Oracle LEAST() Function

The Oracle (PL/SQL) LEAST() function returns the smallest value in a list of expressions. The expressions must all be convertible to a common data type, which will be the type of the result. The result will be NULL if any of the expression evaluates to NULL.

Syntax

LEAST(expr1, expr2, ... expr_n)

Parameters

Return Value

Returns the smallest value in a list of expressions.

Example 1:

The example below shows the usage of LEAST() function.

LEAST(20, 30, 60, 10)
Result: 10

LEAST('20', '30', '60', '10')
Result: '10'

LEAST('D', 'G', 'X', 'A')
Result: 'A'

LEAST('Alpha', 'Beta', 'Delta', 'Gamma')
Result: 'Alpha'

LEAST('Alpha1', 'Alpha2', 'Alpha3', 'Alpha4')
Result: 'Alpha1'

Example 2:

Consider a database table called Sample with the following records:

To get the smallest value, when values of column x, column y and column z are compared, the following query can be used:

SELECT Sample.*, 
LEAST(x, y, z) AS LEAST_Value 
FROM Sample;

This will produce the result as shown below: