min

Calculates the minimum of the non-NULL input values. The selected value keeps its original native type.

With one argument, min is an aggregate over rows. With two or more arguments, it is a scalar function comparing the arguments of one row.

Syntax

text

min(value)
min(value1, value2, ...)

Arguments

value — An expression to compare across input rows. SQL value ordering and the selected collation determine the result.
value1, value2, ... — Two or more values for the scalar form.

Returned value

The smallest input value. The aggregate skips NULL and returns NULL for empty or all-NULL input. The scalar form returns NULL if any argument is NULL.

Examples

Finding the smallest salary

sql

CREATE TABLE employees (salary INTEGER);
INSERT INTO employees VALUES (46000), (NULL), (59000), (72000);

sql

SELECT min(salary)
FROM employees
FORMAT csv;

text

Comparing native dates

sql

CREATE TABLE events (day Date);
INSERT INTO events VALUES (CAST('2025-03-10' AS Date)), (CAST('2025-01-05' AS Date));

sql

SELECT min(day)
FROM events
FORMAT csv;

text

"2025-01-05"

Comparing values within one row

sql

SELECT min(8, 3, 12), min(8, NULL, 12)
FORMAT csv;

text

3,\N

Related functions

max selects the largest value.
any_value selects a representative non-NULL value.
min_state and min_merge store and combine intermediate extrema.

min ​

min