Find the latest or earliest date - sql

Question

I have a table with a foreign key called team_ID, a date column called game_date, and a single char column called result. I need to find when the next volleyball game happens. I have successfully narrowed the game dates down to all the volleyball games that have not happened yet because the result IS NULL. I have all the select in line, I just need to find the earliest date.
Here is what I've got:
SELECT game.game_date, team.team_name
FROM game
JOIN team
ON team.team_id = game.team_id
WHERE team.sport_id IN
(SELECT sport.sport_id
FROM sport
WHERE UPPER(sport.sport_type_code) IN
(SELECT UPPER(sport_type.sport_type_code)
FROM sport_type
WHERE UPPER(sport_type_name) like UPPER('%VOLLEYBALL%')
)
)
AND game.result IS NULL;
I'm a time traveler so don't mind the old dates.
When I run it, I get this:
GAME_DATE TEAM_NAME
----------- ----------
11-NOV-1998 BEars
13-NOV-1998 BEars
13-NOV-1998 WildCats
14-NOV-1998 BEars
How do I set it up so I get only the MIN(DATE) and the TEAM_NAME playing on that date?
I've tried AND game.game_date = MIN(game.game_date) but it simply tells me that a group function in not allowed here. There has to be a way to retrieve the MIN(game_date) and use it as a condition to be met.
I'm using Oracle 11g pl/sql.
This should be the final working code.
SELECT *
FROM
(
SELECT g.game_date, t.team_name
FROM game g
JOIN team t
ON t.team_id = g.team_id
JOIN sport s
ON t.sport_id = s.sport_id
JOIN sport_type st
ON UPPER(s.sport_type_code) IN UPPER(st.sport_type_code)
WHERE UPPER(sport_type_name) like UPPER('%VOLLEYBALL%')
AND g.result IS NULL
ORDER BY g.game_date
)
WHERE ROWNUM = 1;

Answer 1

The ROWNUM pseudocolumn is generated before any ORDER BY clause is applied to the query. If you just do WHERE ROWNUM <= X then you will get X rows in whatever order Oracle produces the data from the datafiles and not the X minimum rows. To guarantee getting the minimum row you need to use ORDER BY first and then filter on ROWNUM like this:
SELECT *
FROM (
SELECT g.game_date, t.team_name
FROM game g
JOIN team t
ON t.team_id = g.team_id
INNER JOIN sport s
ON t.sport_id = s.sport_id
INNER JOIN sport_type y
ON UPPER( s.sport_type_code ) = UPPER( y.sport_type_code )
WHERE UPPER( y.sport_type_name) LIKE UPPER('%VOLLEYBALL%')
AND g.result IS NULL
ORDER BY game_date ASC -- You need to do the ORDER BY in an inner query
)
WHERE ROWNUM = 1; -- Then filter on ROWNUM in an outer query.
If you want to return multiple rows with the minimum date then:
SELECT game_date,
team_name
FROM (
SELECT g.game_date,
t.team_name,
RANK() OVER ( ORDER BY g.game_date ASC ) AS rnk
FROM game g
JOIN team t
ON t.team_id = g.team_id
INNER JOIN sport s
ON t.sport_id = s.sport_id
INNER JOIN sport_type y
ON UPPER( s.sport_type_code ) = UPPER( y.sport_type_code )
WHERE UPPER( y.sport_type_name) LIKE UPPER('%VOLLEYBALL%')
AND g.result IS NULL
)
WHERE rnk = 1;

Answer 2

Could you make it simple and order by date and SELECT TOP 1? I think this is the syntax in Oracle:
WHERE ROWNUM <= number;

Answer 3

select game.game_date,team.team_name from (
SELECT game.game_date, team.team_name, rank() over (partition by team.team_name order by game.game_date asc) T
FROM game
JOIN team
ON team.team_id = game.team_id
WHERE team.sport_id IN
(SELECT sport.sport_id
FROM sport
WHERE UPPER(sport.sport_type_code) IN
(SELECT UPPER(sport_type.sport_type_code)
FROM sport_type
WHERE UPPER(sport_type_name) like UPPER('%VOLLEYBALL%')
)
)
AND game.result IS NULL
) query1 where query1.T=1;