EDUCBA

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Free Tutorials
  • Free Courses
  • Certification Courses
  • 360+ Courses All in One Bundle
  • Login
Home Data Science Data Science Tutorials SQL Tutorial TOP in SQL
Secondary Sidebar
SQL Tutorial
  • Functions
    • SQL Date Function
    • SQL Server Functions
    • SQL String Functions
    • SQL Compare String
    • Timestamp to Date in SQL
    • SQL REGEX
    • SQL Window Functions
    • SQL Syntax
    • SQL CONCAT
    • SQL ALTER TABLE
    • SQL MOD()
    • SQL Timestamp
    • SQL Min and Max
    • SQL TO_DATE()
    • SQL DATEADD()
    • SQL DATEDIFF()
    • SQL HOUR()
    • SQLite? functions
    • ANY in SQL
    • LIKE Query in SQL
    • SQL NOT NULL
    • SQL NOT IN
    • SQL MAX()
    • SQL MIN()
    • SQL SUM()
    • SQL COUNT
    • SQL identity
    • SQL DELETE Trigger
    • SQL Declare Variable
    • SQL Text Search
    • SQL COUNT DISTINCT
    • SQL TEXT
    • SQL Limit Order By
    • BETWEEN in SQL
    • LTRIM() in SQL
    • TOP in SQL
    • SQL Select Top
    • Merge SQL
    • SQL TRUNCATE()
    • SQL UNION
    • SQL ALL
    • SQL INTERSECT
    • SQL Alias
    • SQL Server Substring
    • CUBE in SQL
    • SQL RANK()
    • SQL CTE
    • SQL LAG()
    • SQL MID
    • SQL avg()
    • SQL WEEK
    • SQL DELETE
    • SQL DATEPART()
    • SQL DECODE()
    • SQL DENSE_RANK()
    • SQL NTILE()
    • SQL NULLIF()
    • SQL Stuff
    • SQL Ceiling
    • SQL EXISTS
    • SQL LEAD()
    • SQL COALESCE
    • SQL BLOB
    • SQL ROW_NUMBER
    • SQL Server Replace
    • SQL Ranking Function
    • SQL Server Permission
  • Basic
    • What is SQL
    • Careers in SQL
    • Careers in SQL Server
    • IS SQL Microsoft?
    • SQL Management Tools
    • What is SQL Developer
    • Uses of SQL
    • How to Install SQL Server
    • What is SQL Server
    • SQL Quick References
    • SQL Like Wildcard
    • SQL Like with Multiple Values
    • SQL Examples
    • SQL Server Versions
    • SQL DROP DB
    • SQL Case Insensitive
    • SQL Expressions
    • Database in SQL
    • SQL Data Types
    • SQL Keywords
    • Composite Key in SQL
    • SQL WAITFOR
    • SQL Constraints
    • Transactions in SQL
    • First Normal Form
    • SQL Server Data Types
    • SQL Administration
    • SQL Variables
    • SQL Enum
    • SQL GROUP BY WHERE
    • SQL ROW
    • SQL EXECUTE
    • SQL EXCLUDE
    • SQL Performance Tuning
    • SQL UUID
    • Begin SQL
    • SQL Update Join
    • SQL Between Dates
    • Cheat sheet SQL
  • Operators
    • SQL Operators
    • SQL Arithmetic Operators
    • SQL Logical Operators
    • SQL String Operators
    • Ternary Operator in SQL
  • Commands
    • SQL Commands
    • sqlplus set commands
    • SQL Alter Command
    • SQL Commands Update
    • SQL DML Commands
    • SQL DDL Commands
    • FETCH in SQL
  • Clause
    • SQL Clauses
    • SQL IN Operator
    • SQL SELECT DISTINCT Multiple Columns
    • SQL Null Values
    • SQL LIKE
    • SQL LIKE Query
    • SQL LIKE Operator
    • SQL LIKE Clause
    • SQL NOT Operator
    • SQL Minus
    • SQL WHERE Clause
    • SQL with Clause
    • SQL HAVING Clause
    • SQL HAVING Clause
    • SQL GROUP BY DAY
    • ORDER BY Clause in SQL
    • SQL ORDER BY CASE
    • SQL ORDER BY DESC
    • SQL ORDER BY DATE
    • SQL ORDER BY Alphabetical
    • SQL ORDER BY Ascending
    • SQL Order by Count
    • SQL GROUP BY Month
    • SQL GROUP BY Multiple Columns
    • SQL GROUPING SETS
  • Queries
    • SQL Insert Query
    • SQL SELECT Query
    • SQL SELECT RANDOM
    • SQL Except Select
    • SQL Subquery
    • SQL SELECT DISTINCT
    • SQL WITH AS Statement
  • Keys
    • SQL Keys
    • SQL Foreign Key
    • Primary Key in SQL
    • Foreign Key in SQL
    • Unique Key in SQL
    • SQL UNIQUE Constraint
    • SQL Primary Key
    • Alternate Key in SQL
    • SQL Super Key
