TOP and LIMIT
TOP or LIMIT are used to limit the results to a specific number of rows to be returned. The value can be from 1 to the maximum number of rows in the table. It is also possible to retrieve a percent of the rows on SQL Server. The following table shows how these two clause options can be defined:
| SQL Query | Description | SQL Database |
| SELECT TOP 1 * | Returns all fields from the first row found | SQL Server |
| SELECT TOP 10 PERCENT * | Returns all fields from the top 10% of all rows found | SQL Server |
| SELECT *FROM table1LIMIT 1 | Returns all fields from the first row found | MySQL, PostgreSQL |
| SELECT *FROM table1WHERE ROWNUM <= 1 | Returns the first row found | Oracle |
