SQL query for finding the longest name and shortest name in a table

Question

I have a table with one of the columns is of type varchar(city). and want to find the longest and shortest of values stored in that column.

select a.city, a.city         


        

Answer 1

Initially finding the shortest length of the city and taking an union with the longest length of the city. This minimizes the complexity of the query.

(select city, char_length(city) as len_city
from station
order by len_city limit 1)
union ( select city, char_length(city) as len_city
    from station
    order by len_city desc limit 1) 
order by len_city