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Find the Maximum Value in a Numeric Sequence

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Use the Max operator to find the highest value in a sequence of numeric values.

Example 1

The following example finds the latest date of hire for any employee.

If you run this query against the sample Northwind database, the output is: 11/15/1994 12:00:00 AM.

System.Nullable<DateTime> latestHireDate =
    (from emp in db.Employees
    select emp.HireDate)
    .Max();

Console.WriteLine(latestHireDate);

Dim latestHireDate = Aggregate emp In db.Employees _
                     Into Max(emp.HireDate)

Console.WriteLine(latestHireDate)

Example 2

The following example finds the most units in stock for any product.

If you run this example against the sample Northwind database, the output is: 125.

System.Nullable<Int16> maxUnitsInStock =
    (from prod in db.Products
    select prod.UnitsInStock)
    .Max();

Console.WriteLine(maxUnitsInStock);

Dim maxUnitsInStock = Aggregate prod In db.Products _
                      Into Max(prod.UnitsInStock)

Console.WriteLine(maxUnitsInStock)

Example 3

The following example uses Max to find the Products that have the highest unit price in each category. The output then lists the results by category.

var maxQuery =
    from prod in db.Products
    group prod by prod.CategoryID into grouping
    select new
    {
        grouping.Key,
        MostExpensiveProducts =
            from prod2 in grouping
            where prod2.UnitPrice == grouping.Max(prod3 =>
                prod3.UnitPrice)
            select prod2
    };

foreach (var grp in maxQuery)
{
    Console.WriteLine(grp.Key);
    foreach (var listing in grp.MostExpensiveProducts)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(listing.ProductName);
    }
}

Dim maxQuery = From prod In db.Products() _
               Group prod By prod.CategoryID Into grouping = Group _
               Select CategoryID, _
               MostExpensiveProducts = _
                   (From prod2 In grouping _
                    Where prod2.UnitPrice = _
                   grouping.Max(Function(prod3) prod3.UnitPrice))

For Each grp In maxQuery
    Console.WriteLine(grp.CategoryID)
    For Each listing In grp.MostExpensiveProducts
        Console.WriteLine(listing.ProductName)
    Next
Next

If you run the previous query against the Northwind sample database, your results will resemble the following:

1

Côte de Blaye

2

Vegie-spread

3

Sir Rodney's Marmalade

4

Raclette Courdavault

5

Gnocchi di nonna Alice

6

Thüringer Rostbratwurst

7

Manjimup Dried Apples

8

Carnarvon Tigers

See also