SQL MAX of multiple columns?

419

votes

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?

sqlsql-servertsql

186

votes

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

[For Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and above, you may consider Sven's simpler answer below.]

936

votes

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]

171

votes

If you're using MySQL, you can use

SELECT GREATEST(col1, col2 ...) FROM table

68

votes

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

18

votes

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

17

votes

For T-SQL (MSSQL 2008+)

SELECT
  (SELECT
     MAX(MyMaxName) 
   FROM ( VALUES 
            (MAX(Field1)), 
            (MAX(Field2)) 
        ) MyAlias(MyMaxName)
  ) 
FROM MyTable1

14

votes

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)
)

9

votes

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

6

votes

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.

5

votes

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

4

votes

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

3

votes

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

3

votes

Using CROSS APPLY (for 2005+) ....

SELECT MostRecentDate 
FROM SourceTable
    CROSS APPLY (SELECT MAX(d) MostRecentDate FROM (VALUES (Date1), (Date2), (Date3)) AS a(d)) md

3

votes

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

1

votes

Please try using UNPIVOT:

SELECT MAX(MaxDt) MaxDt
   FROM tbl 
UNPIVOT
   (MaxDt FOR E IN 
      (Date1, Date2, Date3)
)AS unpvt;

1

votes

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

0

votes

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

0

votes

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

0

votes

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

0

votes

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:

-3

votes

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

-3

votes

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.

-4

votes

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

SQL MAX of multiple columns?

23 Answers

Solution 1 (UNPIVOT)

Solution 2 (Sub query per row)

Solution 3 (Simulated UNPIVOT)

Solution 1 (`UNPIVOT`)

Solution 3 (Simulated `UNPIVOT`)