Contents
Definition and Syntax of SQL MIN()
SQL MIN() is an aggregate function that returns the data record with the lowest value from the defined column.
To find the lowest value, we have to use the SELECT statement to define our selection first:
Example
SELECT MIN(col_name)
FROM tbl_name
WHERE conditions;The arguments are simple:
col_namerepresents the name of the data columntbl_namerepresents the name of the data tableconditionsdefines specific conditions to filter the selection against
An Example of SQL MIN() Function Use
To show you how this SQL function works, we will use a demo data table and a code example to find the lowest value in a particular column.
A Demo Database
The table we'll be using for our example is called Products:
| ID | Name | Supplier_ID | Category_ID | Unit | Price | Unit_in_stock | Unit_on_order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cucumber | 3 | 3 | 5 crates | 19 | 17 | 16 |
| 2 | Tomato | 3 | 3 | 6 crates | 1 | 24 | Null |
| 3 | Cheese | 3 | 4 | 5 kg boxes | 11 | 11 | 6 |
| 4 | Milk | 3 | 3 | 5 L bottles | 22 | 56 | 12 |
| 5 | Bread | 3 | 3 | 36 boxes | 26 | 26 | 1 |
Finding the Lowest Value
The code you see in the example below returns the lowest value in the Price column of the Products table: