Oracle - Finding the NEXT largest number - oracle

Question

Say I have a list of dates & prices:
20170322 109.89
20170321 107.02
20170320 109.25
20170317 108.44
20170316 108.53
20170315 107.94
20170314 106.83
20170313 110.02
20170310 107.31
20170309 107.54
20170308 107.67
20170307 108.98
What I need is, from the most recent date: 20170322 (109.89), what is the FIRST date / price value that is HIGHER than the original value, which is 20170313 (110.02). Note these are in DESC order of the date
Been at this ALL day.

Answer 1

Assuming the columns are called DT and PRICE, and assuming there is only one "thing" whose price you monitor (otherwise you would need a GROUP BY clause):
select min(dt) as dt, min(price) keep (dense_rank first order by dt) as price
from your_table
where price > ( select min(price) keep (dense_rank first order by dt)
from your_table
)
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/functions056.htm

Answer 2

Solution using the MATCH_RECOGNIZE clause (requires Oracle 12 and above).
I created the test data in a WITH clause. That is NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION; the SQL query begins after the WITH clause, at SELECT TICKER, ....
The question mark in the reluctant match in the PATTERN trips the JDBC driver, so this query can't be run from SQL Developer; it needs to be run in SQL*Plus or similar front-end. (The workaround is to change b*? to b* and to add to the DEFINE clause: b as b.price <= a.price.)
To illustrate more of the flexibility of MATCH_RECOGNIZE, I assumed there may be several "tickers", each with its inception date (earliest date with a price), and the query looks for the first occurrence of a price higher than the original one, per ticker.
with
test_data ( ticker, dt, price ) as (
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170322', 'yyyymmdd'), 109.89 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170321', 'yyyymmdd'), 107.02 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170320', 'yyyymmdd'), 109.25 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170317', 'yyyymmdd'), 108.44 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170316', 'yyyymmdd'), 108.53 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170315', 'yyyymmdd'), 107.94 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170314', 'yyyymmdd'), 106.83 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170313', 'yyyymmdd'), 110.02 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170310', 'yyyymmdd'), 107.31 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170309', 'yyyymmdd'), 107.54 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170308', 'yyyymmdd'), 107.67 from dual union all
select 'XYZ', to_date('20170307', 'yyyymmdd'), 108.98 from dual
)
select ticker, dt, price
from test_data
match_recognize (
partition by ticker
order by dt
measures c.dt as dt, c.price as price
one row per match
pattern ( ^ a b*? c )
define c as c.price > a.price
)
;
TICKER DT PRICE
------ ---------- -------
XYZ 2017-03-13 110.02
1 row selected.