Re: First

"Michel Cadot" <micadot{at}altern{dot}org> wrote in message news:411247af$0$1888$636a15ce_at_news.free.fr...
>
> "Alan" <alan_at_erols.com> a icrit dans le message de
news:2nesn5F53etU1_at_uni-berlin.de...
> >
> > "Daniel Morgan" <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message
> > news:1091677677.736929_at_yasure...
> > > Peter Plumber wrote:
> > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > Does Qracle 9i support a SELECT that returns
> > > > only a subset of the records
> > > >
> > > > something link
> > > >
> > > > SELECT FIRST 1 * FROM tablename
> > > >
> > > > thx
> > > >
> > > > Peter
> > >
> > > Have to confess that I am really disappointed with the responses from
> > > Michel, Hans, Rene, and Turkbear because not one gave the answer I
> > > was going to give. And I was sure as I read through theirs that one or
> > > all of them would have done it first ... so here's mine:
> > >
> > > CREATE TABLE t AS
> > > SELECT object_name
> > > FROM all_objects
> > > WHERE rownum < 81;
> > >
> > > SELECT COUNT(*)
> > > FROM t;
> > >
> > > SELECT *
> > > FROM t
> > > SAMPLE (25);
> > >
> > > Returns 25% of the rows.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Daniel A. Morgan
> > > University of Washington
> > > damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
> > > (replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)
> > >
> >
> > I am disapopinted with all of you. The correct answer is, "There is no
such
> > thing as "first", as tables are (unordered) sets. So, what is it you
> > _really_ need to do?"
> >
> >
>
> Sorry to disagree with you but there is always "first" even when there is
no order.
> At least it the first ones to be displayed whichever these rows may be.
> And from which Daniel's not so bad answer ;) as first ones may be any ones
else.
>
> --
> Regards
> Michel Cadot
>
>

Of course there is an ordinal first, but it has no special meaning, and may be misleading, depending on what the user really wants. The reason we store data is to answer questions posed by those concerned with the "business" information stored in the database. Therefore, it is mandatory to know what question is really being asked of the data. I stand by my answer. Received on Thu Aug 05 2004 - 10:31:38 CDT