Two ways to fetch maximum value from a MySQL column with numbers

To fetch the maximum value, use any of the below-given syntaxes −

select max(yourColumnName) from yourTableName;
OR
select *from yourTableName order by yourColumnName desc limit 1;

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
(
   Value int
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.84 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values(45);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(87);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(56);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(77);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(85);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+-------+
| Value |
+-------+
|    45 |
|    87 |
|    56 |
|    77 |
|    85 |
+-------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Let us now get the maximum value from the above table −

mysql> select max(Value) from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+------------+
| max(Value) |
+------------+
|         87 |
+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Let us now see the alternative way to fetch maximum value −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by Value desc limit 1;

This will produce the following output −

+-------+
| Value |
+-------+
|    87 |
+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)