Retrieve first 3 records of my table without using cursor

chandracdac · New User Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 92 Location: bangalore

i want to retrieve first 3 records of my table without using cursor . can anybody help me?

dick scherrer · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:23 pm

Hello,

There is no such thing as "the first 3 records" in an active database table.

How would you define the first 3?

jaspal · New User Joined: 22 May 2007 Posts: 68 Location: mumbai

in cobol we can't retrieve more than one record without cursor

regards,
Jaspal

acevedo · Active User Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 344 Location: Spain

then use 3 selects.

select fields from yourtable
FETCH FIRST 1 ROW ONLY

select fields from yourtable
where key>lastkey
FETCH FIRST 1 ROW ONLY

select fields from yourtable
where key>lastkey
FETCH FIRST 1 ROW ONLY

stodolas · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:40 pm

acevedo, what if the clustering index is different than the primary key?

acevedo · Active User Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 344 Location: Spain

stodolas · Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:00 pm

No one ever defines what they want other than the "first x rows" or "second y rows". These types of statements are no good in a database. The concept is just wrong in a database world. If they would say the "first x rows ordered by my primary key where the key is > xxx" then we could give them a sensible answer. But no one ever does.

acevedo · Active User Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 344 Location: Spain