H2 Limit Query - How to Limit Rows Returned in Query Results

Sometimes it is useful to limit the number of rows that are returned from a query. This can be especially useful when querying very large tables.

The H2 database provides the ability to limit the number of rows returned from a query starting at the beginning of the results using the limit keyword, or returning a section of results from a query using the limit and offset syntax. Listed below are examples of limiting rows with the H2 database:

Example 1: Returning the first 5 rows from a table called employee: SELECT * FROM employee limit 5; Example 2: Returning the first 10 rows starting at row 20 from a table called employee: SELECT * FROM employee limit 10 offset 20;

Many other databases also support limiting rows returned from queries. Listed below are links that show how to limit rows for other popular databases: