how to select first N rows from a table in T-SQL?

Question

Is there any way to select, for example, first 10 rows of a table in T-SQL (working MSSQL)?
I think I saw something in Oracle defined as rownum meta variable, used in a

Answer 1

You can also use rowcount, but TOP is probably better and cleaner, hence the upvote for Mehrdad

SET ROWCOUNT 10
SELECT * FROM dbo.Orders
WHERE EmployeeID = 5
ORDER BY OrderDate

SET ROWCOUNT 0