# How to Get Top N Rows in PostgreSQL

> To get the top n rows of a table, the LIMIT clause is used in PostgreSQL. It assists us in getting the subset of rows generated by a query.

In PostgreSQL, a **LIMIT** clause allows us to get/fetch the top n rows. The **LIMIT** clause allows us to extract a subset of rows from a resultant table returned by a query. **LIMIT** is an optional clause in Postgres; however, if we have to fetch the first N rows, then the **LIMIT** clause must be used.

This post will explain how to get the first N rows in PostgreSQL through practical examples. So, let’s begin.

 **How to Get/Fetch Top N Rows in Postgres?**

As the name suggests, the LIMIT clause is used to fetch limited records from a result set. The below snippet demonstrates the basic syntax of the LIMIT clause:
    
    
    SELECT col_list 
    FROM tab_name
    ORDER BY ASC | DESC
    LIMIT no_of_rows;

Let’s comprehend the above syntax stepwise:

\- col_list represents a single or multiple columns to be selected.

\- tab_name represents a table from which the data will be fetched.

\- ORDER BY is an optional clause that sorts the table’s records in a particular order.

\- The LIMIT clause determines how many rows to fetch.

 **Example #1: How to Fetch Top Five Rows of a Table in Postgres?**

We have a table named “article_details” that consists of three columns: article_id, article_title, and published_date. Let’s run the SELECT statement to fetch the table’s data:
    
    
    SELECT *
    FROM article_details;

The article_details table has twelve unsorted records. Suppose we want to get the top five articles regarding their ids. To achieve this, let’s run the below query:
    
    
    SELECT *
    FROM article_detail
    ORDER BY article_id ASC
    LIMIT 5;

The LIMIT clause succeeded in fetching the top five records with respect to the article_id column.

 **Example #2: How to Fetch Top Five Recently Published Articles?**

Consider the same article_details table having three columns as shown in the previous example. This time we need to fetch the top five articles concerning their published date:
    
    
    SELECT *
    FROM article_details
    ORDER BY published_date DESC
    LIMIT 5;

Since we want to fetch the top five recently published articles, so we sorted the published_date column in descending order. Next, we utilized the LIMIT clause to specify the number of records to be fetched:

Notice that the LIMIT clause successfully fetched the top five recently published articles.

That was all the basics regarding how to get top N rows in PostgreSQL. You can get detailed information about the LIMIT clause from this [article](<https://commandprompt.com/education/how-to-use-limit-clause-in-postgresql/>).

 **Conclusion**

To get the top n rows of a table, the LIMIT clause is used in PostgreSQL. The LIMIT clause allows us to extract a subset of rows from a resultant table returned by a query. It is an optional clause; however, if we have to fetch the first N rows, then the LIMIT clause must be used. This article uses a couple of examples to demonstrate how to get top N rows in PostgreSQL using the LIMIT clause.

---
[View this page online](https://www.commandprompt.com/education/how-to-get-top-n-rows-in-postgresql/)