Cloud

min

min() is a function that returns the minimum value from a set of records.

Syntax

The syntax for this function is:

MIN(column_name)

This function’s output data type will always be the same as the input one, however it returns NULL if there are no records or input consists of NULL values and it also returns NaN if the input contains a NaN.

Examples

The following examples use a movies table that stores movie details, such as movie’s title, category, and IMDb rating.

CREATE TABLE movies (
    movieid int,
    moviename text,
    moviecategory text,
    imdbrating real
);
INSERT INTO movies (movieid, moviename, moviecategory, imdbrating)
VALUES
(8557411, 'The Shawshank Redemption', 'Drama', 9.4),
(8557421, 'Life Is Beautiful', 'Romance', 8.4),
(8557451, 'The Godfather', 'Crime', 9.3),
(8557311, 'Prisoners', 'Thriller', 8.5),
(8557321, 'Inception', 'Science Fiction', 9),
(8557351, 'The Dark Knight', 'Action', 9.2),
(8557221, 'Coco', 'Drama', 8.2),
(8557251, 'The Sixth Sense', 'Horror', 8.1),
(8557231, 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1', 'Action', 8.1),
(8557281, 'The Notebook', 'Romance', 7.8),
(8557291, 'Forrest Gump', 'Drama', 8);
SELECT * FROM movies;

The query returns:

+---------+--------------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| movieid | moviename                | moviecategory   | imdbrating  |
+---------+--------------------------+-----------------+-------------+
| 8557411 | The Shawshank Redemption | Drama           | 9.4         |
| 8557421 | Life Is Beautiful        | Romance         | 8.4         |
| 8557451 | The Godfather            | Crime           | 9.3         |
| 8557311 | Prisoners                | Thriller        | 8.5         |
| 8557321 | Inception                | Science Fiction | 9           |
| 8557351 | The Dark Knight          | Action          | 9.2         |
| 8557221 | Coco                     | Drama           | 8.2         |
| 8557251 | The Sixth Sense          | Horror          | 8.1         |
| 8557231 | Kill Bill: Vol. 1        | Action          | 8.1         |
| 8557281 | The Notebook             | Romance         | 7.8         |
| 8557291 | Forrest Gump             | Drama           | 8           |
+---------+--------------------------+-----------------+-------------+

min() with a single expression

For example, you might want to know what is the lowest rating of all stored movies:

SELECT MIN(imdbRating) AS "Lowest Rating"
FROM movies;
+----------------+
| Lowest Rating  |
+----------------+
| 7.8            |
+----------------+

min() with GROUP BY clause

This example uses a GROUP BY clause to group the movie categories, then uses the min() function to get the lowest rating in each movie category and arrange the results in ascending order.

SELECT
  movieCategory AS "Movie Category",
  MIN(imdbRating) AS "Lowest Rating"
FROM movies
GROUP BY movieCategory
ORDER BY MIN(imdbRating) ASC;

The query returns:

 Movie Category  | Lowest Rating
-----------------+---------------
 Romance         |           7.8
 Drama           |             8
 Horror          |           8.1
 Action          |           8.1
 Thriller        |           8.5
 Science Fiction |             9
 Crime           |           9.3
(7 rows)