GREATEST

Returns the largest value in a list of expressions.

Behavior Type

Stable

Syntax

GREATEST ( expression1, expression2, ... expression-n )

Parameters

expression1, expression2, and expression-n are the expressions to be evaluated.

Notes

Examples

This example returns 9 as the greatest in the list of expressions:

=> SELECT GREATEST(7, 5, 9);
 GREATEST
----------
        9
(1 row)

Note that putting quotes around the integer expressions returns the same result as the first example:

=> SELECT GREATEST('7', '5', '9');
 GREATEST
----------
 9
(1 row)

The next example returns FLOAT 1.5 as the greatest because the integer is implicitly cast to float:

=> SELECT GREATEST(1, 1.5);
 GREATEST
----------
      1.5
(1 row)

The following example returns 'vertica' as the greatest:

=> SELECT GREATEST('vertica', 'analytic', 'database');
 GREATEST
----------
 vertica
(1 row)

Notice this next command returns NULL:

=> SELECT GREATEST('vertica', 'analytic', 'database', null);
 GREATEST
----------

(1 row)

And one more:

=> SELECT GREATEST('sit', 'site', 'sight');
 GREATEST
----------
 site
(1 row)

See Also