  • T-SQL
    • T-SQL pivot
    • T-SQL Formatter
    • T-SQL TRY CATCH
    • T-SQL CTE
    • T-SQL CASE
    • T-SQL DATEPART
    • T-SQL Date Format
    • T-SQL ROUND
    • T-SQL Loop
    • T-SQL IIF
    • T-SQL Union
    • T-SQL CREATE TABLE
    • T-SQL INSERT
    • T-SQL Stuff
    • T-SQL ISNULL
    • T-SQL ADD Column
    • T-SQL DATEDIFF
  • Joins
    • Join Query in SQL
    • Types of Joins in SQL
    • Types of Joins in SQL Server
    • SQL Inner Join
    • SQL Join Two Tables
    • SQL Delete Join
    • SQL Left Join
    • LEFT OUTER JOIN in SQL
    • SQL Right Join
    • SQL Cross Join
    • SQL Outer Join
    • SQL Full Join
    • SQL Self Join
    • Natural Join SQL
    • SQL Multiple Join
  • Advanced
    • MDF File in SQL Server
    • SQL Aliases
    • SQL Hosting
    • SQL Auto Increment
    • SQL Injection
    • SQL Wildcards
    • SQL Check
    • SQL Indexes
    • Select Distinct
    • SQL BETWEEN
    • SQLPlus spool
    • SQL Create Table
    • SQL Schema
    • Comparison Operators in SQL
    • SQL_plus
    • SQL Formatter
    • SQL LEFT INNER JOIN
    • SQL Plus Command
    • SQLPlus not found
    • SQL Injection Attack
    • Aggregate Functions in SQL
    • SQL REVOKE
    • SQL Select Distinct Count
    • IF ELSE Statement in SQL
    • SQL CASE Statement
    • SQL While Loop
    • SQL BIGINT
    • SQL Crosstab
    • SQL Wildcard Character
    • SQL INSTR()
    • SQL now
    • SQL synonyms
    • SQLite?export to csv
    • What is Procedure in SQL
    • Stored Procedure in SQL?
    • SQL Server Constraints
    • SQL DELETE ROW
    • Column in SQL
    • Table in SQL
    • SQL Virtual Table
    • SQL Merge Two Tables
    • SQL Table Partitioning
    • SQL Temporary Table
    • SQL Clone Table
    • SQL Rename Table
    • SQL LOCK TABLE
    • SQL Clear Table
    • SQL DESCRIBE TABLE
    • SQL Mapping
    • Cursors in SQL
    • AND in SQL
    • Wildcard in SQL
    • SQL FETCH NEXT
    • SQL Views
    • SQL Delete View
    • Triggers in SQL
    • SQL UPDATE Trigger
    • SQL AFTER UPDATE Trigger
    • SQL Update Statement
    • SQL DROP TRIGGER
    • SQL DROP Table
    • Types of SQL Views
    • SQL Port
    • SQL Clustered Index
    • SQL COMMIT
    • Distinct Keyword in SQL
    • PARTITION BY in SQL
    • SQL Set Operators
    • SQL UNION ALL
    • Metadata in SQL
    • SQL Bulk Insert
    • Array in SQL
    • SQL REGEXP
    • JSON in SQL
    • SQL For loop
    • EXPLAIN in SQL
    • ROLLUP in SQL
    • Escape Character SQL
    • SQL Cluster
    • SQL Backup
    • SQL Pattern Matching
    • SQL Users
    • ISNULL SQL Server
    • SQL pivot
    • SQL Import CSV
    • SQL if then else
    • SQL ignore-case
    • SQL Matches
    • SQL Search String
    • SQL Column Alias
    • SQL extensions
    • SQL Substring Function
    • Charindex SQL
  • SqlAlchemy
    • What is SQLAlchemy
    • SqlAlchemy ORM
    • SQLAlchemy count
    • SQLAlchemy update object
    • SQLAlchemy pip
    • SQLAlchemy Connection
    • SQLAlchemy Transaction
    • SQLAlchemy Metadata
    • SQLAlchemy Raw SQL
    • SQLAlchemy Filter in List
    • SQLAlchemy Alias
    • SQLAlchemy unique
    • SQLAlchemy JSONB
    • SQLAlchemy Async
    • SQLAlchemy Types
    • SQLAlchemy Many to Many
    • SQLAlchemy Example
    • SQLAlchemy Model
    • SQLAlchemy Data Types
    • SQLAlchemy Filter
    • SQLAlchemy SQLite
    • SQLAlchemy DateTime
    • SQLAlchemy create_engine
    • SQLAlchemy Delete
    • SQLAlchemy Migrations
  • NoSQL
    • NoSQL Databases List
    • NoSQL Data Modeling
    • Types of NoSQL Databases
    • NoSQL Injection
    • NoSQL vs SQL Databases
    • NoSQL Use Cases
    • NoSQL Key Value
  • Interview Questions
    • SQL Interview Questions
    • Advance SQL Interview Questions
    • SQL Joins Interview Questions
    • SQL Server Interview Questions
    • SQL Current Month

