Question

TOP and ROWCOUNT return different record sets

Asked by: Kanchipuramdeena

I have a query which can be written in two ways

Please refer the code snippet for Scenario 1 and 2

Both these scenarios are returning different record sets. Is this an expected behaviour?

Scenario 1
 
SELECT TOP(50) * from table order by column1 ASC
 
Scenario 2 
 
SET ROWCOUNT=50
SELECT * from table order by column1 ASC
                                  
1:
2:
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Asked On
2009-05-20 at 05:12:26ID24424090
Topics

MS SQL Server

,

SQL Server 2005

,

SQL Server 2008

Participating Experts
2
Points
75
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: rrjegan17Posted on 2009-05-20 at 05:24:54ID: 24431010

If you dont have proper order by clause then there can be discrepancies.

But it should return same set of result set provided same set of order by clause.
And one more thing,

SET ROWCOUNT=50

Above is incorrect and it should be

SET ROWCOUNT 50

Kindly try this one and provide us sample result set to disprove it.

 

by: KanchipuramdeenaPosted on 2009-05-20 at 05:58:28ID: 24431294

Sorry SET ROWCOUNT=50 was a typo

I am trying SET ROWCOUNT 50 only

The different queries are

SELECT TOP(50) * from table order by TimeStamp ASC

Take a note of ID value of the 50 row
for me its - {E17FF1A4-45CA-4CD8-A309-0D159403B021}
the execute

SET ROWCOUNT 50
SELECT * from table order by TimeStamp ASC

Now look at the value of ID at the 50th row
for me its - {E295779E-4D6E-4801-8628-8A3ABB4F767E}

  • dat.txt
    • 9 KB

    Data in the form of text file

 

by: matthewspatrickPosted on 2009-05-20 at 06:05:55ID: 24431386

Hello Kanchipuramdeena,

Try running these, and see if you get identical results:

SET ROWCOUNT 50
SELECT * from table order by TimeStamp ASC, ID ASC

SELECT TOP(50) * from table order by TimeStamp ASC, ID ASC

Regards,

Patrick

 

by: KanchipuramdeenaPosted on 2009-05-20 at 06:09:28ID: 31583470

That's Great.

I was confused a bit... know i am clear...

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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