SQL TOP CLAUSE

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.

Syntax:

SELECT TOP number|percent column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition

SQL TOP PERCENT Example

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

Example

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';