Row Offset in SQL Server

Question

Is there any way in SQL Server to get the results starting at a given offset? For example, in another type of SQL database, it\'s possible to do:

SELECT * FR         


        

Answer 1

If you will be processing all pages in order then simply remembering the last key value seen on the previous page and using TOP (25) ... WHERE Key > @last_key ORDER BY Key can be the best performing method if suitable indexes exist to allow this to be seeked efficiently - or an API cursor if they don't.

For selecting an arbitary page the best solution for SQL Server 2005 - 2008 R2 is probably ROW_NUMBER and BETWEEN

For SQL Server 2012+ you can use the enhanced ORDER BY clause for this need.

SELECT  *
FROM     MyTable 
ORDER BY OrderingColumn ASC 
OFFSET  50 ROWS 
FETCH NEXT 25 ROWS ONLY 

Though it remains to be seen how well performing this option will be.