Query to find nᵗʰ max value of a column

Consider the following Employee table with a single column for salary.

+------+
| Sal  |
+------+
| 3500 | 
| 2500 | 
| 2500 | 
| 5500 |
| 7500 |
+------+

The following query will return the Nth Maximum element.

select SAL from EMPLOYEE E1 where 
 (N - 1) = (select count(distinct(SAL)) 
            from EMPLOYEE E2 
            where E2.SAL > E1.SAL )

For eg. when the second maximum value is required,

  select SAL from EMPLOYEE E1 where 
     (2 - 1) = (select count(distinct(SAL)) 
                from EMPLOYEE E2 
                where E2.SAL > E1.SAL )

+------+
| Sal  |
+------+
| 5500 |
+------+

You could sort the column into descending format and then just obtain the value from the nth row.

EDIT::

Updated as per comment request. WARNING completely untested!

SELECT DOB FROM (SELECT DOB FROM USERS ORDER BY DOB DESC) WHERE ROWID = 6

Something like the above should work for Oracle ... you might have to get the syntax right first!

You didn't specify which database, on MySQL you can do

SELECT column FROM table ORDER BY column DESC LIMIT 7,10;

Would skip the first 7, and then get you the next ten highest.