Josh Berkus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Stefan, > > > I know the LEAST and GREATEST functions are not part > > of standard SQL, but they sure were handy where I came > > from (Oracle-land). > > Um, what's wrong with MAX and MIN, exactly?
MAX and MIN are single-parameter aggregate functions. LEAST and GREATEST are two-parameter (though in postgres they could be defined for 3 and more parameters) scalar functions. eg: SELECT max(a) FROM bar would return a single tuple with the maximum value of a from amongst every record. whereas: SELECT greatest(a,b) FROM bar would return one tuple for every record in the table with a single value representing the greater of bar.a and bar.b. You could define your own functions to do this but it would be tiresome to define one for every datatype. -- greg ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to [EMAIL PROTECTED])