How do I select last 5 rows in a table without sorting?

Question

I want to select the last 5 records from a table in SQL Server without arranging the table in ascending or descending order.

Answer 1

If you know how many rows there will be in total you can use the ROW_NUMBER() function. Here's an examble from MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186734.aspx)

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
WITH OrderedOrders AS
(
    SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate,
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY OrderDate) AS 'RowNumber'
    FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader 
) 
SELECT * 
FROM OrderedOrders 
WHERE RowNumber BETWEEN 50 AND 60;