Help with Max function

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Help with Max function

Sql Student-446896

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Points: 1425
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August 22, 2013 at 9:32 am

#395350

I want to get the 10.1 and 10.2 in my output. How do i get that?
Table A has the columns change_id
Change_id
-----------
1.1
1.2
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
10.1
10.2

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HanShi SSC-Dedicated Points: 33507 More actions · Answer 1

The MAX statement will only return one single value. You can get the desired results using the TOP clause:

SELECT TOP 2

change_id

FROM table_a

ORDER BY change_id DESC

** Don't mistake the ‘stupidity of the crowd’ for the ‘wisdom of the group’! **

mickyT SSChampion Points: 10360 More actions · Answer 2

Hi

You could also try (assuming this is a numeric/float column)

with sampledata as (

select v

from (VALUES (1.1), (1.2), (2.1), (2.2), (10.1), (10.2), (10.3)) v (v)

)

select v

from sampledata

where cast(v as int) = (SELECT MAX(cast(v as int)) FROM sampledata);

Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86948 More actions · Answer 3

Sql Student-446896 (8/22/2013)
I want to get the 10.1 and 10.2 in my output. How do i get that?
Table A has the columns change_id
Change_id
-----------
1.1
1.2
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
10.1
10.2

There's about a thousand ways in SQL to get those 2 rows out of the sample data. But you haven't given enough information about the business rule to help us help you:

1. I want all the values in the result set whose change_id is > 10.

2. I want the 2 largest change_id values.

3. I want only change_id values where the number of digits to the left of the decimal point are 2.

4. I want the 2 highest ranked changes, which may contain more than 2 rows in the case of a tie.

5. I want the rows where the change_id sums to 20.3.

These are just a few examples of how the clarity of the business rule could affect the final query you're going to deliver.

My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004318 More actions · Answer 4

dwain.c (8/22/2013)
Sql Student-446896 (8/22/2013)
I want to get the 10.1 and 10.2 in my output. How do i get that?
Table A has the columns change_id
Change_id
-----------
1.1
1.2
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
10.1
10.2
There's about a thousand ways in SQL to get those 2 rows out of the sample data. But you haven't given enough information about the business rule to help us help you:
1. I want all the values in the result set whose change_id is > 10.
2. I want the 2 largest change_id values.
3. I want only change_id values where the number of digits to the left of the decimal point are 2.
4. I want the 2 highest ranked changes, which may contain more than 2 rows in the case of a tie.
5. I want the rows where the change_id sums to 20.3.
These are just a few examples of how the clarity of the business rule could affect the final query you're going to deliver.

BWAAA-HAAAA!!! Good guesses, Dwain, but it's painfully obvious that the OP wanted the two numbers whose sum is the cube root of 8365.427 which has only decending number pairs from left to right with the last digit forming a single-digit "pair", has no duplicate digits, and has all possible digits greater than 0 except for 1 and 9. 😛

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Dwain Camps SSC Guru Points: 86948 More actions · Answer 5

Jeff Moden (8/22/2013)
dwain.c (8/22/2013)
Sql Student-446896 (8/22/2013)
I want to get the 10.1 and 10.2 in my output. How do i get that?
Table A has the columns change_id
Change_id
-----------
1.1
1.2
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
10.1
10.2
There's about a thousand ways in SQL to get those 2 rows out of the sample data. But you haven't given enough information about the business rule to help us help you:
1. I want all the values in the result set whose change_id is > 10.
2. I want the 2 largest change_id values.
3. I want only change_id values where the number of digits to the left of the decimal point are 2.
4. I want the 2 highest ranked changes, which may contain more than 2 rows in the case of a tie.
5. I want the rows where the change_id sums to 20.3.
These are just a few examples of how the clarity of the business rule could affect the final query you're going to deliver.
BWAAA-HAAAA!!! Good guesses, Dwain, but it's painfully obvious that the OP wanted the two numbers whose sum is the cube root of 8365.427 which has only decending number pairs from left to right with the last digit forming a single-digit "pair", has no duplicate digits, and has all possible digits greater than 0 except for 1 and 9. 😛

I think I'm glad you're not one of my business users if you can come up with a diabolical requirement like that one. 😛

My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St