MySQL Limit

The MySQL LIMIT clause is used to restrict the number of rows returned from a query. It can be used to get the first n rows, the last n rows, or a specific range of rows.

The basic syntax for the LIMIT clause is as follows:

SQL

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
LIMIT row_count [, offset]

The row_count argument specifies the maximum number of rows to return. The offset argument specifies the offset of the first row to return. The offset of the first row is 0, not 1.

If you do not specify an offset, the LIMIT clause will return the first row_count rows. If you specify an offset, the LIMIT clause will return the next row_count rows after the specified offset.

Here are some examples of how to use the LIMIT clause:

SQL

# Get the first 10 rows from the `customers` table
SELECT * FROM customers LIMIT 10;

# Get the last 10 rows from the `customers` table
SELECT * FROM customers ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 10;

# Get the rows 11-20 from the `customers` table
SELECT * FROM customers LIMIT 10, 10;

The LIMIT clause can also be used in conjunction with the GROUP BY clause to return a specific number of rows from each group.

Here is an example of how to use the LIMIT clause with the GROUP BY clause:

SQL

SELECT country, COUNT(*) AS num_customers
FROM customers
GROUP BY country
ORDER BY num_customers DESC
LIMIT 5;

This query will return the top 5 countries by number of customers.

The LIMIT clause is a powerful tool that can be used to improve the performance of your MySQL queries and to return only the data that you need.