How do I limit the number of rows returned by an Oracle query after ordering?

Question

Is there a way to make an Oracle query behave like it contains a MySQL limit clause?

In MySQL, I can do this:

Answer 1

If you are not on Oracle 12C, you can use TOP N query like below.

SELECT *
 FROM
   ( SELECT rownum rnum
          , a.*
       FROM sometable a 
   ORDER BY name
   )
WHERE rnum BETWEEN 10 AND 20;

You can even move this from clause in with clause as follows

WITH b AS
( SELECT rownum rnum
      , a.* 
   FROM sometable a ORDER BY name
) 
SELECT * FROM b 
WHERE rnum BETWEEN 10 AND 20;

Here actually we are creating a inline view and renaming rownum as rnum. You can use rnum in main query as filter criteria.