How to find third or nᵗʰ maximum salary from salary table?

Row Number :

SELECT Salary,EmpName
FROM
  (
   SELECT Salary,EmpName,ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY Salary) As RowNum
   FROM EMPLOYEE
   ) As A
WHERE A.RowNum IN (2,3)

Sub Query :

SELECT *
FROM Employee Emp1
WHERE (N-1) = (
               SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT(Emp2.Salary))
               FROM Employee Emp2
               WHERE Emp2.Salary > Emp1.Salary
               )

Top Keyword :

SELECT TOP 1 salary
FROM (
      SELECT DISTINCT TOP n salary
      FROM employee
      ORDER BY salary DESC
      ) a
ORDER BY salary

Use ROW_NUMBER(if you want a single) or DENSE_RANK(for all related rows):

WITH CTE AS
(
    SELECT EmpID, EmpName, EmpSalary,
           RN = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EmpSalary DESC)
    FROM dbo.Salary
)
SELECT EmpID, EmpName, EmpSalary
FROM CTE
WHERE RN = @NthRow

Try this

SELECT TOP 1 salary FROM (
   SELECT TOP 3 salary 
   FROM employees 
   ORDER BY salary DESC) AS emp 
ORDER BY salary ASC

For 3 you can replace any value...