SQLite3 (or general SQL) retrieve nth row of a query result

Question

Quicky question on SQLite3 (may as well be general SQLite)

How can one retrieve the n-th row of a query result?

row_id (

Answer 1

add LIMIT 1 and OFFSET <n> to the query
example SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 1 OFFSET 5132;

Answer 2

But I may need to quickly retrieve, say, rows 2 & 5 of the results.

In scenario when you need non-continuous rows you could use ROW_NUMBER():

WITH cte AS (
  SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER() AS rn --OVER(ORDER BY ...) --if specific order is required
  FROM t
)
SELECT c 
FROM cte
WHERE rn IN (2,5);  -- row nums

db<>fiddle demo

Answer 3

The general approach is that, if you want only the nth row of m rows, use an appropriate where condition to only get that row.

If you need to get to a row and can't because no where criteria can get you there, your database has a serious design issue. It fails the first normal form, which states that "There's no top-to-bottom ordering to the rows."