From: nardone@patriot.net (Joe Nardone) Subject: Re: Limiting Rows Returned in Query Date: 1996/11/11 Message-ID: <566eed$b58@washington.patriot.net>#1/1 references: <3283E1D4.57BC@c-square.com.nojunk> <565jn2$agd@inet-nntp-gw-1.us.oracle.com> organization: Redundant Corporation Corp. newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle frank greene (fgreene@us.oracle.com) wrote: : You were close. The statement should actually be something like : : select first_column, second_column, last_column : from the_table : where rownum <= 100 : ; : : That will return only the first 100 rows from table THE_TABLE. Variable : rownum is a pseudocolumn described in the SQL*Plus manual. : Note however that this will not work (correctly) if you use any kind of ORDER BY clause; rownum is assigned before that sort, so you will not get the rows you expect. To handle this case, you will need to write a PL/SQL block and do the query that way. Joe -- =-------------------------------------------------------------------------= Joe Nardone "There are many dying children out there whose last wish is to meet me." - David Hasselhoff "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." - Einstein