Select top 10 records for each category

Question

I want to return top 10 records from each section in one query. Can anyone help with how to do it? Section is one of the columns in the table.

Database is SQL Serve

Answer 1

This works on SQL Server 2005 (edited to reflect your clarification):

select *
from Things t
where t.ThingID in (
    select top 10 ThingID
    from Things tt
    where tt.Section = t.Section and tt.ThingDate = @Date
    order by tt.DateEntered desc
    )
    and t.ThingDate = @Date
order by Section, DateEntered desc

Answer 2

I know this thread is a little bit old but I've just bumped into a similar problem (select the newest article from each category) and this is the solution I came up with :

WITH [TopCategoryArticles] AS (
    SELECT 
        [ArticleID],
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER (
            PARTITION BY [ArticleCategoryID]
            ORDER BY [ArticleDate] DESC
        ) AS [Order]
    FROM [dbo].[Articles]
)
SELECT [Articles].* 
FROM 
    [TopCategoryArticles] LEFT JOIN 
    [dbo].[Articles] ON
        [TopCategoryArticles].[ArticleID] = [Articles].[ArticleID]
WHERE [TopCategoryArticles].[Order] = 1

This is very similar to Darrel's solution but overcomes the RANK problem that might return more rows than intended.

Answer 3

Q) Finding TOP X records from each group(Oracle)

SQL> select * from emp e 
  2  where e.empno in (select d.empno from emp d 
  3  where d.deptno=e.deptno and rownum<3)
  4  order by deptno
  5  ;

 EMPNO ENAME      JOB              MGR HIREDATE         SAL       COMM     DEPTNO

---

  7782 CLARK      MANAGER         7839 09-JUN-81       2450                    10
  7839 KING       PRESIDENT            17-NOV-81       5000                    10
  7369 SMITH      CLERK           7902 17-DEC-80        800                    20
  7566 JONES      MANAGER         7839 02-APR-81       2975                    20
  7499 ALLEN      SALESMAN        7698 20-FEB-81       1600        300         30
  7521 WARD       SALESMAN        7698 22-FEB-81       1250        500         30

6 rows selected.

---

Answer 4

SELECT r.*
FROM
(
    SELECT
        r.*,
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY r.[SectionID]
                          ORDER BY r.[DateEntered] DESC) rn
    FROM [Records] r
) r
WHERE r.rn <= 10
ORDER BY r.[DateEntered] DESC

Answer 5

If we use SQL Server >= 2005, then we can solve the task with one select only:

declare @t table (
    Id      int ,
    Section int,
    Moment  date
);

insert into @t values
(   1   ,   1   , '2014-01-01'),
(   2   ,   1   , '2014-01-02'),
(   3   ,   1   , '2014-01-03'),
(   4   ,   1   , '2014-01-04'),
(   5   ,   1   , '2014-01-05'),

(   6   ,   2   , '2014-02-06'),
(   7   ,   2   , '2014-02-07'),
(   8   ,   2   , '2014-02-08'),
(   9   ,   2   , '2014-02-09'),
(   10  ,   2   , '2014-02-10'),

(   11  ,   3   , '2014-03-11'),
(   12  ,   3   , '2014-03-12'),
(   13  ,   3   , '2014-03-13'),
(   14  ,   3   , '2014-03-14'),
(   15  ,   3   , '2014-03-15');


-- TWO earliest records in each Section

select top 1 with ties
    Id, Section, Moment 
from
    @t
order by 
    case 
        when row_number() over(partition by Section order by Moment) <= 2 
        then 0 
        else 1 
    end;


-- THREE earliest records in each Section

select top 1 with ties
    Id, Section, Moment 
from
    @t
order by 
    case 
        when row_number() over(partition by Section order by Moment) <= 3 
        then 0 
        else 1 
    end;


-- three LATEST records in each Section

select top 1 with ties
    Id, Section, Moment 
from
    @t
order by 
    case 
        when row_number() over(partition by Section order by Moment desc) <= 3 
        then 0 
        else 1 
    end;

Answer 6

Tried the following and it worked with ties too.

SELECT rs.Field1,rs.Field2 
FROM (
    SELECT Field1,Field2, ROW_NUMBER() 
      OVER (Partition BY Section
            ORDER BY RankCriteria DESC ) AS Rank
    FROM table
    ) rs WHERE Rank <= 10