Min and max value for columns

Creating a function to return the min and max value for columns by concatenating the strings, splitting them into rows and then returning the correct value

Info

These functions will return the minimum and maximum values within a concatenated text string.

To use this you will need to create the values that you need to parse in, and also have the TextToRows function as we will convert the string into rows and parse the relevant value back.

Originally only for Integers, we added a minimum and maximum for strings too.

With the string functions you may need to change the collation and change it to a top with an order by if you are looking for case sensitive.

more: SQL Server function splitting text into data rows

SQL Code - MAX

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[GetStrMAX_INT](@Delim NVARCHAR(1),@Str NVARCHAR(200)) RETURNS INT AS BEGINDECLARE @RS INTSET @RS=(SELECT MAX(CONVERT(INT,REPLACE(WordStr,@Delim,'')))FROM Utilities.dbo.TextToRows(@Delim,@Str)WHERE ISNUMERIC(WordStr)=1)RETURN @RSENDGOSELECT dbo.GetStrMAX_INT(',','1,2,3,4,5,a')

SQL Code - MIN

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[GetStrMIN_INT](@Delim NVARCHAR(1),@Str NVARCHAR(200)) RETURNS INT AS BEGINDECLARE @RS INTSET @RS=(SELECT MIN(CONVERT(INT,REPLACE(WordStr,@Delim,'')))FROM Utilities.dbo.TextToRows(@Delim,@Str)WHERE ISNUMERIC(WordStr)=1)RETURN @RSENDGOSELECT dbo.GetStrMIN_INT(',','1,2,3,4,5,a')

We've got strings covered too...

ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[GetStrMAX](@Delim NVARCHAR(1),@Str NVARCHAR(200)) RETURNS NVARCHAR(100) AS BEGINDECLARE @RS NVARCHAR(100)SET @RS=(SELECT MAX(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(100),REPLACE(WordStr,@Delim,'')))FROM Utilities.dbo.TextToRows(@Delim,@Str))RETURN @RSENDGOALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[GetStrMIN](@Delim NVARCHAR(1),@Str NVARCHAR(200)) RETURNS NVARCHAR(100) AS BEGINDECLARE @RS NVARCHAR(100)SET @RS=(SELECT MIN(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(100),REPLACE(WordStr,@Delim,'')))FROM Utilities.dbo.TextToRows(@Delim,@Str))RETURN @RSENDGO

Testing

SELECT dbo.GetStrMAX_INT(',','1,2,3,x,5,a') --5SELECT dbo.GetStrMIN_INT(',','1,2,3,x,5,a') --1SELECT dbo.GetStrMAX(',','1,2,3,x,5,a') --xSELECT dbo.GetStrMIN(',','1,2,3,x,5,a') --1