TOP in SQL

By Priya PedamkarPriya Pedamkar

TOP in SQL

Introduction to TOP in SQL

TOP is a keyword in SQL SERVER. It is used along with the SELECT clause to limit the number of records to be returned. It comes handy during data analysis. Especially when we just want to see only the first few records to understand the dataset or when we want to find the highest or lowest records from an ordered set of records.

Syntax: 

Start Your Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

Moving ahead, let’s discuss the SQL TOP keyword in greater detail. The standard syntax for writing it along with the SELECT clause is as follows:

SELECT TOP (NUMBER) | (PERCENT)
expressions, column_name
FROM tables
[WHERE conditions]
[ORDER BY expression [ ASC | DESC ]];

Parameters

The different parameters used in the syntax are:

  • TOP (NUMBER): Returns the top number of rows from the resulting recordset. For example, TOP 5 would return the top 5 rows from the resulting set.
  • TOP PERCENT: Returns the top number of rows from the resulting recordset. For example, TOP 50 PERCENT would return the top 50% rows from the resulting set.
  • Expressions: Mention the aggregate functions or other functions like Distinct etc. For example, SELECT TOP 1 SUM(column_name) would return the first row from the resulting set after performing the sum on column_name.
  • Column_name: Mention the column names, which have to be returned in the resultant recordset.
  • FROM tables: Mention the table names, from which the records have to be fetched.
  • WHERE conditions: It is used to filter records. WHERE condition will return only those records that fulfill the mentioned condition.
  • ORDER BY expression [ ASC | DESC ]: This keyword is used to sort the resulting record set in ascending or descending order. If you do not mention anything from ASC|DESC then ORDER BY will sort the records in ascending order by default.

From the above-mentioned parameters, TOP NUMBER OR PERCENT, Column_names and FROM tables are compulsory. Other keywords/parameters can be used based on the requirement. We can also use other SQL keywords, such as JOIN, having, etc. in the given syntax.

Examples of TOP in SQL

In order to demonstrate and explain the TOP keyword effectively, we will be using the following table. It is a sample “customers” table that contains 15 records with each customer’s id, name, city, and the country he/she belongs to.

