Home Forums SQL Server 2008 T-SQL (SS2K8) Max of 2 dates RE: Max of 2 dates

  • June 25, 2013 at 1:47 pm

    #1627298

    Michael Valentine Jones (6/25/2013)

    select top 1

    a.[Date]

    from

    (

    select top 1 b.[Date] from table1 b order by b.[Date] desc

    union

    select top 1 c.[Date] from table2 c order by c.[Date] desc

    ) a

    order by

    a.[Date] desc

    I think he has two tables and is trying to get the max date for each row. If he was trying to get the max date for both columns (a single value as your query would return) then this would be cleaner and faster:

    SELECT MAX([date]) [Date] FROM

    (SELECT [date] FROM table1

    UNION

    SELECT [date] FROM table2) AS a

    "I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

    -- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001