Question

I have a table in SQL Server and have a column that I want to calculate the minimum value from three other columns (Vendor1, Vendor2, and Vendor3). I have figured out how to sum the values but can’t figure out how to find the minimum value- I keep getting an error that an aggregate may not appear in a computed column. Is there a simple way to figure this out?

Answer 1

You can use a CASE expresion

CREATE TABLE T
  (
     Vendor1 INT,
     Vendor2 INT,
     Vendor3 INT,
     MinVendor AS CASE
          WHEN Vendor1 < Vendor2
               AND Vendor1 < Vendor3 THEN Vendor1
          WHEN Vendor2 < Vendor3 THEN Vendor2
          ELSE Vendor3
        END
  ) 

But having columns Vendor1 - 3 probably indicates that your table is not in first normal form.