LIMIT usage and examples

Overview

LIMIT caps the number of returned rows and is commonly used for previews and pagination. Pair it with ORDER BY so the meaning of the first rows is deterministic. Pagination syntax differs across databases, and deep OFFSET pagination can become expensive on large data sets.

Basic syntax

SELECT id, name, amount FROM orders ORDER BY id LIMIT 2;

Examples

LIMIT example

Order rows by id for a stable sequence and return only the first two orders.

Sample table

Table：orders

orders
id	name	amount
1	Alice	1200
2	Bob	900
3	Cindy	1500
4	David	700

Run result

result
id	name	amount
1	Alice	1200
2	Bob	900

Common issues

Which ten rows does LIMIT 10 return?

Only an ORDER BY clause gives the selected ten rows a defined and stable meaning.

Can LIMIT be used for pagination?

Yes, often with OFFSET in MySQL, although deep offsets can become slow.

Is LIMIT portable across databases?

Not completely. PostgreSQL and MySQL support LIMIT, while SQL Server commonly uses TOP or OFFSET/FETCH.

Keep reading

SELECT WHERE DISTINCT ORDER BY LIKE BETWEEN OFFSET IS NULL

LIMIT