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LIMIT

Limit the number of rows returned.

LIMIT

With LIMIT you cap the number of rows returned. The most common use is fetching the top or bottom N records.

SELECT name, price
FROM products
ORDER BY price DESC
LIMIT 3;

This returns the 3 most expensive products. LIMIT comes after ORDER BY.

name, price is selected from products. The result is sorted by price in descending order. Only the first 3 rows are returned.

LIMIT — details

LIMIT is usually paired with ORDER BY; otherwise which rows come back is undefined. To get any 5 rows from a table you write LIMIT 5.

For the 3 best-selling products you write ORDER BY sales DESC LIMIT 3; without sorting, "the first 3" has no meaning.

Practice LIMIT

Select the name and price of the 3 most expensive products.

Starter code

query.sql
-- top 3 by price
SELECT name, price
FROM products
ORDER BY

Sample solution

query.sql
SELECT name, price
FROM products
ORDER BY price DESC
LIMIT 3

Expected output

name   price
Çanta  25
Defter 12
Kalem  5

Questions and answers

Review the lesson questions together with their answers. To test yourself, solve the lesson interactively.

1 What is LIMIT most often paired with?

  • WHERE
  • GROUP BY
  • HAVING
  • ORDER BY Correct answer

Explanation: LIMIT is usually paired with ORDER BY.

2 Top 3 records

Question 
SELECT name FROM products
ORDER BY price DESC
____;
Answer 
SELECT name FROM products
ORDER BY price DESC
LIMIT 3;

Explanation: LIMIT 3 is the right answer.

3 LIMIT: match the terms

Term Meaning
LIMIT cap rows
ORDER BY sort
DESC descending
OFFSET skip

All lessons in Beginner

1 SELECT basics

  1. What is SELECT?
  2. Selecting all columns
  3. Selecting specific columns
  4. Column aliases with AS
  5. Literal values
  6. Summary - SELECT basics

2 WHERE filtering

  1. What is WHERE?
  2. Comparison operators
  3. AND and OR
  4. IN and BETWEEN
  5. Pattern matching with LIKE
  6. Summary - WHERE filtering

3 Ordering and limit

  1. ORDER BY
  2. ASC and DESC
  3. Multi-column ordering
  4. LIMIT
  5. OFFSET
  6. Summary - Ordering and limit

4 Project: CRUD app

  1. Project design
  2. Reading data
  3. Inserting data
  4. Updating data
  5. Deleting data

5 Data types

  1. Integer types
  2. Decimal types
  3. CHAR and VARCHAR
  4. DATE and TIME
  5. BOOLEAN
  6. Summary - Data types

6 Operators

  1. Arithmetic operators
  2. Comparison operators
  3. Logical operators
  4. IS NULL
  5. String concatenation
  6. Summary - Operators

7 String functions

  1. UPPER and LOWER
  2. LENGTH
  3. SUBSTRING
  4. TRIM
  5. CONCAT
  6. Summary - String functions

8 Project: Shopping cart

  1. Cart design
  2. Listing products
  3. Adding to cart
  4. Calculating total
  5. Removing from cart

9 Number functions

  1. ROUND
  2. CEIL and FLOOR
  3. ABS
  4. POWER and SQRT
  5. MOD
  6. Summary - Number functions

10 Date functions

  1. CURRENT_DATE and NOW
  2. EXTRACT
  3. Date arithmetic
  4. DATEDIFF
  5. Date formatting
  6. Summary - Date functions

11 NULL handling

  1. What is NULL?
  2. IS NULL
  3. COALESCE
  4. NULLIF
  5. Three-valued logic
  6. Summary - NULL handling

12 DISTINCT

  1. What is DISTINCT?
  2. DISTINCT on one column
  3. Multi-column DISTINCT
  4. DISTINCT with aggregates
  5. DISTINCT vs GROUP BY
  6. Summary - DISTINCT

13 INSERT

  1. INSERT basics
  2. Inserting into specific columns
  3. Multiple rows
  4. INSERT with SELECT
  5. DEFAULT values
  6. Summary - INSERT

14 UPDATE

  1. UPDATE basics
  2. Conditional UPDATE
  3. Multi-column UPDATE
  4. Calculated updates
  5. UPDATE pitfalls
  6. Summary - UPDATE

15 DELETE

  1. DELETE basics
  2. Conditional DELETE
  3. DELETE vs TRUNCATE
  4. Emptying a table
  5. Safe deletion
  6. Summary - DELETE

16 CREATE TABLE

  1. CREATE TABLE basics
  2. Column definitions
  3. NOT NULL
  4. DEFAULT
  5. PRIMARY KEY
  6. Summary - CREATE TABLE

17 Constraints

  1. UNIQUE constraint
  2. CHECK constraint
  3. FOREIGN KEY
  4. CASCADE
  5. Constraint management
  6. Summary - Constraints

18 Simple JOIN

  1. What is JOIN?
  2. INNER JOIN
  3. The ON clause
  4. Table aliases
  5. Multi-table JOIN
  6. Summary - Simple JOIN

19 Project: Inventory system

  1. Inventory design
  2. Product table
  3. Stock movements
  4. Stock report
  5. Low stock alert

20 Beginner final

  1. Customer query
  2. Order report
  3. Data update
  4. Table redesign