SQL Academy · Lesson

Finding Top-N Records

Get the highest and lowest values.

What Is a Top-N Query

A Top-N query answers questions like "the 3 most expensive products", "the 10 newest orders" or "the lowest 5 scores".

It's just sorting plus a limit, but it's so common it deserves a name.

-- Top 3 most expensive products
SELECT name, price
FROM products
ORDER BY price DESC
LIMIT 3;

For the smallest values, flip the direction. Sort ASC and take the first N to get the cheapest, oldest or lowest rows.

-- 5 cheapest products
SELECT name, price
FROM products
ORDER BY price ASC
LIMIT 5;