如果您正在使用SQL Server 2005，您可以使用UNPIVOT特性。下面是一个完整的例子:

create table dates 
(
  number int,
  date1 datetime,
  date2 datetime,
  date3 datetime 
)

insert into dates values (1, '1/1/2008', '2/4/2008', '3/1/2008')
insert into dates values (1, '1/2/2008', '2/3/2008', '3/3/2008')
insert into dates values (1, '1/3/2008', '2/2/2008', '3/2/2008')
insert into dates values (1, '1/4/2008', '2/1/2008', '3/4/2008')

select max(dateMaxes)
from (
  select 
    (select max(date1) from dates) date1max, 
    (select max(date2) from dates) date2max,
    (select max(date3) from dates) date3max
) myTable
unpivot (dateMaxes For fieldName In (date1max, date2max, date3max)) as tblPivot

drop table dates

请尝试使用UNPIVOT:

SELECT MAX(MaxDt) MaxDt
   FROM tbl 
UNPIVOT
   (MaxDt FOR E IN 
      (Date1, Date2, Date3)
)AS unpvt;

您可以创建一个函数，其中传递日期，然后将该函数添加到select语句，如下所示。 select Number, dbo.fxMost_Recent_Date(Date1,Date2,Date3)，成本

create FUNCTION  fxMost_Recent_Date 

（ @Date1 smalldatetime, @Date2 smalldatetime, @Date3 smalldatetime ） 返回smalldatetime 作为 开始 DECLARE @Result smalldatetime

declare @MostRecent smalldatetime

set @MostRecent='1/1/1900'

if @Date1>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date1 end
if @Date2>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date2 end
if @Date3>@MostRecent begin set @MostRecent=@Date3 end
RETURN @MostRecent

END

如果你正在使用MySQL或PostgreSQL或Oracle或BigQuery，你可以使用

SELECT GREATEST(col1, col2 ...) FROM table

不幸的是，拉斯的答案虽然看似显而易见，但却有一个关键的缺陷。它不能处理NULL值。任何一个NULL值都会返回Date1。不幸的是，任何试图解决这个问题的尝试往往会变得非常混乱，并且不能很好地扩展到4或更多的值。

Databyss的第一个答案看起来(现在也是)不错。但是，不清楚答案是否可以轻易地从多表连接中推断出3个值，而不是从单个表中推断出3个值。我想避免将这样的查询变成子查询，只是为了得到最多3列，而且我非常确定databyss的优秀想法可以被清理一点。

废话不多说，下面是我的解决方案(源自databyss的想法)。 它使用交叉连接选择常量来模拟多表连接的效果。需要注意的重要一点是，所有必要的别名都可以正确地执行(并非总是如此)，这使得模式非常简单，并且可以通过额外的列进行相当的可伸缩性。

DECLARE @v1 INT ,
        @v2 INT ,
        @v3 INT
--SET @v1 = 1 --Comment out SET statements to experiment with 
              --various combinations of NULL values
SET @v2 = 2
SET @v3 = 3

SELECT  ( SELECT    MAX(Vals)
          FROM      ( SELECT    v1 AS Vals
                      UNION
                      SELECT    v2
                      UNION
                      SELECT    v3
                    ) tmp
          WHERE     Vals IS NOT NULL -- This eliminates NULL warning

        ) AS MaxVal
FROM    ( SELECT    @v1 AS v1
        ) t1
        CROSS JOIN ( SELECT @v2 AS v2
                   ) t2
        CROSS JOIN ( SELECT @v3 AS v3
                   ) t3

我更喜欢基于case-when的解决方案，我的假设是，与其他可能的解决方案(如交叉应用、values()、自定义函数等)相比，它对可能的性能下降的影响应该最小。

下面是case-when版本，它在大多数可能的测试用例中处理空值:

SELECT
    CASE 
        WHEN Date1 > coalesce(Date2,'0001-01-01') AND Date1 > coalesce(Date3,'0001-01-01') THEN Date1 
        WHEN Date2 > coalesce(Date3,'0001-01-01') THEN Date2 
        ELSE Date3
    END AS MostRecentDate
    , *
from 
(values
     (  1, cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
    ,(  2, cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
    ,(  3, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
    ,(  4, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date))
    ,(  5, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
    ,(  6, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2001-01-01' as Date))
    ,( 11, cast(NULL         as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
    ,( 12, cast(NULL         as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
    ,( 13, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL         as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date))
    ,( 14, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL         as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
    ,( 15, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL         as Date))
    ,( 16, cast('2002-01-01' as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL         as Date))
    ,( 21, cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL         as Date), cast(NULL         as Date))
    ,( 22, cast(NULL         as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date), cast(NULL         as Date))
    ,( 23, cast(NULL         as Date), cast(NULL         as Date), cast('2003-01-01' as Date))
    ,( 31, cast(NULL         as Date), cast(NULL         as Date), cast(NULL         as Date))

) as demoValues(id, Date1,Date2,Date3)
order by id
;

结果是:

MostRecent    id   Date1      Date2      Date3
2003-01-01    1    2001-01-01 2002-01-01 2003-01-01
2003-01-01    2    2001-01-01 2003-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01    3    2002-01-01 2001-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01    4    2002-01-01 2003-01-01 2001-01-01
2003-01-01    5    2003-01-01 2001-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01    6    2003-01-01 2002-01-01 2001-01-01
2003-01-01    11   NULL       2002-01-01 2003-01-01
2003-01-01    12   NULL       2003-01-01 2002-01-01
2003-01-01    13   2003-01-01 NULL       2002-01-01
2003-01-01    14   2002-01-01 NULL       2003-01-01
2003-01-01    15   2003-01-01 2002-01-01 NULL
2003-01-01    16   2002-01-01 2003-01-01 NULL
2003-01-01    21   2003-01-01 NULL       NULL
2003-01-01    22   NULL       2003-01-01 NULL
2003-01-01    23   NULL       NULL       2003-01-01
NULL          31   NULL       NULL       NULL