Question

We have 2 columns in a table and want to SELECT the lesser most of the two (unless it is equal to 0, then we want the nonzero column).

Is there a way to do this while keeping it a simple SELECT statement?

What we want is this:
SELECT LEAST(col1, col2) FROM myTable
Unless col2 is 0, in which case we want col1.

Answer 1

SELECT LEAST(
         IF(col1, col1, col2),
         IF(col2, col2, col1)
       )
FROM   myTable