SQL Top n Rows in Informix, MySQL and SQL Server

Different dialects of SQL allow you to obtain the first n rows, resulting from a query, in different ways. The following are examples in Informix, SQL Server, and MySQL. Tip: to get the last n rows, simple switch the order by clause (from ascending to descending, or vice versa).

Informix

select first 5 *

from customer;

MySQL

select *

from customer

limit 5;

SQL Server

select top 5 *

from customer;