LEAST

Syntax

Description of the illustration least.gif

Purpose

LEAST returns the least of the list of exprs. All exprs after the first are implicitly converted to the datatype of the first expr before the comparison. Oracle Database compares the exprs using nonpadded comparison semantics. If the value returned by this function is character data, then its datatype is always VARCHAR2.

See Also:

Table 2-10, "Implicit Type Conversion Matrix" for more information on implicit conversion, "Floating-Point Numbers" for information on binary-float comparison semantics, and "Datatype Comparison Rules"

Examples

The following statement selects the string with the least value:

SELECT LEAST('HARRY','HARRIOT','HAROLD') "LEAST"
     FROM DUAL;
 
LEAST 
------
HAROLD