LEAST

Purpose

The LEAST function returns the smallest value from a list of one or more expressions.

Syntax

LEAST(expr [, expr ]...)

Parameters

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

Return type

The database uses the first expr parameter to determine the return type. If the data types of the remaining parameters differ from the data type of the first expr parameter, the database implicitly converts each subsequent expr parameter to the data type of the first expr parameter.

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

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

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

Examples

• Compare the strings AC, BB, and C and return the smallest string.

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

• Compare the integers 1, the string 6, and 5.555 and return the smallest value.

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