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Oracle Minimum date function

Is there any function in Oracle like 'MINDATE' or something which can be used to select the minimum date value from a field.

I have a date field called 'ENTDATE', and it can have 3-4 different date values.
Now, I just want to get the minimum of those 3-4 date values.

Basically, I want to use something like
SELECT MIN(ENTDATE);

But since it is a date field thus I can not use the MIN function.

Urgent help needed...!!

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

AlbertYou

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dash420

you can use

select min(enddate) from <table>

it will fetch minium enddate in the table.

if you have list of date value. then u can use

select least(date1,date2,date3) from dual, it will gives u the minium of data1, date2, date3.

Bigfam5

You need to be careful with LEAST if any of the columns are NULL you will get NULL

Guy Hengel [angelIII / a3]

If your date fields in in fact a varchar field with a string representing a data, MIN will not work as expected.
You need to convert the varchar value to a date value (using to_date() function. If your field IS of type date, MIN should work, but if it does not return the value you expect, you should post the data you have (at least some relevant data) the query you use, the result you get and the result you expect.

CHeers

jpkemp

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