How to get max and min of a varchar2

Question

there is a column clothes_size in table_1 where i need to get the max and min..how can i get the actual max and min if its datatype is varchar2(50) and not number..how can i do this so that once i have 2 or more clothes_size values returned i will only get the smallest or the largest. i assigned number values on each field and whats next??? any suggestion?
clothes_size
XS                1
S                2
M                3
L                4
XL                5
XXL                6

Answer 1

Examples of this approach:
select min(cloth_size_2) min_size
     , max(cloth_size_2) max_size
  from (select case when cloth_size = 'XS' then 1
                    when cloth_size = 'S' then 2
                    when cloth_size = 'M' then 3
                    when cloth_size = 'L' then 4
                    when cloth_size = 'XL' then 5
                    when cloth_size = 'XXL' then 6
               end as cloth_size_2
          from your_table);
<br>
select min(cloth_size_2) min_size
     , max(cloth_size_2) max_size
  from (select decode(cloth_size
                     , 'XS', 1
                     , 'S', 2
                     , 'M', 3
                     , 'L', 4
                     , 'XL', 5
                     , 'XXL', 6) cloth_size_2
          from your_table);