MAX
The MAX() function in SQL is used to return the maximum value of an expression in a SELECT statement.
It can be used for numeric, character, and datetime column data types. If there are null values, then they are not considered for comparison.
Syntax
SELECT MAX(column_name)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;
In this syntax, the column_name argument is the column in the table_name that you wish to find the maximum value of.
Example
Consider the following Employee table:
| ID | NAME | SALARY |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John | 1000 |
| 2 | Robert | 2000 |
| 3 | Jim | 3000 |
| 4 | Jessica | 2500 |
To find the highest salary amongst all the employees, you would use the MAX() function as follows:
SELECT MAX(SALARY) AS "Highest Salary"
FROM Employee;
The above SQL returns 3000 as it’s the highest salary in the Employee table.
Warning: SQL MAX() function will only return a single row as a result. If multiple rows hold the highest value and if you want to get all these rows, you should not use MAX(). A better option would be sorting the column and then LIMIT the result just to the first row.