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AskSQLTeam
Ask SQLTeam Question
0 Posts |
 Posted - 2002-03-13 : 08:59:36
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| Mike writes "I have to return top rows in a single query without using TOP N or SET rowcount = N. Two cases: 1. there are unique field(s)in the table; 2. there are duplicate rows in the table." |
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graz
Chief SQLTeam Crack Dealer
4149 Posts |
Posted - 2002-03-13 : 08:59:36
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| This reads much like a home work question. What are you trying to do? |
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dsdeming
479 Posts |
Posted - 2002-03-13 : 13:39:51
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Without TOP N or SET ROWCOUNT, your're left with ugly choices. Here are 2:You could build a temp table with an identity column and columns corresponding to the top values ( say SerialNo ) you need to return. Insert the SerialNo values from your source table into the temp table. Join the temp table to your source table on SerialNo = SerialNo and return all rows from the source table using a where clause like 'WHERE #tmp.ID <= 10'.Alternatively, you could bail out of a cursor after x iterations....No, forget I even mentioned it. The cursor police will be knocking on my door.  |
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levinmik
Starting Member
1 Post |
Posted - 2002-03-13 : 22:39:31
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quote:
This reads much like a home work question. What are you trying to do?It's a prospective interview question. There is a mainframe database that has no TOP and Rowcount support. So, they use a single query to do that.
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return top rows in a single query without using TOP N or set rowcount = N