SELECT min(x) FROM
(
 SELECT min(datecol1) AS x FROM table1
 UNION ALL
 SELECT min(datecol2) AS x FROM table2
 UNION ALL
 SELECT min(datecol3) AS x FROM table3
) ss;
Exercise for newbie: which of the AS clauses are redundant?

Um, all of them?

Yah, but only if you do this:

SELECT min(*) FROM
(
 SELECT min(datecol1) FROM table1
 UNION ALL
 SELECT min(datecol2) FROM table2
 UNION ALL
 SELECT min(datecol3) FROM table3
) ss;

Otherwise you need the first one, I think, unless you want to rely on PG's naming conventions for columns, then you could do:

select min(min) from
(
 SELECT min(datecol1) FROM table1
 UNION ALL
 ...
)

- John D. Burger
  MITRE



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