Re: Limiting the number of returned rows with Oracle

Oracle recommend using a PL/SQL module, which selectively fetches the chosen number of 'rows' from a cursor declared within PL/SQL. It's not as simple as some RDBMSes which have a TOP keyword which is useable in SQL natively.

It all boils down to the relational aspect of Oracle's tuples i.e. Oracle (at a logical level) doesn't think in rows at all - only tuples (depending on your selection criteria). Of course it uses ROWIDs etc. to go and fetch rows physically.

David P. OCP (DBA) MCP (TCP/IP)

Glasgow, Scotland.