[comp.databases] selecting 10 oldest ages

laura@shanti.sybase.com (11/23/89)

>hemphill@csc000.csc.ti.com (Charles Hemphill) writes:

>>	List the 10 oldest employees.

>	select name, birthdate
>	from employee
>	order by birthdate desc
>and pipe the result through "head -10"?
>Otherwise, there's no way to set a limit in SQL.

	In the Sybase SQL Server, you can use a 
command, SET ROWCOUNT 10 prior to the select.
  This will give the desired
effect, with the benefit that the limit is set at the
server end, not in the front end; the extra rows are
never even selected or transfered.