Update statement - need lowest value from 4 different columns copied into 5 column within same row

Question

I'm fairly new to SQL Server and would really appreciate some help with this.

I have 4 columns in the same db table each with differing numerical values e.g.

col1 - 8, 6, 7 
col2 - 9, 8, 5
col3 - 12, 15, 2   
col4 - 3, 1, 11

What I would like to do is pick the lowest value from each row and place it within a 5th column such that the result for the above would be:

col5 - 3, 1, 2

I have tried using a select subquery but with no luck. I feel like this should be easy but can't either work it out or find anything similar elsewhere!

Many thanks.

You can use the anser from this question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7995945/how-to-i-modify-this-t-sql-query-to-return-the-maximum-value-for-different-colum/7996068#7996068 — Mikael Eriksson, Nov 09 '11 at 20:23

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 09 '11 at 20:28

4

UPDATE T
SET    col5 = (SELECT MIN(col)
               FROM   (VALUES (col1),
                              (col2),
                              (col3),
                              (col4)) T(col))

answered Nov 09 '11 at 20:28

Martin Smith

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Update statement - need lowest value from 4 different columns copied into 5 column within same row

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