SELECT MIN() does not select negative value

Question

_{Monday, April 30, 2012 9:15 PM}

Hey guys

I want to select the most negative value from a column. The column temp that I use variates from -30 °C to +50°C.

When I try this:

SELECT MIN(temp) AS LowestTemp FROM tblMeasures

I get 0 °C. This is "correct" because I have the value 0 °C in my column temp. However, I also have a lower value: -25,8 °C.

It seems that the SELECT MIN() command ignores negative values.

Does anyone know how to solve this?

Thanks in advance.

PS: I don't use SQL server, I only use access 2010. I need to get the value into my C# project. But that's no problem for me, it's just the SQL command that does not give what I desire

All replies (4)

_{Monday, April 30, 2012 9:32 PM ✅Answered}

It should be a decimal or numerical type (if you want to store temperature with decimal points). It should not be character (text). I actually guessed in may be a problem.

For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Becker's Law

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_{Monday, April 30, 2012 9:21 PM}

It works fine for me. What is the type of the temp column?

declare @temperature table (temp decimal(10,2))
insert into @temperature values (-30),(-12.2),(0),(10),(12.5), (31)

select MIN(temp) as [Min Temp], max(temp) as [Max temp]
from @temperature

For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Becker's Law

My blog

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_{Monday, April 30, 2012 9:26 PM}

A text type.

I've also been thinking about this, it will probably have to be an int type, right?

That would be a hard job to adjust that in my C# project since I create my tables there.

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_{Monday, April 30, 2012 9:38 PM}

Ok i'll try to change the data type of my columns during the debugging of my program.

I'll update this trade as soon as I managed to do so.

Thanks a lot Naomi

EDIT: I changed my column type to "number" and it works now. Thanks Naomi