The SELECT TOP clause is used to specify the number of records to return. The SELECT TOP clause can be very useful on large tables with thousands of records. Returning a large number of records can impact on performance. Example CREATE TABLE [dbo] . [Emp] ( [EmpID] [int] IDENTITY ( 1 , 1 ) NOT NULL, [EmpName] [varchar] ( 50 ) NULL, ) INSERT INTO EMP ( EmpName ) VALUES ( 'ABC' ) INSERT INTO EMP ( EmpName ) VALUES ( 'CDE' ) INSERT INTO EMP ( EmpName ) VALUES ( 'PQR' ) INSERT INTO EMP ( EmpName ) VALUES ( 'XYZ' ) INSERT INTO EMP ( EmpName ) VALUES ( 'NML' ) With Top Clause SELECT Top 3 Records SELECT Top 3 * FROM Emp Without TOP Clause SELECT * FROM Emp e1 WHERE ( SELECT COUNT (*) FROM Emp e2 WHERE e2 . EmpID < e1 . EmpID )< 3 Output Emp_ID Emp_Name 1 ABC 2 CDE 3 PQR
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