How to get the max of two values in MySQL?

Question

I tried but failed:

mysql> select max(1,0); 

 ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual  that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use  near '0)' at line 1 

Answer 1

Use GREATEST()

E.g.:

SELECT GREATEST(2,1); 

Note: Whenever if any single value contains null at that time this function always returns null (Thanks to user @sanghavi7)

Answer 2

To get the maximum value of a column across a set of rows:

SELECT MAX(column1) FROM table; -- expect one result 

To get the maximum value of a set of columns, literals, or variables for each row:

SELECT GREATEST(column1, 1, 0, @val) FROM table; -- expect many results