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SQL SELECT TOP

What is the SELECT TOP Statement?

The SELECT TOP clause in SQL is used to specify the number of rows to return from the result set. It is often used with large tables where you want to retrieve only a limited number of records. The SELECT TOP clause is supported by some databases, such as SQL Server, while others may use different syntax (e.g., LIMIT in MySQL or FETCH FIRST in Oracle).

The basic syntax of SELECT TOP is as follows:

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

You can specify either a fixed number of rows or a percentage of rows to return.

Example: Customers Table

Consider the following Customers table:

CustomerID	CustomerName	City	Country
1	MOHD Zaid Khan	New York	USA
2	Akef Khan	London	UK
3	Khizar Mirza	Berlin	Germany
4	Laeeque Deshmukh	Paris	France
5	Shaikh Arshiya Naaz	Madrid	Spain

Using SELECT TOP

To return the top 3 customers from the Customers table, you can use the following SQL query:

SELECT TOP 3 CustomerName, City
FROM Customers;

This query will return the top 3 customers based on the default order of the table (usually the order of insertion).

If you want to return the top 50% of rows, you can modify the query like this:

SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT CustomerName, City
FROM Customers;

This query will return 50% of the rows from the Customers table.

Example Output

The result of the query to select the top 3 customers would be:

CustomerName	City
MOHD Zaid Khan	New York
AKef khan	London
Khizar Mirza	Berlin

In this case, the top 3 customers are listed.

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