The SQL LIMIT operator is used to specify the number of rows we want to fetch. It’s especially useful when we are working with large datasets and want to view a quick preview of the table; rather than loading the entire table into memory, we can use LIMIT to control the number of rows in our query result set.

Using LIMIT is super simple: just add one line of code to the end of your query.

For example, if we wanted to fetch only the first 5 rows of our students table, we could write:

SELECT * 
FROM students
LIMIT 5

and only the first 5 rows will appear in our query result set:

Or, we could write:

SELECT 
  id, 
  name,
  age
FROM students
LIMIT 1

and we’ll get the first row of the students table (but only the id, name and age columns):

Practice

Now it's your turn! Open the following questions in a new tab to try out the LIMIT operator:

• First 2 rows
• First 20 rows