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

这是一个古老的答案，在很多方面都有问题。

请参阅https://stackoverflow.com/a/6871572/194653，它有更多的赞，与sql server 2008+一起工作，并处理空值等。

原创但有问题的答案:

你可以使用CASE语句:

SELECT
    CASE
        WHEN Date1 >= Date2 AND Date1 >= Date3 THEN Date1
        WHEN Date2 >= Date1 AND Date2 >= Date3 THEN Date2
        WHEN Date3 >= Date1 AND Date3 >= Date2 THEN Date3
        ELSE                                        Date1
    END AS MostRecentDate

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

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

另一种使用CASE WHEN的方法

SELECT CASE true 
       WHEN max(row1) >= max(row2) THEN CASE true WHEN max(row1) >= max(row3) THEN max(row1) ELSE max(row3) end ELSE
       CASE true WHEN max(row2) >= max(row3) THEN max(row2) ELSE max(row3) END END
FROM yourTable

基于http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/Q_24204894.html的ScottPletcher的解决方案 我已经创建了一组函数(例如GetMaxOfDates3, GetMaxOfDates13)，以使用UNION ALL找到最多13个日期值。 参见T-SQL函数从同一行获取最大值 然而，在编写这些函数时，我还没有考虑过UNPIVOT解决方案

CREATE FUNCTION GetMaxOfDates13 (
@value01 DateTime = NULL,  
@value02 DateTime = NULL,
@value03 DateTime = NULL,
@value04 DateTime = NULL,
@value05 DateTime = NULL,
@value06 DateTime = NULL,
@value07 DateTime = NULL,
@value08 DateTime = NULL,
@value09 DateTime = NULL,
@value10 DateTime = NULL,
@value11 DateTime = NULL,
@value12 DateTime = NULL,
@value13 DateTime = NULL
)
RETURNS DateTime
AS
BEGIN
RETURN (
SELECT TOP 1 value
FROM (
SELECT @value01 AS value UNION ALL
SELECT @value02 UNION ALL
SELECT @value03 UNION ALL
SELECT @value04 UNION ALL
SELECT @value05 UNION ALL
SELECT @value06 UNION ALL
SELECT @value07 UNION ALL
SELECT @value08 UNION ALL
SELECT @value09 UNION ALL
SELECT @value10 UNION ALL
SELECT @value11 UNION ALL
SELECT @value12 UNION ALL
SELECT @value13
) AS [values]
ORDER BY value DESC    
)
END –FUNCTION
GO
CREATE FUNCTION GetMaxOfDates3 (
@value01 DateTime = NULL,  
@value02 DateTime = NULL,
@value03 DateTime = NULL
)
RETURNS DateTime
AS
BEGIN
RETURN dbo.GetMaxOfDates13(@value01,@value02,@value03,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL)
END –FUNCTION