Usage of MAX in Oracle

Hi All,

I have a question regarding the usage of MAX in SQL.

create table datetab (node_id, date1 timestamp, date2 timestamp);

insert into datetab values (1, '01-FEB-1999', '03-MAR-2000');
insert into datetab values (2, '01-FEB-1998', '03-MAR-2001');
insert into datetab values (3, '01-FEB-1997', '03-MAR-2002');
insert into datetab values (4, '01-FEB-1999', '03-MAR-2003');
insert into datetab values (5, '12-MAR-1999', '03-MAR-2004');
insert into datetab values (6, '01-MAY-1999', '03-MAR-1971');
insert into datetab values (7, '11-JUL-1999', '03-MAR-1991');
insert into datetab values (8, '04-FEB-1999', '03-MAR-1988');
insert into datetab values (9, '02-FEB-1999', '03-DEC-1981');

I am running Oracle 9.2.0.2.0.

I need to find out the maximum date (03-MAR-2004) as well as the minimum date (03-MAR-1971) from all the data available in the table.

I am unable to come up with a query to do the same. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, would it be possible, say, for a given node_id, to find the maximum and minimum? Ex. For node 9,
maxdate of 02-FEB-1999 and mindate of 03-DEC-1981 should be selected.

Many thanks,
Sankar.

Code:

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select max(date2), min(date2)
from datetab

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Code:

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select node_id,max(date2), min(date2)
from datetab
group by node_id

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Thanks slimdave! I appeciate your quick response. It was helpful.