# MinString - chart function

MinString() finds string values in the expression or field and returns the first text value in alphabetical sort order.

Syntax:

MinString({[SetExpression] [TOTAL [<fld {, fld}>]]} expr)

Return data type: dual

Arguments:

Arguments

| Argument | Description |
| --- | --- |
| expr | The expression or field containing the data to be measured. |
| SetExpression | By default, the aggregation function<br>will aggregate over the set of possible records defined by the selection.<br>An alternative set of records can be defined by a set analysis<br>expression. |
| TOTAL | If the word<br>TOTAL occurs before the function<br>arguments, the calculation is made over all possible values given<br>the current selections, and not just those that pertain to the current dimensional value, that is, it disregards the chart dimensions.<br><br>By using TOTAL [&lt;fld {.fld}&gt;], where the TOTAL qualifier is followed by a list of one or more field names as a subset of the chart dimension variables, you create a subset of the total possible values.<br><br>[Defining the aggregation scope](https://help.qlik.com/en-US/sense/May2025/Subsystems/Hub/Content/Sense_Hub/ChartFunctions/define-aggregation-scope.htm) |

Examples and results:

Sample data

| SalesGroup | Amount | MinString(Team) | MinString(Date) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| East | 14000 | Delta | 2013/08/01 |
| East | 20000 | Beta | 2013/05/01 |
| East | 25000 | Alpha | 2013/07/01 |
| West | 14000 | Eta | 2013/10/01 |
| West | 17000 | Epsilon | 2013/09/01 |
| West | 19000 | Zeta | 2013/06/01 |
| West | 23000 | Theta | 2013/12/01 |

Function examples

| Examples | Results |
| --- | --- |
| `MinString(Team)` | There are three values of 20000 for the dimension Amount: two of Gamma (on different dates), and one of Beta. The result of the measure MinString (Team) is therefore Beta, because this is the first value in the sorted strings. |
| `MinString(Date)` | 2013/11/01 is the earliest Date value of the three associated with the dimension Amount. This assumes your script has the SET statement `SET DateFormat='YYYY-MM-DD';`' |

Data used in example:

`TeamData:
` `LOAD * inline [` `SalesGroup|Team|Date|Amount
` `East|Gamma|01/05/2013|20000
` `East|Gamma|02/05/2013|20000
` `West|Zeta|01/06/2013|19000
` `East|Alpha|01/07/2013|25000
` `East|Delta|01/08/2013|14000
` `West|Epsilon|01/09/2013|17000
` `West|Eta|01/10/2013|14000
` `East|Beta|01/11/2013|20000
` `West|Theta|01/12/2013|23000
` `] (delimiter is '|');`