How to get MAX int but exclude specific int?

Question

I'd like to get the max integer from a specific column excluding a value that will always be the max if present. Data may look like the following:

score, empid
 1       3
 3       3
 10      3
 1       5 
 2       5
 1       8
 2       8
 3       8
 10      8

In the above, I'd like MAX score less than 10. MAX(score) doesn't work in this case since it will bring back 10. Results should look like this:

score, empid
 3       3
 2       5
 3       8

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

select max(score) , empid
from table
where score < (select max(score) from table )
group by empid

Answer 2

Here's an alternative method:

SELECT
   MAX(CASE WHEN score = 10 THEN NULL ELSE score END) AS [max_score],
   empid
FROM
   table
GROUP BY
   empid

This may be preferable if you prefer to avoid the sub-select.

Answer 3

Following Ben English's answer, if you are excluding only 1 value, you can also use NULLIF for less typing.

SELECT MAX(NULLIF(score, 10)), ...
FROM ...
GROUP BY ...

With CASE WHEN it's possible to exclude a range of values. Here we exclude all scores more than 10:

SELECT MAX(CASE WHEN score > 10 THEN NULL ELSE score), ...
FROM ...
GROUP BY ...

And here is the IIF version for less typing:

SELECT MAX(IIF(score > 10, NULL, score)), ...
FROM ...
GROUP BY ...