What's the best way to select the minimum value from several columns?

Question

Given the following table in SQL Server 2005:

ID   Col1   Col2   Col3
--   ----   ----   ----
1       3     34     76  
2      32    976     24
3       7             


        

Answer 1

If you use SQL 2005 you can do something neat like this:

;WITH    res
          AS ( SELECT   t.YourID ,
                        CAST(( SELECT   Col1 AS c01 ,
                                        Col2 AS c02 ,
                                        Col3 AS c03 ,
                                        Col4 AS c04 ,
                                        Col5 AS c05
                               FROM     YourTable AS cols
                               WHERE    YourID = t.YourID
                             FOR
                               XML AUTO ,
                                   ELEMENTS
                             ) AS XML) AS colslist
               FROM     YourTable AS t
             )
    SELECT  YourID ,
            colslist.query('for $c in //cols return min(data($c/*))').value('.',
                                            'real') AS YourMin ,
            colslist.query('for $c in //cols return avg(data($c/*))').value('.',
                                            'real') AS YourAvg ,
            colslist.query('for $c in //cols return max(data($c/*))').value('.',
                                            'real') AS YourMax
    FROM    res

This way you don't get lost in so many operators :)

However, this could be slower than the other choice.

It's your choice...

Answer 2

You could also do this with a union query. As the number of columns increase, you would need to modify the query, but at least it would be a straight forward modification.

Select T.Id, T.Col1, T.Col2, T.Col3, A.TheMin
From   YourTable T
       Inner Join (
         Select A.Id, Min(A.Col1) As TheMin
         From   (
                Select Id, Col1
                From   YourTable

                Union All

                Select Id, Col2
                From   YourTable

                Union All

                Select Id, Col3
                From   YourTable
                ) As A
         Group By A.Id
       ) As A
       On T.Id = A.Id

Answer 3

There are likely to be many ways to accomplish this. My suggestion is to use Case/When to do it. With 3 columns, it's not too bad.

Select Id,
       Case When Col1 < Col2 And Col1 < Col3 Then Col1
            When Col2 < Col1 And Col2 < Col3 Then Col2 
            Else Col3
            End As TheMin
From   YourTableNameHere

Answer 4

A little twist on the union query:

DECLARE @Foo TABLE (ID INT, Col1 INT, Col2 INT, Col3 INT)

INSERT @Foo (ID, Col1, Col2, Col3)
VALUES
(1, 3, 34, 76),
(2, 32, 976, 24),
(3, 7, 235, 3),
(4, 245, 1, 792)

SELECT
    ID,
    Col1,
    Col2,
    Col3,
    (
        SELECT MIN(T.Col)
        FROM
        (
            SELECT Foo.Col1 AS Col UNION ALL
            SELECT Foo.Col2 AS Col UNION ALL
            SELECT Foo.Col3 AS Col 
        ) AS T
    ) AS TheMin
FROM
    @Foo AS Foo

Answer 5

Using CROSS APPLY:

SELECT ID, Col1, Col2, Col3, MinValue
FROM YourTable
CROSS APPLY (SELECT MIN(d) AS MinValue FROM (VALUES (Col1), (Col2), (Col3)) AS a(d)) A

SQL Fiddle

Answer 6

You can use the "brute force" approach with a twist:

SELECT CASE
    WHEN Col1 <= Col2 AND Col1 <= Col3 THEN Col1
    WHEN                  Col2 <= Col3 THEN Col2
    ELSE                                    Col3
END AS [Min Value] FROM [Your Table]

When the first when condition fails it guarantees that Col1 is not the smallest value therefore you can eliminate it from rest of the conditions. Likewise for subsequent conditions. For five columns your query becomes:

SELECT CASE
    WHEN Col1 <= Col2 AND Col1 <= Col3 AND Col1 <= Col4 AND Col1 <= Col5 THEN Col1
    WHEN                  Col2 <= Col3 AND Col2 <= Col4 AND Col2 <= Col5 THEN Col2
    WHEN                                   Col3 <= Col4 AND Col3 <= Col5 THEN Col3
    WHEN                                                    Col4 <= Col5 THEN Col4
    ELSE                                                                      Col5
END AS [Min Value] FROM [Your Table]

Note that if there is a tie between two or more columns then <= ensures that we exit the CASE statement as early as possible.