How to find third or nᵗʰ maximum salary from salary table?

Question

How to find third or n^th maximum salary from salary table(EmpID, EmpName, EmpSalary) in optimized way?

Answer 1

If you want optimize way means use TOP Keyword, So the nth max and min salaries query as follows but the queries look like a tricky as in reverse order by using aggregate function names:

N maximum salary:

SELECT MIN(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP N EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary DESC) 

for Ex: 3 maximum salary:

SELECT MIN(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP 3 EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary DESC) 

N minimum salary:

SELECT MAX(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP N EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary ASC)

for Ex: 3 minimum salary:

SELECT MAX(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP 3 EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary ASC)