The SELECT TOP clause is used to specify the number of records to return. The SELECT TOP clause is useful on large tables with thousands of records. Returning a large number of …

In a SELECT statement, always use an ORDER BY clause with the TOP clause. This is the only way to predictably indicate which rows are affected by TOP. Use OFFSET and FETCH in the …

This tutorial shows you how to use the SQL Server SELECT TOP statement to limit the number of rows or percentage of rows returned by a query.

May 9, 2024 · In this article, we look at various ways to use SQL SELECT TOP to return a certain number or percentage of rows when selecting data.

In this article, we will learn how to use SQL SELECT TOP queries and we will also reinforce this learning using examples. The TOP clause allows us to limit the result set of the queries …

Nov 10, 2025 · The query selects the top 4 employees from the Employee table. The results are sorted by Salary in descending order, so it returns the 4 highest-paid employees.

This SQL tutorial explains how to use the SQL SELECT TOP statement with syntax and examples. The SQL SELECT TOP statement is used to retrieve records from one or more …

For example, if you want to retrieve the first 10 rows, you would use SELECT TOP 10. column1, column2, …: These are the columns you want to retrieve from the table. You can specify one …

Mar 3, 2024 · One more variation worth mentioning is the use of SQL TOP with a percentage: This query selects the top 10% of records, sorted by salary. It’s a fantastic way to retrieve a …

We can use either the Expression or Percentage along with the SQL Server TOP clause. For instance, TOP 1 means it will retrieve the first record. If we write TOP 10 Percent, the SELECT …