SQL - TOP Clause

This tutorial will explain how to use top from a SQL query and how to use them with the examples.

Top keyword is used to retrieve n number of records from the resultset.

This is the general statement to retrieve n number of records from a table

SELECT TOP (expression)
column1, column2, column3
FROM
tablename
ORDER BY
column1

Lets create a sample table and add some rows

CREATE TABLE SampleContacts (
FullName VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
Gender CHAR(1) NOT NULL,
Age INT NOT NULL
);


INSERT INTO SampleContacts
(FullName, Gender, Age)
VALUES
('Contact1', 'M', 26),
('Contact2', 'M', 29),
('Contact3', 'F', 27),
('Contact4', 'F', 28),
('Contact5', 'F', 25),
('Contact6', 'M', 24)

The following example lists 3 youngest contact records.

SELECT TOP 3
FullName, 'M', Age
FROM
SampleContacts
ORDER BY
Age ASC;


The following example lists half percent of the total contacts and youngest records.

SELECT TOP 50 PERCENT
FullName, 'M', Age
FROM
SampleContacts
ORDER BY
Age ASC;