How to get nᵗʰ highest value using plain SQL

Question

What is the simplest way to get the n^th highest value from a result set using plain SQL?

The result set would be huge, thus need to consider performance too.

Answer 1

Sub Query will list out top 'n' highest salary values. From that list minimum value will be the nth highest salary.

`SELECT min(salary) FROM
    (SELECT DISTINCT TOP n salary FROM EmployeeTable ORDER BY salary desc);`

Eg :- SQL query to find third maximum salary

`SELECT min(salary) FROM
    (SELECT DISTINCT TOP 3 salary FROM EmployeeTable ORDER BY salary desc);`