Is there a way to select only 1000 rows from a database?

SELECT TOP 1000 field1, field2 ...

TRY THIS
SELECT * FROM TABLENAME WHERE ROWNUM <=1000

I think you meant:

SELECT * FROM TABLENAME WHERE ROWNUM <= 1000;

I get this error:

Msg 207, Level 16, State 4:
Server 'SYB_SERV, Line 1:
Invalid column name 'ROWNUM'.

Am I missing something?

Does your server not support TOP?

That's the easiest way to do it...

as I said:

SELECT TOP 1000 * FROM yourtable

It doesn't appear to. I can't get ROWNUM or TOP to work.

What DBMS are you using? ROWNUM only works on Oracle, and TOP works on SQL Server at least but not on Oracle. Other DBMSs may have other solutions.

Ahhhh, sorry. I'm using Sybase ASE.

Indeed..

I guess the question is, What db are you using? It's probably a simple syntax-specific thing.



edit - Geez you're fast! lol.

Anywho, I think the reserved word for sybase is rowcount..

set rowcount 1000
select *
set rowcount 0

I should also mention that you're going to want to reset rowcount as well.. it will play havock with the rest of your queries if you dont

?

thanks teddy and everyone else. i just figured it out right before i read your last message.

again, thanks very much

one of the problems this particular forum seems to incur -- all the time --is that people post generic SQL questions here, and then get PL/SQL (Oracle) answers

or they post PL/SQL questions and get generic SQL answers

it's hard to fault them, either, since the name of the forum is SQL and PL/SQL

is that confusing, or what??!!

note that the description of this forum isi'm going to recommend to the moderator(s) of this forum that they change this forum to Standard SQL and put a sticky thread on it to direct people with PL/SQL questions to the Oracle forum

rudy
http://r937.com/

p.s. and perhaps another sticky that says "please don't post database-specific solutions, use standard SQL only"

I don't think that's absolutely necessary... however I would make a forum rule that you MUST post which specific db you use with each post. It's only common courtesy and of course in the best interest of the poster, assuming they want a prompt and correct answer.