FETCH Clause

The FETCH clause specifies the number of rows to return. If no FETCH clause is specified, then SQL returns all rows.

FETCH follows this syntax. FETCH {FIRST||NEXT} {count} {ROW|ROWS} ONLY

FIRST

Returns the count of rows beginning from the first row in the dataset.

NEXT

Returns the count of rows that immediately follow the current row.

count

Optional. The number of rows to return. If you don't specify a count, FETCH returns one row by default.

FETCH FIRST ROW ONLY is the same as FETCH FIRST 1 ROW ONLY.

In this example, because there’s an offset of one row, FETCH starts from the second value of the City column, ordered ascending. The query returns the next three rows, which are the second, third, and fourth rows.

City
Abilene
Abilene
Akron

Here, the query returns the first row.

City
Aberdeen