What is top clause?

What is top clause in SQL?

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 performance. Note: Not all database systems support the SELECT TOP clause.

How does Top work in SQL?

Limits the rows returned in a query result set to a specified number of rows or percentage of rows in SQL Server. When you use TOP with the ORDER BY clause, the result set is limited to the first N number of ordered rows. Otherwise, TOP returns the first N number of rows in an undefined order.

What is the difference between top and limit?

The TOP clause is used to fetch the n no of top records from the table. The LIMIT is used to retreive the records from one or more tables from the database. The TOP clause is used to fetch the n no of top records from the table. The LIMIT is used to retreive the records from one or more tables from the database.

What is top and offset in SQL?

Or, use TOP to specify the rows affected by an INSERT, UPDATE, MERGE, or DELETE statement. Applies to: All SQL Server and Azure SQL Databases. OFFSET: Specifies the number of rows to skip before it starts to return rows from the query expression.