SQL MAX of multiple columns?

Question

How do you return 1 value per row of the max of several columns:

TableName

[Number, Date1, Date2, Date3, Cost]

I need to return something like this:

[Number, Most_Recent_Date, Cost]

Query?

Answer 1

You could create a function where you pass the dates and then add the function to the select statement like below. select Number, dbo.fxMost_Recent_Date(Date1,Date2,Date3), Cost

create FUNCTION  fxMost_Recent_Date 

( @Date1 smalldatetime, @Date2 smalldatetime, @Date3 smalldatetime ) RETURNS smalldatetime AS BEGIN DECLARE @Result smalldatetime

declare @MostRecent smalldatetime

set @MostRecent='1/1/1900'

if @Date1>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date1 end
if @Date2>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date2 end
if @Date3>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date3 end
RETURN @MostRecent

END

Answer 2

Here is another nice solution for the Max functionality using T-SQL and SQL Server

SELECT [Other Fields],
  (SELECT Max(v) 
   FROM (VALUES (date1), (date2), (date3),...) AS value(v)) as [MaxDate]
FROM [YourTableName]

Answer 3

Either of the two samples below will work:

SELECT  MAX(date_columns) AS max_date
FROM    ( (SELECT   date1 AS date_columns
           FROM     data_table         )
          UNION
          ( SELECT  date2 AS date_columns
            FROM    data_table
          )
          UNION
          ( SELECT  date3 AS date_columns
            FROM    data_table
          )
        ) AS date_query

The second is an add-on to lassevk's answer.

SELECT  MAX(MostRecentDate)
FROM    ( SELECT    CASE WHEN date1 >= date2
                              AND date1 >= date3 THEN date1
                         WHEN date2 >= date1
                              AND date2 >= date3 THEN date2
                         WHEN date3 >= date1
                              AND date3 >= date2 THEN date3
                         ELSE date1
                    END AS MostRecentDate
          FROM      data_table
        ) AS date_query 

Answer 4

If you're using MySQL, you can use

SELECT GREATEST(col1, col2 ...) FROM table

Answer 5

For T-SQL (MSSQL 2008+)

SELECT
  (SELECT
     MAX(MyMaxName) 
   FROM ( VALUES 
            (MAX(iSortCode)), 
            (MAX(Field2)) 
        ) MyAlias(MyMaxName)
  ) 
FROM MyTable1

Answer 6

From SQL Server 2012 we can use IIF.

 DECLARE @Date1 DATE='2014-07-03';
 DECLARE @Date2 DATE='2014-07-04';
 DECLARE @Date3 DATE='2014-07-05';

 SELECT IIF(@Date1>@Date2,
        IIF(@Date1>@Date3,@Date1,@Date3),
        IIF(@Date2>@Date3,@Date2,@Date3)) AS MostRecentDate