SQL Select Top – SQL Tutorial

Table: Employees

EmployeeId	FirstName	LastName	Department	Salary
203	Mary	Fox	Finance	78000
204	Joe	Lanyon	Finance	45800
205	Sally	Daff	Finance	57000
206	Grace	Salter	Finance	62000
302	James	Band	Development	75000
303	Dona	Earl	Development	55000
304	Tony	Oakes	Development	49000
…

SQL Server

SQL Select Top 10 rows:

SELECT TOP 10 *
FROM Employees

SQL Select top 5 records of highest salary:

SELECT TOP 5 *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary DESC

SQL Select top 5 percent of highest salary:

SELECT TOP 5 PERCENT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary DESC

MySQL

SQL Select first 10 rows of highest salary:

SELECT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary DESC
LIMIT 10

Oracle

SQL Select first record:

SELECT *
FROM Employees
WHERE ROWNUM <= 1

SQL Select first 100 record of highest salary:

SELECT *
FROM
  (
     SELECT * 
     FROM Employees
     ORDER BY Salary DESC
  )
WHERE ROWNUM <= 100