Question:
I have a statement:

“Select * from table order by price DESC”

but I want only the top 50 price products, not all the list ordered by price. How do I do that?

Answer:
If you are using SQL Server, version 7 allows you to use the “Top” keyword, which can be used to specify how many rows you want displayed for your answer.

This is different than the “set rowcount” in 6.5. That option eliminates rows before any ordering is done. So you might or might not get the “top 50” you are looking for. The “top” keyword eliminates rows after the order by takes place. For example:

use northwindgoselect top 5 UnitPrice,ProductNamefrom productsorder by UnitPrice