Need some php mysql help

Hi,
I have a table in mysql database. One of the table field is named as "last".

last
45356
39857
46539

you can see as above the column named "last" contain different values.
I want to compare these values and get the highest value among them. I need the highest value in a variable which I want to use in a php function.
I want to know how can this be done. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

 

SELECT `last` FROM `table_name_here` ORDER BY `last` DESC LIMIT 1
That will select the highest value in the column

 

SELECT MAX(last) FROM table_name

 

Excellent. This worked great.

 

you should use order by last ASC or DESC adjust lower and higer

 

If the field is indexed, it doesn't matter, but if it's not, then select max() is much faster than select order by desc limit 1.