Skip Headers
Oracle® Database SQL Language Reference
11g Release 2 (11.2)

Part Number E10592-02
Go to Documentation Home
Home
Go to Book List
Book List
Go to Table of Contents
Contents
Go to Index
Index
Go to Master Index
Master Index
Go to Feedback page
Contact Us

Go to previous page
Previous
Go to next page
Next
View PDF

LEAST

Syntax

Description of least.gif follows
Description of the illustration least.gif

Purpose

LEAST returns the least of the list of exprs. All exprs after the first are implicitly converted to the data type of the first expr before the comparison. Oracle Database compares the exprs using nonpadded comparison semantics. If the value returned by this function is character data, then its data type is always VARCHAR2.

See Also:

Table 3-10, "Implicit Type Conversion Matrix" for more information on implicit conversion, "Floating-Point Numbers" for information on binary-float comparison semantics, and "Data Type Comparison Rules"

Examples

The following statement selects the string with the least value:

SELECT LEAST('HARRY','HARRIOT','HAROLD') "LEAST"
     FROM DUAL;
 
LEAST 
------
HAROLD