Combining ORDER BY AND UNION in SQL Server

Question

How can I get first record of a table and last record of a table in one result-set?

This Query fails

SELECT TOP 1 Id,Name FROM Locations ORDER BY Id
         


        

Answer 1

Put your order by and top statements into sub-queries:

select first.Id, first.Name 
from (
    select top 1 * 
    from Locations 
    order by Id) first
union all
select last.Id, last.Name 
from (
    select top 1 * 
    from Locations 
    order by Id desc) last