MySQL的max()函数是用来找出一个记录集中的最大值记录。

要了解MAX功能考虑的EMPLOYEE_TBL表具有以下记录：

mysql> SELECT * FROM employee_tbl;+------+------+------------+--------------------+| id | name | work_date | daily_typing_pages |+------+------+------------+--------------------+| 1 | John | 2007-01-24 | 250 || 2 | Ram | 2007-05-27 | 220 || 3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 | 170 || 3 | Jack | 2007-04-06 | 100 || 4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 | 220 || 5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 | 300 || 5 | Zara | 2007-02-06 | 350 |+------+------+------------+--------------------+7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

现在，假设根据上述要取表中daily_typing_pages的最大值值，简单地使用下面的命令：

mysql> SELECT MAX(daily_typing_pages) -> FROM employee_tbl;+-------------------------+| MAX(daily_typing_pages) |+-------------------------+| 350 |+-------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

可以找到所有的记录，最大值为每名使用GROUP BY子句如下：

mysql> SELECT id, name, work_date, MAX(daily_typing_pages) -> FROM employee_tbl GROUP BY name;+------+------+------------+-------------------------+| id | name | work_date | MAX(daily_typing_pages) |+------+------+------------+-------------------------+| 3 | Jack | 2007-05-06 | 170 || 4 | Jill | 2007-04-06 | 220 || 1 | John | 2007-01-24 | 250 || 2 | Ram | 2007-05-27 | 220 || 5 | Zara | 2007-06-06 | 350 |+------+------+------------+-------------------------+5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

也可以使用MIN函数及MAX功能找到的最低值，试试下面的例子：

mysql> SELECT MIN(daily_typing_pages) least, MAX(daily_typing_pages) max -> FROM employee_tbl;+-------+------+| least | max |+-------+------+| 100 | 350 |+-------+------+1 row in set (0.01 sec)