getting only the largest or smallest values in a select statement

From:	Dave Gardner	Date:	Fri, 06 Oct 2000 23:06:53 +0000
Subject:	getting only the largest or smallest values in a select statement
Groups:	php.general
Request:	Send a blank email to php-general+get-18998@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message

How can I get the largest (or smallest) value of a column in multiple records, culled from a select statement? Let's say I did a 'select id, amount from purchases' and got the following:

        id      amount
        --      -------
        1       488
        2       1256
        3       188
        4       97
        5       166

Is it possible to modify the query itself to select only the largest or smallest value in 'amount' as displayed here? Or is there something I need to do in PHP to figure that out?