How do I select last 5 rows in a table without sorting?

Question

I want to select the last 5 records from a table in SQL Server without arranging the table in ascending or descending order.

Answer 1

There is a handy trick that works in some databases for ordering in database order,

SELECT * FROM TableName ORDER BY true

Apparently, this can work in conjunction with any of the other suggestions posted here to leave the results in "order they came out of the database" order, which in some databases, is the order they were last modified in.

Answer 2

Well, the "last five rows" are actually the last five rows depending on your clustered index. Your clustered index, by definition, is the way that he rows are ordered. So you really can't get the "last five rows" without some order. You can, however, get the last five rows as it pertains to the clustered index.

SELECT TOP 5 * FROM MyTable
ORDER BY MyCLusteredIndexColumn1, MyCLusteredIndexColumnq, ..., MyCLusteredIndexColumnN DESC

Answer 3

select * 
from table 
order by empno(primary key) desc 
fetch first 5 rows only

Answer 4

1. You need to count number of rows inside table ( say we have 12 rows )
2. then subtract 5 rows from them ( we are now in 7 )

3. select * where index_column > 7

   select * from users
   where user_id > 
   ( (select COUNT(*) from users) - 5)
   

   you can order them ASC or DESC

   But when using this code

   select TOP 5 from users order by user_id DESC
   

   it will not be ordered easily.

Answer 5

Get the count of that table

select count(*) from TABLE
select top count * from TABLE where 'primary key row' NOT IN (select top (count-5) 'primary key row' from TABLE)

Answer 6

Search 5 records from last records you can use this,

SELECT *
FROM   Table Name
WHERE  ID <= IDENT_CURRENT('Table Name')
AND ID >= IDENT_CURRENT('Table Name') - 5