How to Find the Closest Numeric Match in a Database Using SQL?

Finding the Closest Numeric Value in a Database

This discussion focuses on extracting a specific record from a database that closely matches a given input. If an exact match does not exist, the query should return the closest match based on a numerical field.

The provided SQL statement aims to retrieve data from the "myTable" table, filtering results based on specific values for the "Name," "Size," and "PType" columns. To accommodate the scenario of finding the closest match for the "Area" field, adjustments to the statement are required.

To achieve this, the example demonstrates the use of the "ABS" function. By wrapping the subtraction of the "Area" column from the input value within the "ABS" function, the result is always positive, ensuring that the subsequent ordering step accurately identifies the closest match.

The modified query below follows this concept, ordering results ascending by the absolute difference between the "Area" column and the input:

SELECT TOP 1 * FROM [myTable] 
WHERE Name = 'Test' and Size = 2 and PType = 'p'
ORDER BY ABS( Area - @input ) 

By incorporating this modification, the query will return the record with an "Area" value that most closely matches the input value, effectively resolving the need to find the closest numeric match in the database.

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