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

To query the nth highest bonus, say n=10, using AdventureWorks2012, Try Following code

USE AdventureWorks2012; 
GO

SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesPerson;
GO

DECLARE @grade INT;
SET @grade = 10;
SELECT MIN(Bonus)
FROM (SELECT TOP (@grade) Bonus FROM (SELECT DISTINCT(Bonus) FROM Sales.SalesPerson) AS a ORDER BY Bonus DESC) AS g