Alternate of Min/Max

Question

I have a query which uses Min function.
I want to use something alternate in order to avoid Min/Max or order by.
I have a query which selects a row based on the min value of one of its column.
how to avoid the use of min..
ex:
a query is like
Select a.name from all_names a
where a.active_date = (select min(active_date) from all_names ))

Answer 1

Manas,
Did you get Hoek's example Query, here is the Tested example run
SQL> select * from emp e
  2  where not exists ( select null
  3  from emp x where x.hiredate < e.hiredate)
  4  /
     EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL       COMM     DEPTNO
      7369 SMITH      CLERK           7902 17-DEC-80        800                    99
SQL> select * from emp e
  2  where e.hiredate
  3  = ( select min(hiredate) from emp )
  4  /
     EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL       COMM     DEPTNO
      7369 SMITH      CLERK           7902 17-DEC-80        800                    99Explain Plans
SQL> explain plan for
  2  select * from emp e
  3  where not exists ( select null
  4  from emp x where x.hiredate < e.hiredate);
Explained.
SQL> select * from TABLE(DBMS_XPLAN.DISPLAY)
  2  /
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
Plan hash value: 2238887044
| Id  | Operation           | Name | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT    |      |    13 |   585 |     8  (25)| 00:00:01 |
|   1 |  MERGE JOIN ANTI    |      |    13 |   585 |     8  (25)| 00:00:01 |
|   2 |   SORT JOIN         |      |    14 |   518 |     4  (25)| 00:00:01 |
|   3 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP  |    14 |   518 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  4 |   SORT UNIQUE       |      |    14 |   112 |     4  (25)| 00:00:01 |
|   5 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP  |    14 |   112 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
   4 - access(INTERNAL_FUNCTION("X"."HIREDATE")<INTERNAL_FUNCTION("E"."H
              IREDATE"))
       filter(INTERNAL_FUNCTION("X"."HIREDATE")<INTERNAL_FUNCTION("E"."H
              IREDATE"))
20 rows selected.
SQL> explain plan for select * from emp e
  2  where e.hiredate
  3  = ( select min(hiredate) from emp )
  4  /
Explained.
SQL> select * from TABLE(DBMS_XPLAN.DISPLAY)
  2  /
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
Plan hash value: 1876299339
| Id  | Operation           | Name | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT    |      |     1 |    37 |     6   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  1 |  TABLE ACCESS FULL  | EMP  |     1 |    37 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   2 |   SORT AGGREGATE    |      |     1 |     8 |            |          |
|   3 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP  |    14 |   112 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
   1 - filter("E"."HIREDATE"= (SELECT MIN("HIREDATE") FROM "EMP" "EMP"))
15 rows selected.I hope your query is answered.
SS