Schema of “customers” table:

Number of records: 15

Customers
ID(primary key)
Customer
City
Country

Records in the table:

ID Customer City Country
1 Peter King Manchester England
2 Priya Krishna New Delhi India
3 Jim Halpert Manchester England
4 Michael Scott New York USA
5 Harvey Spector Birmingham England
6 Deepa Kamat Mumbai India
7 Anita Desai London England
8 Rachel Zane Michigan USA
9 Pretoria John Canberra Australia
10 John L Budapest Hungry
11 Justin Green Ottawa City Canada
12 Babita Ghosh Kolkata India
13 Krish Pratt London England
14 Elizabeth Blunt London England
15 Nina Debrov Amsterdam Netherlands

Example #1

SQL syntax to demonstrate the basic function of the TOP keyword

Code:

SELECT TOP 2 * FROM customers;

Output:

Number of records: 2

Top in SQL - Example 1.1

In the above example, we can see that the TOP keyword with the SELECT clause returned just the top 2 records from the customer’s data table.

Example #2

SQL syntax to demonstrate the function of the TOP keyword when selecting specific columns only

Code:

SELECT TOP 3 ID, Customer FROM customers;

Output:

Number of records: 3

Top in SQL - Example 1.2

Example #3

SQL syntax to demonstrate the function of the TOP keyword along with WHERE clause

Code:

SELECT TOP 3 * FROM customers WHERE Country= 'England';

Output:

Number of records: 3

WHERE Country = 'England'

In the above example, the query returned the first 3 records where the country was England.

Example #4

SQL syntax to demonstrate the function of the TOP keyword along with WHERE and ORDER BY clause.

Code:

SELECT TOP 3 * FROM customers WHERE Country= 'England' ORDER BY Customer DESC;

Output:

Number of records: 3

ORDER BY Customer DESC

In the above example, the query returned the first 3 records after sorting the resultant set in decreasing order by customer names.

Example #5

SQL syntax to demonstrate the function of the TOP keyword along with the PERCENT and ORDER BY clause.

Code:

SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT * FROM Customers ORDER BY Customer ASC;

Output:

Number of records: 8

Order BY Customer ASC

The query in the above example returned the top 50% of the total resultant recordset after sorting them in ascending order by customer name.

Note: All databases do not support the TOP keyword. It is specifically used in the SQL Server database. However, we can use other similar keywords such as LIMIT, ROWNUM, etc to perform the same functions. LIMIT works best with MYSQL and ROWNUM with the ORACLE database.

Conclusion

TOP is a very useful keyword when it comes to getting the few records from an ordered set. For example, we want the first 3 records or the last 3 records, etc. for an ascending or descending result set respectively.

Recommended Articles

We hope that this EDUCBA information on “TOP in SQL” was beneficial to you. You can view EDUCBA’s recommended articles for more information.

  1. LIKE Query in SQL
  2. MySQL Certification
  3. Types of NoSQL Databases
  4. ORDER BY in MySQL
Popular Course in this category
SQL Training Program (10 Courses, 8+ Projects)
  10 Online Courses |  8 Hands-on Projects |  80+ Hours |  Verifiable Certificate of Completion
4.5
Price

View Course

Related Courses

JDBC Training (6 Courses, 7+ Projects)4.9
PHP Training (5 Courses, 3 Project)4.8
Windows 10 Training (4 Courses, 4+ Projects)4.7
PL SQL Training (4 Courses, 2+ Projects)4.7
Oracle Training (17 Courses, 8+ Projects)4.7
Primary Sidebar
Footer
About Us
  • Blog
  • Who is EDUCBA?
  • Sign Up
  • Live Classes
  • Corporate Training
  • Certificate from Top Institutions
  • Contact Us
  • Verifiable Certificate
  • Reviews
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  •  
Apps
  • iPhone & iPad
  • Android
Resources
  • Free Courses
  • Database Management
  • Machine Learning
  • All Tutorials
Certification Courses
  • All Courses
  • Data Science Course - All in One Bundle
  • Machine Learning Course
  • Hadoop Certification Training
  • Cloud Computing Training Course
  • R Programming Course
  • AWS Training Course
  • SAS Training Course

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2023 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA
Free Data Science Course

Hadoop, Data Science, Statistics & others

By continuing above step, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

Let’s Get Started

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to browse otherwise, you agree to our Privacy Policy

Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more