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Oracle® TimesTen In-Memory Database SQL Reference
Release 11.2.1

Part Number E13070-03
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GREATEST

The GREATEST function returns the greatest of the list of one or more expressions.

SQL syntax

GREATEST (Expression [,...])

Parameters

GREATEST has the parameter:

Parameter Description
Expression [,...] List of one or more expressions that is evaluated to determine the greatest expression value. Operand or column can be numeric, character, or date. Each expression in the list must be from the same data type family.

Description

Use the GREATEST function to return the string with the greatest value:

Command> SELECT GREATEST ('GREAT', 'GREATER', 'GREATEST') FROM dual;
< GREATEST >
1 row found.

Use the GREATEST function to return the numeric expression with the greatest value. In this example, BINARY_DOUBLE is the data type with the highest numeric precedence, so arguments are implicitly converted to BINARY_DOUBLE before the comparison and the data type BINARY_DOUBLE is returned:

Command> SELECT GREATEST (10, 10.55, 10.1D) FROM dual;
< 10.5500000000000 >
1 row found.

Use the DESCRIBE command to confirm the data type returned is BINARY_DOUBLE:

Command> DESCRIBE SELECT GREATEST (10, 10.55, 10.1D) FROM dual;

Prepared Statement:
  Columns:
    EXP                             BINARY_DOUBLE NOT NULL

Use the GREATEST function to return the DATE expression with the greatest value. DATE and TIMESTAMP are in the same date family.

Command> SELECT GREATEST (DATE '2007-09-30',
         TIMESTAMP '2007-09-30:10:00:00') FROM dual;
< 2007-09-30 10:00:00 >
1 row found.

Attempt to use the GREATEST function to return the greatest value in the list of TT_DATE and TT_TIMESTAMP expressions. You see an error because TT_DATE and TT_TIMESTAMP are in different date subfamilies and cannot be used in the same list of expressions.

Command> SELECT GREATEST (TT_DATE '2007-09-30', TT_TIMESTAMP
         '2007-09-30:10:00:00') FROM dual;
2817: Invalid data type TT_TIMESTAMP for argument 2 for function GREATEST
The command failed.

Use the GREATEST function to return the TT_DATE expression with the greatest value.

Command> SELECT GREATEST (TT_DATE '2007-09-30',
         TT_DATE '2007-09-29', TT_DATE '2007-09-28') FROM dual;
< 2007-09-30 >
1 row found.