SQL Select Top

The SQL SELECT TOP Clause

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 records can impact on performance.

Note: Not all database systems support the SELECT TOP clause. MySQL supports the LIMIT clause to select a limited number of records, while Oracle uses ROWNUM.

SQL Server / MS Access Syntax:

SELECT TOP number|percent column_name(s)
FROM table_nameWHERE condition;

MySQL Syntax:

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_nameWHERE condition
LIMIT number;

SQL TOP, LIMIT and ROWNUM Examples

The following SQL statement selects the first three records from the "Customers" table:

SELECT TOP 3 * FROM Customers;

The following SQL statement shows the equivalent example using the LIMIT clause:

SELECT * FROM Customers
LIMIT 3;

SQL TOP PERCENT Example

The following SQL statement selects the first 50% of the records from the "Customers" table:

SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT * FROM Customers;

ADD a WHERE CLAUSE

The following SQL statement selects the first three records from the "Customers" table, where the country is "Germany":

SELECT TOP 3 * FROM Customers
WHERE Country='Germany';

The following SQL statement shows the equivalent example using the LIMIT clause:

SELECT * FROM Customers
WHERE Country='Germany'
LIMIT 3;