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

You can retrieve them from memory.
So first you get the rows in a DataSet, and then get the last 5 out of the DataSet.

Answer 2

In SQL Server, it does not seem possible without using ordering in the query. This is what I have used.

SELECT *
FROM
(
    SELECT TOP 5 *
    FROM [MyTable]
    ORDER BY Id DESC /*Primary Key*/
) AS T
ORDER BY T.Id ASC; /*Primary Key*/

Answer 3

Try this, if you don't have a primary key or identical column:

select [Stu_Id],[Student_Name] ,[City] ,[Registered], 
       RowNum = row_number() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 0))    
from student
ORDER BY RowNum desc 

Answer 4

Without an order, this is impossible. What defines the "bottom"? The following will select 5 rows according to how they are stored in the database.

SELECT TOP 5 * FROM [TableName]