LIMIT — Limit the Number of Rows Returned

The LIMIT clause allows you to control how many rows your SQL query returns.
It is very useful when you want to:

• Preview just a few rows
• Display only the top results
• Build pagination features

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Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ... FROM table_name
LIMIT number_of_rows;

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Example 1: Return only the first 5 employees

SELECT name, age FROM employees
LIMIT 5;

This returns only the first 5 rows from the result set.

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Example 2: Combine with ORDER BY (Top N pattern)

SELECT name, age FROM employees
ORDER BY age DESC
LIMIT 3;

This returns the 3 oldest employees — first sorting by age in descending order, then limiting to 3 rows.

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Tip

• Without ORDER BY, LIMIT just returns any N rows — the order is not guaranteed.
• With ORDER BY, LIMIT becomes very powerful for things like "top N" queries.

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The LIMIT clause is a simple but essential tool to control how much data you want to see!