SQL MIN Function

The MIN function is used to find the minimum value in an expression.

Syntax

The syntax for the MIN function is,

SELECT MIN (<expression>)
FROM "table_name";

<expression> can be a column name or an arithmetic operation. An arithmetic operation can include more than one column, such as ("column1" - "column2").

It is also possible to have one or more columns in addition to the MIN function in the SELECT statement. In those cases, these columns need to be part of the GROUP BY clause as well:

SELECT "column_name1", "column_name2", ... "column_nameN", MIN (<expression>)
FROM "table_name";
GROUP BY "column_name1", "column_name2", ... "column_nameN";

Examples

We use the following table for our examples.

Table Store_Information

Example 1: MIN function on a column

To find the minimum sales amount, we type in,

SELECT MIN(Sales) FROM Store_Information;

Result:

250 represents the minimum value of all Sales entries: 1500, 250, 300, and 700.

Example 2: MIN function on an arithmetic operation

Assume that sales tax is 10% of the sales amount, we use the following SQL statement to get the minimum sales tax amount:

SELECT MIN(Sales*0.1) FROM Store_Information;

Result:

SQL will first calculate "Sales*0.1" and then apply the MIN function to the result for the final answer.

Example 3: MIN function with a GROUP BY clause

To get the minimum amount of sales for each store, we type in,

SELECT Store_Name, MIN(Sales) FROM Store_Information GROUP BY Store_Name;

Result: