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

Following query seems simple enough:

select 
    city, leng 
from
    (select top 1 
         city, len(city) leng 
     from 
         station 
     where 
         len(city) = (select min(len(city)) from station) 
     order by 
         city

     Union all

     select top 1 
         city, len(city) leng 
     from 
         station 
     where 
         len(city) = (select max(len(city)) from station)  
     order by 
         city) result;

The 1st query inside returns the city with the minimum length, while the 2nd query returns the city with the maximum length.

Hope this helps.