The LIMIT Clause

The LIMIT clause can restrict the result set of the query to some maximum number of rows.

The following example sets max with a literal integer to retrieve at most 10 rows from table tab1:

SELECT a, b 
FROM tab1 
LIMIT 10;

If the LIMIT clause follows the ORDER BY clause, the returned rows are sorted according to the ORDER BY specifications.

Useful in queries to limit to only a subset of the qualifying rows and to identify TOP or BOTTOM k number of records.

The following query returns data about the ten highest-paid employees:

SELECT name, salary 
FROM emp 
ORDER BY salary DESC LIMIT 10;