In SQL, the SELECT statement is used to query a database table and return a result set based on specified conditions. The TOP clause is used to limit the number of rows returned by a SELECT statement.

Syntax

The basic syntax of the SELECT statement with the TOP clause is as follows:

SELECT TOP expression column1, column2, ...
FROM table
WHERE condition;

Here, expression represents the number of rows to be returned.

Example

Suppose we have a table called employees with columns id, name, age, and salary. We want to retrieve the top 5 employees based on their salary. Here’s how we can do it:

SELECT TOP 5 name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC;

In the above example, the TOP 5 clause specifies that we want to retrieve only the top 5 records. The ORDER BY salary DESC clause sorts the records in descending order based on the salary column.

Conclusion

The SELECT TOP clause is a powerful feature in SQL that allows you to limit the number of rows returned by a SELECT statement. It is useful when you only need a certain number of records from a large result set. By using the TOP clause, you can efficiently retrieve the required data from a database table.

#SQL #SELECT #TOP