MIN is an aggregate function that evaluates the minimum of
an expression over a set of rows (see
The
DISTINCT and ALL qualifiers eliminate or retain duplicates, but these qualifiers
have no effect in a MIN expression. Only one DISTINCT aggregate expression
per
The Expression can contain multiple column references or expressions, but it cannot contain another aggregate or subquery. It must evaluate to a built-in data type. You can therefore call methods that evaluate to built-in data types. (For example, a method that returns a java.lang.Integer or int evaluates to an INTEGER.) If an expression evaluates to NULL, the aggregate skips that value.
The type's comparison rules determine the minimum value. For CHAR and VARCHAR, the number of blank spaces at the end of the value can affect how MIN is evaluated. For example, if the values 'z' and 'z ' are both stored in a column, you cannot control which one will be returned as the minimum, because blank spaces are ignored for character comparisons.
The resulting data type is the same as the expression on which it operates (it will never overflow).