General approach to "Top-x-items" selection?

We have a common requirement to produce reports on the top x items by some value within categories (and sometimes subcategories).

Example--What are the top 10 items (in 1994 value) imported from each country in the world?

I can't believe this is not a common need (not the problem, but simliar ones like the top 10 salesmen in each region or the top 10 salaries in each department.)

Is there a general way to accomplish this using Oracle?

Thanks! Received on Fri Aug 11 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST