[sql] What is the simplest SQL Query to find the second largest value?

What is the simplest SQL query to find the second largest integer value in a specific column?

There are maybe duplicate values in the column.

This question is related to sql puzzle

The answer is


In T-Sql there are two ways:

--filter out the max
select max( col )
from [table]
where col < ( 
    select max( col )
    from [table] )

--sort top two then bottom one
select top 1 col 
from (
    select top 2 col 
    from [table]
    order by col) topTwo
order by col desc 

In Microsoft SQL the first way is twice as fast as the second, even if the column in question is clustered.

This is because the sort operation is relatively slow compared to the table or index scan that the max aggregation uses.

Alternatively, in Microsoft SQL 2005 and above you can use the ROW_NUMBER() function:

select col
from (
    select ROW_NUMBER() over (order by col asc) as 'rowNum', col
    from [table] ) withRowNum 
where rowNum = 2

I see both some SQL Server specific and some MySQL specific solutions here, so you might want to clarify which database you need. Though if I had to guess I'd say SQL Server since this is trivial in MySQL.

I also see some solutions that won't work because they fail to take into account the possibility for duplicates, so be careful which ones you accept. Finally, I see a few that will work but that will make two complete scans of the table. You want to make sure the 2nd scan is only looking at 2 values.

SQL Server (pre-2012):

SELECT MIN([column]) AS [column]
FROM (
    SELECT TOP 2 [column] 
    FROM [Table] 
    GROUP BY [column] 
    ORDER BY [column] DESC
) a

MySQL:

SELECT `column` 
FROM `table` 
GROUP BY `column` 
ORDER BY `column` DESC 
LIMIT 1,1

Update:

SQL Server 2012 now supports a much cleaner (and standard) OFFSET/FETCH syntax:

SELECT TOP 2 [column] 
FROM [Table] 
GROUP BY [column] 
ORDER BY [column] DESC
OFFSET 1 ROWS
FETCH NEXT 1 ROWS ONLY;

SELECT MAX(sal) FROM emp
WHERE sal NOT IN (SELECT top 3 sal FROM emp order by sal desc )

this will return the third highest sal of emp table


Old question I know, but this gave me a better exec plan:

 SELECT TOP 1 LEAD(MAX (column)) OVER (ORDER BY column desc)
 FROM TABLE 
 GROUP BY column

Simplest of all

select sal from salary order by sal desc limit 1 offset 1

Tom, believe this will fail when there is more than one value returned in select max([COLUMN_NAME]) from [TABLE_NAME] section. i.e. where there are more than 2 values in the data set.

Slight modification to your query will work -

select max([COLUMN_NAME]) from [TABLE_NAME] where [COLUMN_NAME] **IN** 
  ( select max([COLUMN_NAME]) from [TABLE_NAME] )

You can find nth highest value using the following query.

    select top 1 UnitPrice from (select distinct top n UnitPrice from 
[Order Details] order by UnitPrice desc) as Result order by UnitPrice asc

Here, the value of n will be 1 (for the highest number), 2 (for the second highest number), 3 (for the third highest number)...


select extension from [dbo].[Employees] order by extension desc offset  2  rows fetch next  1 rows only

select col_name
from (
    select dense_rank() over (order by col_name desc) as 'rank', col_name
    from table_name ) withrank 
where rank = 2


select * from (select ROW_NUMBER() over (Order by Col_x desc) as Row, Col_1
    from table_1)as table_new tn inner join table_1 t1
    on tn.col_1 = t1.col_1
where row = 2

Hope this help to get the value for any row.....


SELECT MAX(col) FROM table WHERE col NOT IN (SELECT MAX(col) FROM table);

See How to select the nth row in a SQL database table?.

Sybase SQL Anywhere supports:

SELECT TOP 1 START AT 2 value from table ORDER BY value

The easiest would be to get the second value from this result set in the application:

SELECT DISTINCT value FROM Table ORDER BY value DESC LIMIT 2

But if you must select the second value using SQL, how about:

SELECT MIN(value) FROM (SELECT DISTINCT value FROM Table ORDER BY value DESC LIMIT 2) AS t

select max(column_name) from table_name
where column_name not in (select max(column_name) from table_name);

not in is a condition that exclude the highest value of column_name.

Reference : programmer interview


select top 1 MyIntColumn from MyTable
where
 MyIntColumn <> (select top 1 MyIntColumn from MyTable order by MyIntColumn desc)
order by MyIntColumn desc

This is very simple code, you can try this :-

ex : Table name = test

salary 

1000
1500
1450
7500

MSSQL Code to get 2nd largest value

select salary from test order by salary desc offset 1 rows fetch next 1 rows only;

here 'offset 1 rows' means 2nd row of table and 'fetch next 1 rows only' is for show only that 1 row. if you dont use 'fetch next 1 rows only' then it shows all the rows from the second row.


It is the most esiest way:

SELECT
      Column name
FROM
      Table name 
ORDER BY 
      Column name DESC
LIMIT 1,1

Microsoft SQL Server - Using Two TOPs for the N-th highest value (aliased sub-query).

To solve for the 2nd highest:

SELECT TOP 1 q.* 
FROM (SELECT TOP 2 column_name FROM table_name ORDER BY column_name DESC) as q
ORDER BY column_name ASC;

Uses TOP twice, but requires an aliased sub-query. Essentially, the inner query takes the greatest 2 values in descending order, then the outer query flips in ascending order so that 2nd highest is now on top. The SELECT statement returns this top.

To solve for the n-th highest value modify the sub-query TOP value. For example:

SELECT TOP 1 q.* 
FROM (SELECT TOP 5 column_name FROM table_name ORDER BY column_name DESC) as q
ORDER BY column_name;

Would return the 5th highest value.


select score 
from table 
where score = (select max(score)-1 from table)

A very simple query to find the second largest value

SELECT `Column` FROM `Table` ORDER BY `Column` DESC LIMIT 1,1;

select * from [table] where (column)=(select max(column)from [table] where column < (select max(column)from [table]))

Using a correlated query:

Select * from x x1 where 1 = (select count(*) from x where x1.a < a)

At first make a dummy table without max salary then query max value from dummy table

SELECT max(salary) from (Select * FROM emp WHERE salary<> (SELECT MAX(salary) from emp)) temp

 SELECT  * FROM `employee` WHERE  employee_salary = (SELECT employee_salary 
 FROM`employee` GROUP BY employee_salary ORDER BY employee_salary DESC LIMIT 
 1,1)

select * from emp e where 3>=(select count(distinct salary)
    from emp where s.salary<=salary)

This query selects the maximum three salaries. If two emp get the same salary this does not affect the query.


select max(COL_NAME) from TABLE_NAME where COL_NAME in 
    (select COL_NAME from TABLE_NAME where COL_NAME < (select max(COL_NAME) from TABLE_NAME));

subquery returns all values other than the largest. select the max value from the returned list.


SELECT MAX(Salary) FROM Employee WHERE Salary NOT IN (SELECT MAX(Salary) FROM Employee )

This query will return the maximum salary, from the result - which not contains maximum salary from overall table.


Try:

select a.* ,b.* from 
(select * from (select ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY fc_amount desc) SrNo1, fc_amount as amount1 From entry group by fc_amount) tbl where tbl.SrNo1 = 2) a
,
(select * from (select ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY fc_amount asc) SrNo2, fc_amount as amount2  From entry group by fc_amount) tbl where tbl.SrNo2 =2) b

This is an another way to find the second largest value of a column.Consider the table 'Student' and column 'Age'.Then the query is,

select top 1 Age from Student where Age in(select distinct top 2 Age  from Student order by Age desc) order by Age asc

The easiest way to get second last row from a SQL table is to use ORDER BYColumnNameDESC and set LIMIT 1,1.

Try this:

SELECT * from `TableName` ORDER BY `ColumnName` DESC LIMIT 1,1

As you mentioned duplicate values . In such case you may use DISTINCT and GROUP BY to find out second highest value

Here is a table

salary

:

enter image description here

GROUP BY

SELECT  amount FROM  salary 
GROUP by amount
ORDER BY  amount DESC 
LIMIT 1 , 1

DISTINCT

SELECT DISTINCT amount
FROM  salary 
ORDER BY  amount DESC 
LIMIT 1 , 1

First portion of LIMIT = starting index

Second portion of LIMIT = how many value


MSSQL

SELECT  *
  FROM [Users]
    order by UserId desc OFFSET 1 ROW 
FETCH NEXT 1 ROW ONLY;

MySQL

SELECT  *
  FROM Users
    order by UserId desc LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1

No need of sub queries ... just skip one row and select second rows after order by descending


select min(sal) from emp where sal in 
    (select TOP 2 (sal) from emp order by sal desc)

Note

sal is col name
emp is table name


select MAX(salary) as SecondMax from test where salary !=(select MAX(salary) from test)

select age from student group by id having age<(select max(age) from student)order by age limit 1

Use this query.

SELECT MAX( colname ) 
FROM Tablename 
where colname < (
    SELECT MAX( colname ) 
    FROM Tablename)

you can find the second largest value of column by using the following query

SELECT *
FROM TableName a
WHERE
  2 = (SELECT count(DISTINCT(b.ColumnName))
       FROM TableName b WHERE
       a.ColumnName <= b.ColumnName);

you can find more details on the following link

http://www.abhishekbpatel.com/2012/12/how-to-get-nth-maximum-and-minimun.html


Very Simple. The distinct keyword will take care of duplicates as well.

SELECT distinct SupplierID FROM [Products] order by SupplierID desc limit 1 offset 1

Query to find the 2nd highest number in a row-

select Top 1 (salary) from XYZ
where Salary not in (select distinct TOP 1(salary) from XYZ order by Salary desc)
ORDER BY Salary DESC

By changing the highlighted Top 1 to TOP 2, 3 or 4 u can find the 3rd, 4th and 5th highest respectively.


We can also make use of order by and top 1 element as follows:

Select  top 1 col_name from table_name
where col_name < (Select top 1 col_name from table_name order by col_name desc)
order by col_name desc 

Something like this? I haven't tested it, though:

select top 1 x
from (
  select top 2 distinct x 
  from y 
  order by x desc
) z
order by x

SELECT 
    * 
FROM 
    table 
WHERE 
    column < (SELECT max(columnq) FROM table) 
ORDER BY 
    column DESC LIMIT 1

This works in MS SQL:

select max([COLUMN_NAME]) from [TABLE_NAME] where [COLUMN_NAME] < 
 ( select max([COLUMN_NAME]) from [TABLE_NAME] )

SELECT * FROM EMP
WHERE salary=
        (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM EMP
           WHERE salary != (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM EMP)
        );

I suppose you can do something like:

SELECT * FROM Table ORDER BY NumericalColumn DESC LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1

or

SELECT * FROM Table ORDER BY NumericalColumn DESC LIMIT (1, 1)

depending on your database server. Hint: SQL Server doesn't do LIMIT.