MIN

The SQL MIN function is used to retrieve the smallest value from a column in a database table. It is a built-in function in Structured Query Language (SQL) that can be used in SELECT statements to return the minimum value of a specified column.

Syntax

The syntax of the MIN function is as follows:

SELECT MIN(column_name) 
FROM table_name;

In this syntax, column_name refers to the name of the column from which the minimum value needs to be retrieved, and table_name refers to the name of the table that contains the column.

Example

For example, consider a table named Training_Course with columns id, name, duration, and price.

Training_Course

ID	NAME	DURATION	PRICE
1	SQL	5	200
2	T-SQL	7	700
3	MySQL	5	600
4	PL/SQL	7	800
5	PostgreSQL	6	500

To retrieve the minimum price of all courses in the table, the following SQL query can be used:

select MIN(PRICE) from Training_Course;

Results: 200

It is also possible to use the MIN function with the GROUP BY clause to retrieve the minimum value of a column for each group of data in the table. For example, consider the following SQL query:

SELECT department, MIN(salary) 
FROM employees 
GROUP BY department;

This query will return the minimum salary value for each department in the employees table.

In summary, the SQL MIN function is a useful tool for retrieving the minimum value of a column in a database table. It can be used in conjunction with other SQL functions and clauses to perform more complex queries and retrieve specific data from a database.