Edit

Logical functions - LEAST (Transact-SQL)

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server 2022 (16.x) Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric

This function returns the minimum value from a list of one or more expressions.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

LEAST ( expression1 [ , ...expressionN ] )

Arguments

expression1, expressionN

A list of comma-separated expressions of any comparable data type. The LEAST function requires at least one argument and supports no more than 254 arguments.

Each expression can be a constant, variable, column name or function, and any combination of arithmetic, bitwise, and string operators. Aggregate functions and scalar subqueries are permitted.

Return types

Returns the data type with the highest precedence from the set of types passed to the function. For more information, see Data Type Precedence (Transact-SQL).

If all arguments have the same data type and the type is supported for comparison, LEAST returns that type.

Otherwise, the function will implicitly convert all arguments to the data type of the highest precedence before comparison and use this type as the return type.

For numeric types, the scale of the return type will be the same as the highest precedence argument, or the largest scale if more than one argument is of the highest precedence data type.

Remarks

All expressions in the list of arguments must be of a data type that is comparable and that can be implicitly converted to the data type of the argument with the highest precedence.

Implicit conversion of all arguments to the highest precedence data type takes place before comparison.

If implicit type conversion between the arguments isn't supported, the function will fail and return an error.

For more information on implicit and explicit conversion, see Data Type Conversion (Database Engine).

If one or more arguments aren't NULL, then NULL arguments are ignored during comparison. If all arguments are NULL, then LEAST returns NULL.

Comparison of character arguments follows the rules of Collation Precedence (Transact-SQL).

The following types are not supported for comparison in LEAST: varchar(max), varbinary(max) or nvarchar(max) exceeding 8,000 bytes, cursor, geometry, geography, image, non-byte-ordered user-defined types, ntext, table, text, and xml.

The varchar(max), varbinary(max), and nvarchar(max) data types are supported for arguments that are 8,000 bytes or less, and will be implicitly converted to varchar(n), varbinary(n), and nvarchar(n), respectively, prior to comparison.

For example, varchar(max) can support up to 8,000 characters if using a single-byte encoding character set, and nvarchar(max) can support up to 4,000 byte-pairs (assuming UTF-16 character encoding).

Examples

A. Return minimum value from a list of constants

The following example returns the minimum value from the list of constants that is provided.

The scale of the return type is determined by the scale of the argument with the highest precedence data type.

SELECT LEAST('6.62', 3.1415, N'7') AS LeastVal;
GO

Here is the result set.

LeastVal
-------
 3.1415

(1 rows affected)

B. Return minimum value from a list of character types

The following example returns the minimum value from the list of character constants that is provided.

SELECT LEAST('Glacier', N'Joshua Tree', 'Mount Rainier') AS LeastString;
GO

Here is the result set.

LeastString
-------------
Glacier

(1 rows affected)

C. Return minimum value from a list of column arguments

This example returns the minimum value from a list of column arguments and ignores NULL values during comparison. This sample uses the AdventureWorksLT database, which can be quickly installed as the sample database for a new Azure SQL Database. For more information, see AdventureWorks sample databases.

SELECT P.Name,
    P.SellStartDate,
    P.DiscontinuedDate,
    PM.ModifiedDate AS ModelModifiedDate,
    LEAST(P.SellStartDate, P.DiscontinuedDate, PM.ModifiedDate) AS EarliestDate
FROM SalesLT.Product AS P
INNER JOIN SalesLT.ProductModel AS PM
    ON P.ProductModelID = PM.ProductModelID
WHERE LEAST(P.SellStartDate, P.DiscontinuedDate, PM.ModifiedDate) >= '2007-01-01'
    AND P.SellStartDate >= '2007-01-01'
    AND P.Name LIKE 'Touring %'
ORDER BY P.Name;

Here is the result set. EarliestDate chooses the least date value of the three values, ignoring NULL.

Name                   SellStartDate           DiscontinuedDate    ModelModifiedDate       EarliestDate
---------------------- ----------------------- ------------------- ----------------------- -----------------------
Touring Pedal          2007-07-01 00:00:00.000 NULL                2009-05-16 16:34:29.027 2007-07-01 00:00:00.000
Touring Tire           2007-07-01 00:00:00.000 NULL                2007-06-01 00:00:00.000 2007-06-01 00:00:00.000
Touring Tire Tube      2007-07-01 00:00:00.000 NULL                2007-06-01 00:00:00.000 2007-06-01 00:00:00.000

(3 rows affected)

D. Use LEAST with local variables

This example uses LEAST to determine the minimum value of a list of local variables within the predicate of a WHERE clause.

CREATE TABLE dbo.Studies (
    VarX VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
    Correlation DECIMAL(4, 3) NULL
    );

INSERT INTO dbo.Studies
VALUES ('Var1', 0.2),
    ('Var2', 0.825),
    ('Var3', 0.61);
GO

DECLARE @PredictionA DECIMAL(2, 1) = 0.7;
DECLARE @PredictionB DECIMAL(3, 1) = 0.65;

SELECT VarX,
    Correlation
FROM dbo.Studies
WHERE Correlation < LEAST(@PredictionA, @PredictionB);
GO

Here is the result set. Only values less than 0.65 are displayed.

VarX       Correlation
---------- -----------
Var1              .200
Var3              .610

(2 rows affected)

E. Use LEAST with columns, constants, and variables

This example uses LEAST to determine the minimum value of a list that includes columns, constants, and variables.

CREATE TABLE dbo.Studies (
    VarX VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL,
    Correlation DECIMAL(4, 3) NULL
    );

INSERT INTO dbo.Studies
VALUES ('Var1', 0.2),
    ('Var2', 0.825),
    ('Var3', 0.61);
GO

DECLARE @VarX DECIMAL(4, 3) = 0.59;

SELECT VarX,
    Correlation,
    LEAST(Correlation, 1.0, @VarX) AS LeastVar
FROM dbo.Studies;
GO

Here is the result set.

VarX       Correlation           LeastVar
---------- --------------------- ---------------------
Var1       0.200                 0.200
Var2       0.825                 0.590
Var3       0.610                 0.590

(3 rows affected)

Related content