 NULL NULL NULL
Solution 18 - Sql
You could create a function where you pass the dates and then add the function to the select statement like below. select Number, dbo.fxMost_Recent_Date(Date1,Date2,Date3), Cost
create FUNCTION fxMost_Recent_Date
( @Date1 smalldatetime, @Date2 smalldatetime, @Date3 smalldatetime ) RETURNS smalldatetime AS BEGIN DECLARE @Result smalldatetime
declare @MostRecent smalldatetime
set @MostRecent='1/1/1900'
if @Date1>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date1 end
if @Date2>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date2 end
if @Date3>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date3 end
RETURN @MostRecent
END
Solution 19 - Sql
Another way to use CASE WHEN
SELECT CASE true
WHEN max(row1) >= max(row2) THEN CASE true WHEN max(row1) >= max(row3) THEN max(row1) ELSE max(row3) end ELSE
CASE true WHEN max(row2) >= max(row3) THEN max(row2) ELSE max(row3) END END
FROM yourTable
Solution 20 - Sql
My solution can handle null value comparison as well. It can be simplified by writing as one single query but for an explanation, I am using CTE. The idea is to reduce the comparison from 3 number to 2 number in step 1 and then from 2 number to 1 number in step 2.
with x1 as
(
select 1 as N1, null as N2, 3 as N3
union
select 1 as N1, null as N2, null as N3
union
select null as N1, null as N2, null as N3
)
,x2 as
(
select
N1,N2,N3,
IIF(Isnull(N1,0)>=Isnull(N2,0),N1,N2) as max1,
IIF(Isnull(N2,0)>=Isnull(N3,0),N2,N3) as max2
from x1
)
,x3 as
(
select N1,N2,N3,max1,max2,
IIF(IsNull(max1,0)>=IsNull(max2,0),max1,max2) as MaxNo
from x2
)
select * from x3
Output:
Solution 21 - Sql
here is a good solution:
CREATE function [dbo].[inLineMax] (@v1 float,@v2 float,@v3 float,@v4 float)
returns float
as
begin
declare @val float
set @val = 0
declare @TableVal table
(value float )
insert into @TableVal select @v1
insert into @TableVal select @v2
insert into @TableVal select @v3
insert into @TableVal select @v4
select @val= max(value) from @TableVal
return @val
end
Solution 22 - Sql
I do not know if it is on SQL, etc... on M$ACCESS help there is a function called MAXA(Value1;Value2;...) that is supposed to do such.
Hope can help someone.
P.D.: Values can be columns or calculated ones, etc.
Solution 23 - Sql
Above table is an employee salary table with salary1,salary2,salary3,salary4 as columns.Query below will return the max value out of four columns
select
(select Max(salval) from( values (max(salary1)),(max(salary2)),(max(salary3)),(max(Salary4)))alias(salval)) as largest_val
from EmployeeSalary
Running above query will give output as largest_val(10001)
Logic of above query is as below:
select Max(salvalue) from(values (10001),(5098),(6070),(7500))alias(salvalue)
output will be 10001