Select TOP

The SELECT TOP statement retrieves records from one or more tables or views and limits the number of records returned based on a fixed value or percentage.

SQL Select TOP syntax:

 SELECT TOP number/percentage

Column1

FROM Table_Name

WHERE condition;

Example:

Lets select the TOP 4 rows from the following table.

SalesReasonID	Name	ReasonType
1	Price	Other
2	On Promotion	Promotion
3	Magazine Advertisement	Marketing
4	Television Advertisement	Marketing
5	Manufacturer	Other
6	Review	Other
7	Demo Event	Marketing
8	Sponsorship	Marketing
9	Quality	Other
10	Other	Other

SELECT TOP 4
SalesReasonID ,
Name ,
ReasonType
FROM SalesReason

Results:

SalesReasonID	Name	ReasonType
1	Price	Other
2	On Promotion	Promotion
3	Magazine Advertisement	Marketing
4	Television Advertisement	Marketing

Lets select TOP 50 percent of data.

SELECT TOP 50 percent
SalesReasonID ,
Name ,
ReasonType
FROM SalesReason

Results:

SalesReasonID	Name	ReasonType
1	Price	Other
2	On Promotion	Promotion
3	Magazine Advertisement	Marketing
4	Television Advertisement	Marketing
5	Manufacturer	Other

Use a where condition to further filter down withing the result set.

SELECT TOP 50 percent
SalesReasonID ,
Name ,
ReasonType
FROM SalesReason
WHERE ReasonType = ‘Marketing’

Results:

SalesReasonID	Name	ReasonType
3	Magazine Advertisement	Marketing
4	Television Advertisement	Marketing

SQL Tutorial