Query Question

Greetings,
I am new to SQL Server and am trying to write a query for an application I
am working on. The table I am working with has three dollar amounts in
seperate columns that are prices on the same product from multiple
distributors. I am having trouble building a query that does a comparison on
these fields and returns a list of records based upon the lowest dollar amount
The results would be then used to populate a new table using only the lowest
price as returned from the SELECT statement
Is there someone who might be able to point me to some sample code that I
could use to help me figure out how this could be written
Thanks,
Joe.SELECT col1, col2, col3, ...
(SELECT MIN(price)
FROM
(SELECT price1 AS price UNION ALL
SELECT price2 UNION ALL
SELECT price3) AS T) AS min_price
FROM YourTable
The three price columns collectively represent a "repeating group". In
relational design this is a serious error and the difficulty you are having
is a consequence of the design problem. Hopefully your intention is to fix
this.
--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
--|||David,
I assume that MIN will still work in the same manner if the price values
being compared are in seperate tables. I am working on different ways to get
rid of the repeating problem.
Thanks for your help
Joe.
"David Portas" wrote:
> SELECT col1, col2, col3, ...
> (SELECT MIN(price)
> FROM
> (SELECT price1 AS price UNION ALL
> SELECT price2 UNION ALL
> SELECT price3) AS T) AS min_price
> FROM YourTable
> The three price columns collectively represent a "repeating group". In
> relational design this is a serious error and the difficulty you are having
> is a consequence of the design problem. Hopefully your intention is to fix
> this.
> --
> David Portas
> SQL Server MVP
> --
>
>|||MIN retrieves the lowest non-NULL value of a set. If you can join the
additional table into the query then you should be able to make use of MIN.
My point about your design was that it would be easier and more efficient to
do this if your design was correctly normalized.
--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
--