Get lowest date

Is there a more elegant way to do the following?...

declare @d1 datetime, @d2 datetime
set @d1 =  '2005-01-01'
set @d2 = '2005-02-01'

select
case
when  datediff(dd,@d2,@d1)
is null
then coalesce(@d1, @d2)
when  (datediff(dd,@d2,@d1
)> 0)
then @d2
else @d1
end


Cheers,..
N

Try:

SELECT
CASE WHEN @d1<@d2
THEN @d1
ELSE COALESCE(@d2,@d1)
END

or:

SELECT MIN(dt)
FROM
(SELECT @d1 UNION ALL
SELECT @d2)T(dt)

--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
--

That's great! Much cleaner. Thank you.