How to get MAX value of a version-number (varchar) column in T-SQL
- by Ogre Psalm33
I have a table defined like this:
Column: Version Message
Type: varchar(20) varchar(100)
----------------------------------
Row 1: 2.2.6 Message 1
Row 2: 2.2.7 Message 2
Row 3: 2.2.12 Message 3
Row 4: 2.3.9 Message 4
Row 5: 2.3.15 Message 5
I want to write a T-Sql query that will get message for the MAX version number, where the "Version" column represents a software version number. I.e., 2.2.12 is greater than 2.2.7, and 2.3.15 is greater than 2.3.9, etc. Unfortunately, I can't think of an easy way to do that without using CHARINDEX or some complicated other split-like logic. Running this query:
SELECT MAX(Version) FROM my_table
will yield the erroneous result:
2.3.9
When it should really be 2.3.15. Any bright ideas that don't get too complex?
