Re: TOP TEN LISTS? HELP.

mwmaher_at_ACM.ORG wrote:
> How do you create a listing of the top N items in a table
> with straight SQL? This seems like such a basic task -
> until you try it.
 

> Thank you in advance.
 

> how about
 

> select tab1.col
> from table tab1
> where exists
> (select 1
> from table tab2
> where tab2.col >= tab1.col
> having count(*) <= N)
>order by tab1.col;
 

>(where N is the number of items you want to display)
 

>Disclaimer: The length of time to run this statement will be exponential to
> the number of rows in the table :-(
 

>Does anyone have any better ideas?
 

>--
 

>John Blackburn Phone: +61 7 2534634
>jb2_at_qdot.qld.gov.au Fax: +61 7 8541194

Try this

SELECT ROWNUM,<column_name1>,<column_name2>,... FROM <table>
WHERE ROWNUM < <N>

N = number of rows you wish to retrieve

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