The PostgreSQL LIMIT clause is used to limit the data amount returned by the SELECT statement.
Syntax
The basic syntax of SELECT statement with LIMIT clause is as follows −
SELECT column1, column2, columnN FROM table_name LIMIT [no of rows]
The following is the syntax of LIMIT clause when it is used along with OFFSET clause −
SELECT column1, column2, columnN FROM table_name LIMIT [no of rows] OFFSET [row num]
LIMIT and OFFSET allow you to retrieve just a portion of the rows that are generated by the rest of the query.
Example
Consider the table COMPANY having records as follows −
# select * from COMPANY; id | name | age | address | salary ----+-------+-----+-----------+-------- 1 | Paul | 32 | California| 20000 2 | Allen | 25 | Texas | 15000 3 | Teddy | 23 | Norway | 20000 4 | Mark | 25 | Rich-Mond | 65000 5 | David | 27 | Texas | 85000 6 | Kim | 22 | South-Hall| 45000 7 | James | 24 | Houston | 10000 (7 rows)
The following is an example, which limits the row in the table according to the number of rows you want to fetch from table −
testdb=# SELECT * FROM COMPANY LIMIT 4;
This would produce the following result −
id | name | age | address | salary ----+-------+-----+-------------+-------- 1 | Paul | 32 | California | 20000 2 | Allen | 25 | Texas | 15000 3 | Teddy | 23 | Norway | 20000 4 | Mark | 25 | Rich-Mond | 65000 (4 rows)
However, in certain situation, you may need to pick up a set of records from a particular offset. Here is an example, which picks up three records starting from the third position −
testdb=# SELECT * FROM COMPANY LIMIT 3 OFFSET 2;
This would produce the following result −
id | name | age | address | salary ----+-------+-----+-----------+-------- 3 | Teddy | 23 | Norway | 20000 4 | Mark | 25 | Rich-Mond | 65000 5 | David | 27 | Texas | 85000 (3 rows)