Ruby on Rails: getting the max value from a DB column

Question

Currently I can make the straight-up SQL query on my DB:

SELECT MAX(bar) FROM table_name

And it returns

Answer 1

Assuming your model name is Bar and it has a column named bar, this should work:

Bar.maximum("bar")

See the excellent Rails Guides section on Calculations for more info.

Answer 2

one more way

Bar.select("Max(bar) as max_bar").first.max_bar