Select last n rows without use of order by clause

Question

I want to fetch the last n rows from a table in a Postgres database. I don\'t want to use an ORDER BY clause as I want to have a generic query. Anyone has any s

Answer 1

Use window functions!

select t2.* from (
  select t1.*, row_number() over() as r, count(*) over() as c
  from (
    -- your generic select here
  ) t1
) t2
where t2.r + :n > t2.c

In the above example, t2.r is the row number of every row, t2.c is the total records in your generic select. And :n will be the n last rows that you want to fetch. This also works when you sort your generic select.

EDIT: A bit less generic from my previous example:

select * from (
  select my_table.*, row_number() over() as r, count(*) over() as c
  from my_table
  -- optionally, you could sort your select here
  -- order by my_table.a, my_table.b
) t
where t.r + :n > t.c