Re: Finding nearest numeric value

Sean Davis wrote:
> On 8/17/05 8:50 AM, "Poul Møller Hansen" <freebsd(at)pbnet(dot)dk> wrote:
>
>
>>Does anyone know how to find the row with the nearest numeric value, not
>>necessarily an exact match ?
>
>
> To find the nearest value in number_column to some CONSTANT (where you
> replace constant with a number), try:
>
> select *,(number_column - CONSTANT)^2 as d from tablename order by d limit
> 1;
>

Save yourself some cycles - use abs() instead of exponentiation.

--
Peter Fein pfein(at)pobox(dot)com 773-575-0694

Basically, if you're not a utopianist, you're a schmuck. -J. Feldman