CODEWITHSUNDEEP
postgresql
HRJ
HRJ

Reputation: 17767

How to get min/max of two integers in Postgres/SQL?

How do I find the maximum (or minimum) of two integers in Postgres/SQL? One of the integers is not a column value.

I will give an example scenario:

I would like to subtract an integer from a column (in all rows), but the result should not be less than zero. So, to begin with, I have:

UPDATE my_table
SET my_column = my_column - 10;

But this can make some of the values negative. What I would like (in pseudo code) is:

UPDATE my_table
SET my_column = MAXIMUM(my_column - 10, 0);

Upvotes: 270

Views: 138455

Answers (2)

Donnie
Donnie

Reputation: 46913

You want the inline sql case:

set my_column = case when my_column - 10 > 0 then my_column - 10 else 0 end

max() is an aggregate function and gets the maximum of a row of a result set.

Edit: oops, didn't know about greatest and least in postgres. Use that instead.

Upvotes: 24

Mark Byers
Mark Byers

Reputation: 838206

Have a look at GREATEST and LEAST.

UPDATE my_table
SET my_column = GREATEST(my_column - 10, 0);

Upvotes: 528

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