SQL | LIMIT Clause

If there are a large number of tuples satisfying the query conditions, it might be resourceful to view only a handful of them at a time.

• The LIMIT clause is used to set an upper limit on the number of tuples returned by SQL.
• It is important to note that this clause is not supported by all SQL versions.
• The LIMIT clause can also be specified using the SQL 2008 OFFSET/FETCH FIRST clauses.
• The limit/offset expressions must be a non-negative integer.

Example: Say we have a relation, Student. 

Student Table:

RollNo	Name	Grade
12001	Aditya	9
12002	Sahil	6
12003	Hema	8
12004	Robin	9
12005	Sita	7
12006	Anne	10
12007	Yusuf	7
12008	Alex	5

Queries

SELECT *
FROM Student
LIMIT 5;

Output:

12001	Aditya	9
12002	Sahil	6
12003	Hema	8
12004	Robin	9
12005	Sita	7

SELECT *
FROM Student
ORDER BY Grade DESC
LIMIT 3;

Output:

12006	Anne	10
12001	Aditya	9
12004	Robin	9

The LIMIT operator can be used in situations such as the above, where we need to find the top 3 students in a class and do not want to use any conditional statements.

Using LIMIT along with OFFSET

LIMIT x OFFSET y simply means skip the first y entries and then return the next x entries. OFFSET can only be used with ORDER BY clause. It cannot be used on its own. OFFSET value must be greater than or equal to zero. It cannot be negative, else returns error. Queries:

SELECT *
FROM Student
ORDER BY ROLLNO LIMIT 5 OFFSET 2; 
or
SELECT * 
FROM Student 
ORDER BY ROLLNO LIMIT 2,5; # it skips the first 2 values and then return the next 5 entries

First query and second query return same results. In the second query limit is followed by two values. LIMIT X,Y the first value X is the offset value (skips X number of entries) and the second value Y is the limit  (it returns the next Y number of entries).

Output:

12003	Hema	8
12004	Robin	9
12005	Sita	7
12006	Anne	10
12007	Yusuf	7

Using LIMIT ALL

LIMIT ALL implies no limit.

SELECT *
FROM Student
LIMIT ALL;

The above query simply returns all the entries in the table.

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