LEAST

Purpose

LEAST() returns the minimum value in a list of one or more expressions.

Syntax

LEAST(expr [, expr ]...)

Parameters

expr is a list of one or more expressions. It can be of the NUMBER, FLOAT, BINARY_FLOAT, BINARY_DOUBLE, CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, or CLOB data type.

Return type

OceanBase Database uses the first expr parameter to determine the return type. If the remaining parameters have different data types from that of the first expr parameter, OceanBase Database implicitly converts each parameter after the first expr parameter to the data type of the first expr parameter.

• If the first expr parameter is of the NUMBER, FLOAT, BINARY_FLOAT, or BINARY_DOUBLE data type, the return type is the same as the data type of the first expr parameter.

• If the first expr parameter is of the CHAR, VARCHAR2, or CLOB data type, the return type is VARCHAR2.

• If the first expr parameter is of the NCHAR or NVARCHAR2 data type, the return type is NVARCHAR2.

Examples

• The following example compares the strings AC, BB, and C and returns the string with the minimum value.

  obclient> SELECT LEAST('AC','BB','C') "MIN" FROM DUAL;
  +-----+
  | MIN |
  +-----+
  | AC  |
  +-----+
  1 row in set
  

• The following example compares the integer 1 and the strings 6 and 5.555 and returns the minimum value.

  obclient> SELECT LEAST (1,'6','5.555') "MIN" FROM DUAL;
  +-----+
  | MIN |
  +-----+
  |   1 |
  +-----+
  1 row in set