How to implement LIMIT with SQL Server?

Starting SQL SERVER 2005, you can do this...

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
WITH OrderedOrders AS
(
    SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate,
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY OrderDate) AS 'RowNumber'
    FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader 
) 
SELECT * 
FROM OrderedOrders 
WHERE RowNumber BETWEEN 10 AND 20;

or something like this for 2000 and below versions...

SELECT TOP 10 * FROM (SELECT TOP 20 FROM Table ORDER BY Id) ORDER BY Id DESC

Clunky, but it'll work.

SELECT TOP 10 * FROM table WHERE id NOT IN (SELECT TOP 10 id FROM table ORDER BY id) FROM table ORDER BY id

MSSQL's omission of a LIMIT clause is criminal, IMO. You shouldn't have to do this kind of kludgy workaround.

Starting with SQL SERVER 2012, you can use the OFFSET FETCH Clause:

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader 
ORDER BY SalesOrderID
    OFFSET 10 ROWS
    FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY;
GO

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188385(v=sql.110).aspx

This may not work correctly when the order by is not unique.

If the query is modified to ORDER BY OrderDate, the result set returned is not as expected.