How to select the nth row in a SQL database table?

Question

I\'m interested in learning some (ideally) database agnostic ways of selecting the nth row from a database table. It would also be interesting to see how this can b

Answer 1

Nothing fancy, no special functions, in case you use Caché like I do...

SELECT TOP 1 * FROM (
  SELECT TOP n * FROM <table>
  ORDER BY ID Desc
)
ORDER BY ID ASC

Given that you have an ID column or a datestamp column you can trust.

Answer 2

For example, if you want to select every 10th row in MSSQL, you can use;

SELECT * FROM (
  SELECT
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY ColumnName1 ASC) AS rownumber, ColumnName1, ColumnName2
  FROM TableName
) AS foo
WHERE rownumber % 10 = 0

Just take the MOD and change number 10 here any number you want.

Answer 3

Here's a generic version of a sproc I recently wrote for Oracle that allows for dynamic paging/sorting - HTH

-- p_LowerBound = first row # in the returned set; if second page of 10 rows,
--                this would be 11 (-1 for unbounded/not set)
-- p_UpperBound = last row # in the returned set; if second page of 10 rows,
--                this would be 20 (-1 for unbounded/not set)

OPEN o_Cursor FOR
SELECT * FROM (
SELECT
    Column1,
    Column2
    rownum AS rn
FROM
(
    SELECT
        tbl.Column1,
        tbl.column2
    FROM MyTable tbl
    WHERE
        tbl.Column1 = p_PKParam OR
        tbl.Column1 = -1
    ORDER BY
        DECODE(p_sortOrder, 'A', DECODE(p_sortColumn, 1, Column1, 'X'),'X'),
        DECODE(p_sortOrder, 'D', DECODE(p_sortColumn, 1, Column1, 'X'),'X') DESC,
        DECODE(p_sortOrder, 'A', DECODE(p_sortColumn, 2, Column2, sysdate),sysdate),
        DECODE(p_sortOrder, 'D', DECODE(p_sortColumn, 2, Column2, sysdate),sysdate) DESC
))
WHERE
    (rn >= p_lowerBound OR p_lowerBound = -1) AND
    (rn <= p_upperBound OR p_upperBound = -1);

Answer 4

This is how I'd do it within DB2 SQL, I believe the RRN (relative record number) is stored within the table by the O/S;

SELECT * FROM (                        
   SELECT RRN(FOO) AS RRN, FOO.*
   FROM FOO                         
   ORDER BY RRN(FOO)) BAR             
 WHERE BAR.RRN = recordnumber

Answer 5

select * from 
(select * from ordered order by order_id limit 100) x order by 
x.order_id desc limit 1;

First select top 100 rows by ordering in ascending and then select last row by ordering in descending and limit to 1. However this is a very expensive statement as it access the data twice.

Answer 6

Verify it on SQL Server:

Select top 10 * From emp 
EXCEPT
Select top 9 * From emp

This will give you 10th ROW of emp table!